One of the most fascinating intellectual figures of the seventeenth century, Marin Mersenne (1588-1648) is well known for his relationships with many outstanding contemporary scholars as well as for his friendship with Descartes. Moreover, his own contributions to natural philosophy have an interest of their own. Mersenne worked on the main scientific questions debated in his time, such as the law of free fall, the principles of Galileo's mechanics, the law of refraction, the propagation of light, the vacuum problem, the hydrostatic paradox, and the Copernican hypothesis.
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