Download or read book Astronomy and Optics from Pliny to Descartes written by Bruce Eastwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 1989 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A principal concern of the author in writing these articles has been to elucidate the conceptual structures that underlie the scientific thought of the Middle Ages - the philosophical and cultural assumptions, presuppositions and motivations that determine the way concepts are formed and questions are answered. In the first group of articles Professor Eastwood focuses on astronomy in Latin Europe in the 5th-11th centuries, looking especially at the use, development and interpretation of diagrams in works on planetary motion. The following studies turn to optics and visual theory. They examine Robert Grosseteste's views on the rainbow, refraction and empirical knowledge, and study specific instances of how medieval thinkers, both in the Latin and Islamic worlds, reinterpreted and reformulated the concepts they had inherited.
Download or read book The Revival of Planetary Astronomy in Carolingian and Post Carolingian Europe written by Bruce S. Eastwood and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-11-01 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2002: Before the introduction of Greco-Arabic mathematical astronomy in the 12th century, what astronomy was there in the medieval West? While we know of developments in computus, which calculated with solar and lunar cycles to create Christian calendars, and in monastic time-telling by the stars, was anything known of the five planets? Using glosses, commentaries, and diagrams to the early manuscripts of four classical Latin authors - Pliny, Macrobius, Martianus Capella, and Calcidius - Bruce Eastwood provides evidence for the extensive development of the sixth liberal art, astronomy, from the time of Charlemagne forward, with a particular focus on the diagrams used and invented by Carolingian and later scholars. Learning to understand the motions of planets in terms of spatial, or geometrical, arrangement, they mined these Roman writings for astronomical and cosmological doctrines, in the process not only absorbing but also creating models of planetary motions. What they accomplished over three centuries was to establish a basic set of models that showed the reasoned order of the planets in the heavens.
Download or read book Lenses and Waves written by Fokko Jan Dijksterhuis and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2006-01-20 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1690, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) published Traité de la Lumière, containing his renowned wave theory of light. It is considered a landmark in seventeenth-century science, for the way Huygens mathematized the corpuscular nature of light and his probabilistic conception of natural knowledge. This book discusses the development of Huygens' wave theory, reconstructing the winding road that eventually led to Traité de la Lumière. For the first time, the full range of manuscript sources is taken into account. In addition, the development of Huygens' thinking on the nature of light is put in the context of his optics as a whole, which was dominated by his lifelong pursuit of theoretical and practical dioptrics. In so doing, this book offers the first account of the development of Huygens' mathematical analysis of lenses and telescopes and its significance for the origin of the wave theory of light. As Huygens applied his mathematical proficiency to practical issues pertaining to telescopes – including trying to design a perfect telescope by means of mathematical theory – his dioptrics is significant for our understanding of seventeenth-century relations between theory and practice. With this full account of Huygens' optics, this book sheds new light on the history of seventeenth-century optics and the rise of the new mathematical sciences, as well as Huygens' oeuvre as a whole. Students of the history of optics, of early mathematical physics, and the Scientific Revolution, will find this book enlightening.
Download or read book Astronomy and Astrology in al Andalus and the Maghrib written by Julio Samsó and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new volume of papers by Julio Samsó deals with the development of astronomy and astrology in al-Andalus and the Maghrib between the 10th and the 19th centuries. Opening with a survey of the social history of the exact sciences in al-Andalus, the book then looks at astronomical tables: the first stages of the introduction of al-Khwarizmi's and al-Battani's tables through the school of Maslama al-Majriti, the development of Ibn al-Zarqalluh/ Azarquiel's theories in Maghribi zijes (Ibn al-Banna' and Ibn Azzuz) and the abandonment of this tradition towards the end of the 14th century. From this period onwards new Eastern zijes (Muhyi al-Din al-Maghribi, Ibn al-Shatir, Ulugh Beg) are introduced in the Maghrib and, towards the beginning of the 17th century, a translation of Abraham Zacut and José Vizinho's Almanach Perpetuum (end of the 15th century) becomes well known in the whole Islamic world, from Morocco to the Yemen. As well as zijes themselves, the author also deals with theoretical astronomy (the use of an elliptical deferent for Mercury in Ibn al-Zarqalluh's equatorium and the criticisms of Ibn al-Haytham and Jabir b. Aflah on Ptolemy's determination of the parameters of the same planet), and with the use of zijes for the calculation of horoscopes, and an experimental astrological method for the correction of mean motion planetary tables (Ibn Azzuz).
