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Abstract
This essay argues, by example, for the thesis that scientific ideas and fictional explanations were strongly intertwined in the works of many renaissance thinkers. In particular, I intend to illustrate the meaning of Koyré's famous dictum: "anything is possible" -as a short formula to capture the spirit of the renaissance- by showing how one finds in many major works of this period unexpected blends. For instance, the uncritical discussion of ancient myth-like proposals on a pair with new mathematical theories occurs frequently, and the reader beholds a great deal of good critical sense combined with some leniency towards absurd notions; and even the coexistence of a rational approach and dogmatism; and most noteworthy, the mixture of genuine scientific insights with mystic speculations or highly wild suggestions. The examples examined come from late medieval and early renaissance cosmology; from the writings of
the Utopists; those of the Paracelsians as well as Galileó s physics. I conclude that these strange mixtures provide one way (perhaps the best) to account for the richness of the Renaissance thought.
