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To discern the role social and cultural networks play in the emergence of preeminent historical figures and ideas in History, we use a method based on complex networks analysis to reveal emergent interactions in Wikipedia. We built a network constituted by derivative links, where nodes are connected if they are co-linked by other papers or co-link other papers within Wikipedia. We apply this method, focused on the structural distance, to three significant individuals associated with the Italian Renaissance: Copernicus, Michelangelo, and Pico della Mirandola. The results point to the effectiveness of this approach for discovering new knowledge about the interdisciplinary transactions between people and ideas coming from artistic, scientific and philosophical domains during this period. The emergent network reflects the apparently strong network-level interactions between Michelangelo and Mirandola’s clusters; the importance of Hermeticism across the three clusters; and how the so-called “knowledge dealers” related to Neoplatonism contribute to the depiction of the period by future historians. Finally, we advance the notion of “focus reading”, in which complex networks analysis allows us to build bridges between close and distant forms of reading historical evidence.

Resumen: El artículo muestra el poder de la trilogía de John Banville: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler y The Newton Letter, dedicada a la revolución científica, para analizar procesos epistemológicos complejos en la historia de las ideas, como son el paso de la episteme renacentista a la ilustrada, las dificultades epistemológicas de la historiografía para reconstruir el pasado de forma fiable y convertirse en una ciencia dura, o el problema del innatismo, que enfrentó a Isaac Newton con Thomas Hobbes. Todos los razonamientos aquí expuestos se sustentan en los textos literarios del escritor irlandés. Abstract: The paper shows the power of John Banville’s trilogy, Doctor Copernicus, Kepler y The Newton Letter, focused on the scientific revolution, to analyze epistemologic processes. It is especially interested in some samples of famous epistomologic complex processes in the histoty of ideas: a) the epistemic transition from the Early Modern Period to Enlightnment; b) the epistemologic issues of historiography to rebuild the past with confidence, becoming a hard science; c) the controversy around innatism, which involved sir Isaac Newton and Thomas Hobbes. All reasoning developed in the paper is based on Banville’s trilogy. Resumo: O artigo mostra o poder da trilogia de John Banville: Doctor Copernicus, Kepler y The Newton Letter, dedicada a revolução científica, para analisar processos epistemológicos complexos na história das ideias, como são o passo da episteme renascentista à ilustrada, as dificuldades epistemológicas da historiografia para reconstruir o passado de forma fiável y converter-se em uma ciência consistente, ou o problema do inatismo, que enfrentou Isaac Newton com Thomas Hobbes. Todos os raciocínios aqui expostos sustentam-se nos textos literários do escritor irlandês.