Download or read book Early Physics and Astronomy written by Olaf Pedersen and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1993-03-11 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book describes how the scientific account of the world arose among the Greeks and developed in the Middle Ages.
Download or read book Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe written by Stephen C. McCluskey and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-11-20 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides an overview of the astronomical practices that continued through the so-called "Dark Ages." Like the astronomies of traditional societies, early medieval astronomies established a religious framework of sacred time and ritual calender; here Christian feasts tied to a pre-Christian ritual solar calender, the date of Easter tied to the Hebrew lunar calender; and the timing of monastic prayers in terms of the course of the stars. Coupled with the remnants of ancient geometrical astronomy, these provided the framework for the rebirth of astronomy with the rise of the medieval universities.
Download or read book The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri written by Robert M. Durling and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-07 with total page 886 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Robert Durling's spirited new prose translation of the Paradiso completes his masterful rendering of the Divine Comedy. Durling's earlier translations of the Inferno and the Purgatorio garnered high praise, and with this superb version of the Paradiso readers can now traverse the entirety of Dante's epic poem of spiritual ascent with the guidance of one of the greatest living Italian-to-English translators. Reunited with his beloved Beatrice in the Purgatorio, in the Paradiso the poet-narrator journeys with her through the heavenly spheres and comes to know "the state of blessed souls after death." As with the previous volumes, the original Italian and its English translation appear on facing pages. Readers will be drawn to Durling's precise and vivid prose, which captures Dante's extraordinary range of expression--from the high style of divine revelation to colloquial speech, lyrical interludes, and scornful diatribes against corrupt clergy. This edition boasts several unique features. Durling's introduction explores the chief interpretive issues surrounding the Paradiso, including the nature of its allegories, the status in the poem of Dante's human body, and his relation to the mystical tradition. The notes at the end of each canto provide detailed commentary on historical, theological, and literary allusions, and unravel the obscurity and difficulties of Dante's ambitious style . An unusual feature is the inclusion of the text, translation, and commentary on one of Dante's chief models, the famous cosmological poem by Boethius that ends the third book of his Consolation of Philosophy. A substantial section of Additional Notes discusses myths, symbols, and themes that figure in all three cantiche of Dante's masterpiece. Finally, the volume includes a set of indexes that is unique in American editions, including Proper Names Discussed in the Notes (with thorough subheadings concerning related themes), Passages Cited in the Notes, and Words Discussed in the Notes, as well as an Index of Proper Names in the text and translation. Like the previous volumes, this final volume includes a rich series of illustrations by Robert Turner.
Download or read book Scientific Controversies written by Dominique Raynaud and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Scientific Controversies, Dominque Raynaud shows how organized debates in the sciences help us establish or verify our knowledge of the world. If debates focus on form, scientific controversies are akin to public debates that can be understood within the framework of theories of conflict. If they focus on content, then such controversies have to do with a specific activity and address the nature of science itself. Understanding the major focus of a scientific controversy is a first step toward understanding these debates and assessing their merits.Controversies of unique socio-historic context, disciplines, and characteristics are examined: Pasteur's germ theory and Pouchet's theory of spontaneous generation; vitalism advocated at Montpellier versus experimental medicine in Paris; the science of optics about the propagation of visual rays; the origins of relativism (the Duhem-Quine problem). Touching on the work of Boudon, Popper, and others, Raynaud puts forward an incrementalist theory about the advancement of science through scientific controversies.The debates Raynaud has selected share in common their pivotal importance to the history of the sciences. By understanding the role of controversy, we better understand the functioning of science and the stakes of the contemporary scientific debates.
