Contesting authorities

Scientific study in the 17th century drew heavily on sources considered irrelevant or unscientific by later scholars. Wilkins' work is a prime example of this practice, attempting to find a balance between the Bible, Classical authors and contemporary research on the moon. This study uses both qualitative and quantitative methods in contemporary citation analysis and applies them to the needs of a historical text in order to show how the views in these very different sources coexist and relate to each other in a single text. Classical and contemporary sources are shown to have been used similarly, whereas the Bible represents a special case.

Published online: 24 March 2005
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.134.12oja