Anneliese Maier (; November 17, 1905 in

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

– December, 1971 in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

) was a German

historian of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopo ...

particularly known for her work researching natural philosophy in the middle ages.

Biography

Anneliese Maier was the daughter of the philosopher Heinrich Maier (1876–1933). She studied

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

from 1923 to 1926 at the universities in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and Zurich. In 1930 she finished her dissertation on

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German philosopher and one of the central Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and ...

(''Kants Qualitätskategorien''). She then worked for the

Prussian Academy of Sciences The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (german: Königlich-Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften) was an academy established in Berlin, Germany on 11 July 1700, four years after the Prussian Academy of Arts, or "Arts Academy," to which "Berlin ...

. In 1936 she moved to

. There she worked until 1945 at the

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana The Vatican Apostolic Library ( la, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, it, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City. Formally es ...

on the

philosophy of nature Nature has two inter-related meanings in philosophy and natural philosophy. On the one hand, it means the set of all things which are natural, or subject to the normal working of the laws of nature. On the other hand, it means the essential prope ...

. According to

E. J. Dijksterhuis Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (28 October 1892, in Tilburg – 18 May 1965, in De Bilt) was a Dutch historian of science. Career Dijksterhuis studied mathematics at the University of Groningen from 1911 to 1918. His Ph.d. thesis was entitled "A Contrib ...

, the path of the influence of

Oresme Nicole Oresme (; c. 1320–1325 – 11 July 1382), also known as Nicolas Oresme, Nicholas Oresme, or Nicolas d'Oresme, was a French philosopher of the later Middle Ages. He wrote influential works on economics, mathematics, physics, astrology an ...

through James of St. Martinus was found by Maier: "The fourteenth-century treatise ''De Latitudinibus formarum'' which, omitting all the speculative elements, gives a summary of the purely mathematical part of Oresme's own work, was very widely diffused, first in manuscript and later in print, and as ''Auctor de latitudinibus'' the anonymous author became better known than Oresme himself. Through later researches by Miss A. Maier, the identity of this ''Auctor'' has meanwhile been established: the man who ensured the survival of Oresme's methods was an Italian Augustinian hermit, James of St. Martinus, also called James of Naples." In 1951 Maier became a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the

University of Cologne The University of Cologne (german: Universität zu Köln) is a university in Cologne, Germany. It was established in the year 1388 and is one of the most prestigious and research intensive universities in Germany. It was the sixth university to ...

. She became a member of the Academies of Sciences in Mainz(1949), Göttingen (1962) and Munich (1966). In 1966 she received the

George Sarton Medal The George Sarton Medal is the most prestigious award given by the History of Science Society. It has been awarded annually since 1955. It is awarded to an historian of science from the international community who became distinguished for "a lifet ...

for her profound studies on the history of natural philosophy in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

. The

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Resear ...

has named a research grant after her, the Anneliese Maier Research Award, which is a "collaboration award to promote the internationalisation of the humanities and social sciences in Germany.""Anneliese Maier Research Award" ''Humboldt Foundation''. https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/anneliese-maier-award.html

Selected works

* 1982: ''On the Threshold of Exact Science: Selected Writings of Anneliese Maier on Late Medieval Natural Philosophy'', Steven D. Sargent, editor and translator,

University of Pennsylvania Press The University of Pennsylvania Press (or Penn Press) is a university press affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The press was originally incorporated with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on 26 Ma ...

. * 1930: ''Kants Qualitätskategorien'' * 1938: ''Die Mechanisierung des Weltbildes im 17. Jahrhundert'' * ''Studien zur Naturphilosophie der Spätscholastik'', 5 parts, 1949–1958. ** 1949:''Die Vorläufer Galileis im 14. Jahrhundert'' ** 1951: ''Zwei Grundprobleme der scholastischen Naturphilosophie'' ** 1952: ''An der Grenze von Scholastik und Naturwissenschaft'' ** 1955: ''Metaphysische Hintergründe der spätscholastischen Naturphilosophie'' ** 1958: ''Zwischen Philosophie und Mechanik. Studien zur Naturphilosophie der Spätscholastik'' * 1964–1977: ''Ausgehendes Mittelalter: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Geistesgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts'', 3 volumes.

References

External links

*
''International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maier, Anneliese 1905 births 1971 deaths People from Tübingen Historians of science 20th-century German writers 20th-century German historians 20th-century German women writers Women science writers German women historians Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Zurich alumni Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America

Biography

Selected works

References

Further reading

External links