Abstract

The famous Galilean question was to become the paradigm of the conflict between Nature and Scripture, science and faith, free research of natural reason and authority of the ecclesiastical institution, obscurantism of the medieval period and scientific progress which would illuminate the modern age. It is well known that the stereotype of the pure conflict between scientific thought and religious dogma for long dominated the interpretation of the most profound essence of the Middle Ages, as an obscurantist age in the grip of the universalist political and religious authorities. This image of the Middle Ages was greatly corroborated by the Humanist writers of the Renaissance and enlightenment historiography. This contribution purports to analyse late–medieval science from an olistic methodology based on history of science and philosophy of science, to obtain a big picture in front to Scientific Revolution and to show the cultural roots of the different images of the universe.