Download or read book Between Demonstration and Imagination written by John David North and published by BRILL. This book was released on 1999 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays in this volume reflect the wide-ranging interests of John D. North, distinguished historian of science and philosophy. They take up various themes to which he has made important contributions: the development of scientific knowledge and methodology, the style of scientific and philosophical thought, and the uses of scientific knowledge in the making of instruments or the casting of horoscopes. These essays will be of much interest to all historians of science and philosophy.
Download or read book The Beginnings of Western Science written by David C. Lindberg and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2010-02-15 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it was first published in 1992, The Beginnings of Western Science was lauded as the first successful attempt ever to present a unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume. Chronicling the development of scientific ideas, practices, and institutions from pre-Socratic Greek philosophy to late-Medieval scholasticism, David C. Lindberg surveyed all the most important themes in the history of science, including developments in cosmology, astronomy, mechanics, optics, alchemy, natural history, and medicine. In addition, he offered an illuminating account of the transmission of Greek science to medieval Islam and subsequently to medieval Europe. The Beginnings of Western Science was, and remains, a landmark in the history of science, shaping the way students and scholars understand these critically formative periods of scientific development. It reemerges here in a second edition that includes revisions on nearly every page, as well as several sections that have been completely rewritten. For example, the section on Islamic science has been thoroughly retooled to reveal the magnitude and sophistication of medieval Muslim scientific achievement. And the book now reflects a sharper awareness of the importance of Mesopotamian science for the development of Greek astronomy. In all, the second edition of The Beginnings of Western Science captures the current state of our understanding of more than two millennia of science and promises to continue to inspire both students and general readers.
Download or read book Seeing Through the Veil written by Suzanne Conklin Akbari and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2015-01-15 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the later Middle Ages, new optical theories were introduced that located the power of sight not in the seeing subject, but in the passive object of vision. This shift had a powerful impact not only on medieval science but also on theories of knowledge, and this changing relationship of vision and knowledge was a crucial element in late medieval religious devotion. In Seeing through the Veil, Suzanne Conklin Akbari examines several late medieval allegories in the context of contemporary paradigm shifts in scientific and philosophical theories of vision. After a survey on the genre of allegory and an overview of medieval optical theories, Akbari delves into more detailed studies of several medieval literary works, including the Roman de la Rose, Dante's Vita Nuova, Convivio, and Commedia, and Chaucer's dream visions and Canterbury Tales. The final chapter, 'Division and Darkness,' centres on the legacy of allegory in the fifteenth century. Offering a new interdisciplinary, synthetic approach to late medieval intellectual history and to major works within the medieval literary canon, Seeing through the Veil will be an essential resource to the study of medieval literature and culture, as well as philosophy, history of art, and history of science.
Download or read book Galileo the Jesuits and the Medieval Aristotle written by William A. Wallace and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-10-28 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The conventional opposition of scholastic Aristotelianism and humanistic science has been increasingly questioned in recent years, and in these articles William Wallace aims to demonstrate that a progressive Aristotelianism in fact provided the foundation for Galileo's scientific discoveries. The first series of articles supply much of the documentary evidence that has led the author to the sources for Galileo's early notebooks: they show how Galileo, while teaching or preparing to teach at Pisa, actually appropriated much of his material from Jesuit lectures given at the Collegio Romano in 1598-90. The next articles then trace a number of key elements in Galileo's later work, mainly relating to logical methodology and natural philosophy, back to sources in medieval Aristotelian thought, notably in the writings of Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas. La mise en opposition conventionnelle entre l’aristotélisme scolastique et la science humaniste a été de plus en plus remise en question durant les dernières années. Tout au long de ces articles, William Wallace tente de démontrer que l’aristotélisme progressif a en fait pourvu le fondement des découvertes scientifiques de Galilée. Le premier groupe d’articles fournit la plupart des preuves documentées qui ont mené l’auteur aux sources des premiers cahiers de notes de Galilée; on y voit comment celui-ci, alors qu’il enseignait, ou s’apprêtait à enseigner à Pise, s’était en fait approprié quantité de donneés issues de cours magistraux jésuites qui avaient été donnés au Collegio Romano entre 1588 et 90. Les études suivantes retracent à leur tour un certain nombre d’elements-clef des travaux ultérieurs de Galilée, se rapportant plus particulièrement à la méthodologie logique et a la philosophie naturelle, jusqu’à leurs sources dans la pensée aristotélicienne du Moyen Age, notamment dans les écrits d’Albert le Grand et de Thomas d’Aquin.
