Infinitesimal: How A Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped The Modern World - Plot & Excerpts
Their dress marked them as members of the Society of Jesus, the leading religious order of the day, as did their place of meeting—the Collegio Romano, headquarters of the Jesuits’ far-flung empire of learning. The leader of the five was the elderly German father Jacob Bidermann, who had made a name for himself as the producer of elaborate theatrical performances on religious themes. The others are unknown to us, but their names—Rodriguez, Rosco, Alvarado, and (possibly) Fordinus—mark them as Spaniards and Italians, like many of the men who filled the ranks of the Society. In their day these men were nearly as anonymous as they are today, but their high office was not: they were the “Revisors General” of the Society of Jesus, appointed by the general of the order from among the faculty of the Collegio. Their mission: to pass judgment upon the latest scientific and philosophical ideas of the age. The task was a challenging one. First appointed at the turn of the seventeenth century by General Claudio Acquaviva, the Revisors arrived on the scene just in time to confront the intellectual turmoil that we know as the scientific revolution.
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