Science Teaching in Early Modern Europe

Teaching Astronomy in France: The Collège Royal (1550 - 1650)

The years 1550-1650 put a final end to the legacy of the Medieval university which had hitherto maintained – in some measure – similar programs and similar methods of teaching throughout Europe. In astronomy, this was clearly signified by the progressive and irreversible disparition of two basic textbooks: the De sphaera of Sacrobosco and the Theoricæ novæ planetarum of Georg Peurbach. The diverse pedagogical reformations of the Renaissance had played their part and exercised a variable influence here and there; and, above all, the theoretical contents of the discipline had been thoroughly renewed, but the changes and the new acquirements were not accepted everywhere in the same way.
So, during this period, the differences became more marked.
For this reason, my paper will focus on a specific institution of the French educational system: the Collège Royal, founded by François 1^er, which had at first one “lecteur en mathémathiques” (1530), then two (1540), and lastly three (1577). I will consider the following issues:

-	The place occupied by astronomy in the teaching of mathematics.
-	The influence of the German (or melanchthonian) model during the second half of the 16th century.
-	The role played by Petrus Ramus, both directly and through his pupils and followers.
-	The slow penetration of the new notions and discoveries that can be observed in the textbooks published by the “Lecteurs royaux”.