 Recent reappraisals of Mersenne’s epistemological views tend to contest, or at least qualify, Popkin’s characterizations. According to Garber (2004), Mersenne’s epistemological frame is old rather than new. The way he envisions the boundaries between disciplines remains Aristotelian, and in particular his conception of the “physico-mathematical” sciences directly comes from the Aristotelian definition of mixed or subaltern mathematics, sciences such as astronomy or optics, only dealing with accident and surface properties of physical things. Far from offering a scientific substitute to Aristotelian physics, these sciences allow one to approach nature in a mathematical way “without having to challenge the full complex of Aristotelianism directly” (2004: 157) in ways that would be perceived as subversive of true religion and social order.