Sphaerae Mundi

Sphaerae Mundi PDF

Author: Edward Dahl

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2000-06-29

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0773569073

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Advances in modern science and technology have made present-day terrestrial and celestial globes scientifically obsolete and aesthetically banal. From the Renaissance to the mid-nineteenth century, however, they were indispensable tools for the study of geography and astronomy. Beginning with an overview of early globes, the authors examine how the modern era in globe making, which began in Flemish and Dutch shops in the early seventeenth century, show how globe making spread throughout Europe, and explain how what were both decorative and scientific objects became symbols of power, universal knowledge, intellectual status, and personal vanity. Beginning with the collection's earliest globe, dated 1533, the authors introduce us to the life and works of some of the greatest Dutch, French, English, German, Italian, and Swedish globe makers. The 120 colour illustrations allow the reader to savour these rare and unusual works and include numerous detailed reproductions of both terrestrial and celestial map images. Sphæræ Mundi charts developments and changes over three centuries of globe making, considering the globes as indicators of scientific advance and geographical exploration as well as artifacts and providing a unique opportunity to become familiar with these complex and beautiful objects.

Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe

Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe PDF

Author: Matteo Valleriani

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-18

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 3030866009

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.

De Sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period

De Sphaera of Johannes de Sacrobosco in the Early Modern Period PDF

Author: Matteo Valleriani

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-01-01

Total Pages: 406

ISBN-13: 3030308332

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This open access book explores commentaries on an influential text of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe. It features essays that take a close look at key intellectuals and how they engaged with the main ideas of this qualitative introduction to geocentric cosmology. Johannes de Sacrobosco compiled his Tractatus de sphaera during the thirteenth century in the frame of his teaching activities at the then recently founded University of Paris. It soon became a mandatory text all over Europe. As a result, a tradition of commentaries to the text was soon established and flourished until the second half of the 17th century. Here, readers will find an informative overview of these commentaries complete with a rich context. The essays explore the educational and social backgrounds of the writers. They also detail how their careers developed after the publication of their commentaries, the institutions and patrons they were affiliated with, what their agenda was, and whether and how they actually accomplished it. The editor of this collection considers these scientific commentaries as genuine scientific works. The contributors investigate them here not only in reference to the work on which it comments but also, and especially, as independent scientific contributions that are socially, institutionally, and intellectually contextualized around their authors.

The Structures of Practical Knowledge

The Structures of Practical Knowledge PDF

Author: Matteo Valleriani

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-02-20

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 3319456717

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The Structures of Practical Knowledge investigates the nature of practical knowledge – why, how, when and by whom it is codified, and once codified, how this knowledge is structured. The inquiry unfolds in a series of fifteen case studies, which range in focus from early modern Italy to eighteenth century China. At the heart of each study is a shared definition of practical knowledge, that is, knowledge needed to obtain a certain outcome, whether that be an artistic or mechanical artifact, a healing practice, or a mathematical result. While the content of practical knowledge is widely variable, this study shows that all practical knowledge is formally equivalent in following a defined workflow, as reflected in a construction procedure, a recipe, or an algorithm. As explored in the volume’s fifteen contributions, there are three levels at which structures of practical knowledge may be understood and examined. At the most immediate level, there are the individual workflows that encompasses practical knowledge itself. Probing further, it is possible to examine the structure of practical knowledge as it is externalized and codified in texts, drawings, and artifacts such as models. Finally, practical knowledge is also related to social structures, which fundamentally determine its dissemination and evolution into new knowledge structures. The social structures of professionals and institutions represent the critical means by which practical knowledge takes form. These actors are the agents of codification, and by means of selection, appropriation, investment, and knowledge development, they determine the formation of new structures of practical knowledge. On a more abstract level, the creation of new knowledge structures is understood as constituting the basis for the further development of scientific knowledge. Rich in subject matter and incisive in the theory it lays out, this volume represents an important contribution to the history of science and epistemology. Individually, the fifteen case studies – encompassing the history of architecture, mining, brewing, glass production, printing, ballistics, mechanics, cartography, cosmology and astronomy – are replete with original research, and offer new insights into the history of science. Taken together, the contributions remodel historical epistemology as a whole, elucidating the underlining knowledge structures that transcend disciplinary boundaries, and that unite practitioners across time and space.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes