Book Presentation: Afterlives of Antiquity Fall 2025

logica metaphysica geometriae

Origins and purpose

Hannah Shiflett Afterlives of Antiquity Dr. Michalek October 1, 2025

Start

Background

Charles Sanders Pierce, 1839-1914

• American Pragmatism
• Mathematician/Logician (statistics & reasoning), Metaphysicist, Theorist, Scientific Philosopher
• Harvard 1859, Chemistry, summa cum laude
• Department of Mathematics at Johns Hopkins, 1879-1884 (famous students like John Dewey)
• Zina and Juliette
• US Coast and Geodetic Survey
• Poverty, measly jobs, family support/inheritance, donations, William James
• Scattered unpublished and unfinished works

Charles S. Pierce

Simon Newcomb

Physical Features

• Water damage
• Roman typeface (Latin), handwritten
• 4 parts
• Margin notes
• Crossed-out words
• Various paper materials
• Decently consistent handwriting
• Pull out sheets

"I am, you are notI am a man; Therefore you are not a man"

Part 1: Logic with an Addition Concerning the Criteria of Truth

• Fraciscus Palombi, 1791, Rome
• Detailed title page (border, drawing, font)
• Fun closing
• Intricate index

Part 2: Universal Metaphysics

• Fraciscus Palombi, 1792, Rome
• Detailed title page (border, drawing, font)
• Largest section

• Subdivided into 3 parts
• Natural Theology (God)
• Demonology (Angels)
• Psychology (Mind)
• Covers pneumatology too

Part 3: Philosophy, Book Three: That Is, Physics

• Completed on June 9, 1793
• Plain title page (no border, drawing, less extravagant font)
• Detailed index (only indication there's a fourth part)

Part 4: The First Elements of Geometry

• No cover page
• No publication information
• Smallest section
• Mistakenly made the title of the whole collection

• Pull out pages of drawings related to geometry at the back
• Mathematical equations/writing

Who's the Author?

Why was It Published?

Merit and scholarly gain/recognition

A young cleric from an elite family

• Aristocratic patronage ran the printing industry
• Clerics were more common than regular elite students (Papal Rome)
• Taught disciplines (philosophy, metaphysics, logic)
• Includes topics of natural theology, demonology, psychology, and pneumatology

• Random doodles -> Personal notes
• Studying under a mentor or professor through boarding schools
• Supervised by senior clerics
• Publications were valuable
• Recognition in the clergy
• Showcased skills learned in training
• Tested before ordination

Baldini, Ugo. “The Sciences at the University of Rome in the 18th Century.” In Universities and Science in the Early Modern Period, edited by Mordechai Feingold and Victor Navarro-Brotons. Springer Netherlands, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3975-1 _14. Grendler, Paul Frederick. Jesuit Schools and Universities in Europe, 1548-1773. Brill Research Perspectives in Jesuit Studies. Brill, 2019. Pasta, Renato. “The History of the Book and Publishing in Eighteenth-Century Italy.” Journal of Modern Italian Studies 10, no. 2 (2005): 200–217. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13545710500111330. Witecki, Stanisław. “Clerical Professionalisation and Catholic Enlightenment in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.” The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 76, no. 1 (2025): 78–102. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046924000058.