) was a German historian of science

History of science

The history of science is the study of the historical development of human understandings of the natural world and the domains of the social sciences....

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Biography

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

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 from 1923 to 1926 at the universities in Berlin

Humboldt University of Berlin

The Humboldt University of Berlin is Berlin's oldest university, founded in 1810 as the University of Berlin by the liberal Prussian educational reformer and linguist Wilhelm von Humboldt, whose university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities...

 and Zurich

University of Zurich

The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....

. In 1930 she finished her dissertation on Kant (Kants Qualitätskategorien). She then worked for the Prussian Academy of Sciences

Prussian Academy of Sciences

The Prussian Academy of Sciences was an academy established in Berlin on 11 July 1700, four years after the Akademie der Künste or "Arts Academy", to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer.-Origins:...

. In 1936 she moved to Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. There she worked until 1945 at the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana on the philosophy of nature.

In 1951 Maier became an honorary professor. She became a member of the Academies of Sciences in (1949), Göttingen (1962) and Munich (1966). In 1966 she received the George Sarton Medal

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 lifetime of scholarly achievement" in the field...

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

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

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Writings (selection)

English

• On the Threshold of Exact Science: Selected Writings of Anneliese Maier on Late Medieval Natural Philosophy, Steven D. Sargent, ed. and trans. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982).

German

• Kants Qualitätskategorien, 1930.
• Die Mechanisierung des Weltbildes im 17. Jahrhundert, 1938.
• Studien zur Naturphilosophie der Spätscholastik, 5 parts, 1949–1958.
• Ausgehendes Mittelalter: Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Geistesgeschichte des 14. Jahrhunderts, 3 volumes, 1964–1977.

Secondary Literature

• Annette Vogt, "Von Berlin nach Rom - Anneliese Maier (1905-1971)", in MPI für Wissenschaftsgeschichte (ed.), Steiner Vlg., Stuttgart 2004, pp. 391-414.

External links

• International Dictionary of Intellectual Historians