Download or read book Beyond Borders written by Néstor Herran and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2009-05-27 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does scientific knowledge circulate? Does scientific communication shape the making of science? Is the making of science a national endeavour or does it have an international or transnational dimension? Are teaching and research equally relevant in this endeavour? How can history of science react to the challenges posed by the changing practices of science in historical context? Beyond Borders is a book generated at the heart of these fundamental questions. In the last decades, the history of science has attained a high degree of disciplinary maturity and sophistication. However, perception of disciplinary crisis is apparent behind calls for the search of new “big pictures” and their implementation in teaching and communicating the history of science to wider audiences. Temporal and narrative fragmentation are seen as major drawbacks hindering the development of the discipline. In addition, national, linguistic and methodological division is increasingly afflicting its practice. Like other areas in the humanities, and in contrast to the sciences, the history of science has nowadays a pronounced local character which clearly constrains its intellectual output. Challenging this state of affairs is a major aim of this book, which argues for a resolute call for intellectual and methodological pluralism and internationalism. Through a broad diversity of subjects, periods, and geographies, covering from studies of sixteenth-century astrological texts to contextual analysis of twentieth-century X-ray spectroscopy, this collection of papers and historiographical essays offers a fresh overview of the field and its major questions. Beyond Borders revisits five major topics in history of science, namely the early modern map of knowledge, pedagogy and science, science popularization, science and the nation and the geography of scientific centres and peripheries. Engaging with a broad diversity of historiographical and methodological approaches in an international perspective, Beyond Borders is a rich and plural manifesto contributing to the reflective appraisal of history of science as a discipline.
Download or read book A tiana V 4 vols written by Jaap Mansfeld and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-08-10 with total page 2381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new reconstruction and edition of the Placita of Aëtius (ca. 50 CE), arguably the most important work of ancient doxography covering the entire field of natural philosophy. Accompanied by a full commentary, it replaces the seminal edition of Herman Diels (1879).
Download or read book Journal for the History of Astronomy written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Routledge Revivals Medieval Science Technology and Medicine 2006 written by Thomas F. Glick and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 2005, this encyclopedia demonstrates that the millennium from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance was a period of great intellectual and practical achievement and innovation. In Europe, the Islamic world, South and East Asia, and the Americas, individuals built on earlier achievements, introduced sometimes radical refinements and laid the foundations for modern development. Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine details the whole scope of scientific knowledge in the medieval period in more than 300 A to Z entries. This comprehensive resource discusses the research, application of knowledge, cultural and technology exchanges, experimentation, and achievements in the many disciplines related to science and technology. It also looks at the relationship between medieval science and the traditions it supplanted. Written by a select group of international scholars, this reference work will be of great use to scholars, students, and general readers researching topics in many fields, including medieval studies, world history, history of science, history of technology, history of medicine, and cultural studies.
Download or read book The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages written by Edward Grant and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1996-10-28 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contrary to prevailing opinion, the roots of modern science were planted in the ancient and medieval worlds long before the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. Indeed, that revolution would have been inconceivable without the cumulative antecedent efforts of three great civilisations: Greek, Islamic, and Latin. With the scientific riches it derived by translation from Greco-Islamic sources in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Christian Latin civilisation of Western Europe began the last leg of the intellectual journey that culminated in a scientific revolution that transformed the world. The factors that produced this unique achievement are found in the way Christianity developed in the West, and in the invention of the university in 1200. As this 1997 study shows, it is no mere coincidence that the origins of modern science and the modern university occurred simultaneously in Western Europe during the late Middle Ages.
