Download or read book Astra Castra Experiments and Adventures in the Atmosphere written by Hatton Turnor and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1865.

Download or read book Catalogue of the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore written by George Peabody Library and published by . This book was released on 1892 with total page 606 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Handbook of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments written by Hideyuki Nakashima and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-10-01 with total page 1290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our homes anticipate when we want to wake up. Our computers predict what music we want to buy. Our cars adapt to the way we drive. In today’s world, even washing machines, rice cookers and toys have the capability of autonomous decision-making. As we grow accustomed to computing power embedded in our surroundings, it becomes clear that these ‘smart environments’, with a number of devices controlled by a coordinating system capable of ‘ambient intelligence’, will play an ever larger role in our lives. This handbook provides readers with comprehensive, up-to-date coverage in what is a key technological field. . Systematically dealing with each aspect of ambient intelligence and smart environments, the text covers everything, from visual information capture and human/computer interaction to multi-agent systems, network use of sensor data, and building more rationality into artificial systems. The book also details a wide range of applications, examines case studies of recent major projects from around the world, and analyzes both the likely impact of the technology on our lives, and its ethical implications. With a wide variety of separate disciplines all conducting research relevant to this field, this handbook encourages collaboration between disparate researchers by setting out the fundamental concepts from each area that are relevant to ambient intelligence and smart environments, providing a fertile soil in which ground-breaking new work candevelop.

Download or read book Sun Tracker Automatic Solar Tracking Sun Tracking Systems Solar Trackers and Automatic Sun Tracker Systems written by Gerro Prinsloo and published by Gerro Prinsloo. This book was released on 2014-10-12 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book details Solar-Tracking, Automatic Sun-Tracking-Systems and Solar-Trackers. Book and literature review is ideal for sun and moon tracking in solar applications for sun-rich countries such as the USA, Spain, Portugal, Mediterranean, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Portugal, China, India, Brazil, Chili, Argentina, South America, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Middle East, Iran, Iraq, etc. A solar tracker is a device that orients a payload toward the sun. Like a satellite tracker or moon tracker, it tracks the celestial object in the sky on its orbital path of apparent movement. A programmable computer based solar tracking device includes principles of solar tracking, solar tracking systems, as well as microcontroller, microprocessor and/or PC based solar tracking control to orientate solar reflectors, solar lenses, photovoltaic panels or other optical configurations towards the sun. Motorized space frames and kinematic systems ensure motion dynamics and employ drive technology and gearing principles to steer optical configurations such as mangin, parabolic, conic, or cassegrain solar energy collectors to face the sun and follow the sun movement contour continuously. In harnessing power from the sun through a solar tracker or practical solar tracking system, renewable energy control automation systems require automatic solar tracking software and solar position algorithms to accomplish dynamic motion control with control automation architecture, circuit boards and hardware. On-axis sun tracking system such as the altitude-azimuth dual axis or multi-axis solar tracker systems use a sun tracking algorithm or ray tracing sensors or software to ensure the sun's passage through the sky is traced with high precision in automated solar tracker applications, right through summer solstice, solar equinox and winter solstice. From sun tracing software perspective, the sonnet Tracing The Sun has a literal meaning. Within the context of sun track and trace, this book explains that the sun's daily path across the sky is directed by relatively simple principles, and if grasped/understood, then it is relatively easy to trace the sun with sun following software. Sun position computer software for tracing the sun are available as open source code, sources that is listed in this book. Ironically there was even a system called sun chaser, said to have been a solar positioner system known for chasing the sun throughout the day. Using solar equations in an electronic circuit for solar tracking is quite simple, even if you are a novice, but mathematical solar equations are over complicated by academic experts and professors in text-books, journal articles and internet websites. In terms of solar hobbies, scholars, students and Hobbyist's looking at solar tracking electronics or PC programs for solar tracking are usually overcome by the sheer volume of scientific material and internet resources, which leaves many developers in frustration when search for simple experimental solar tracking source-code for their on-axis sun-tracking systems. This booklet will simplify the search for the mystical sun tracking formulas for your sun tracker innovation and help you develop your own autonomous solar tracking controller. By directing the solar collector directly into the sun, a solar harvesting means or device can harness sunlight or thermal heat. This is achieved with the help of sun angle formulas, solar angle formulas or solar tracking procedures for the calculation of sun's position in the sky. Automatic sun tracking system software includes algorithms for solar altitude azimuth angle calculations required in following the sun across the sky. In using the longitude, latitude GPS coordinates of the solar tracker location, these sun tracking software tools supports precision solar tracking by determining the solar altitude-azimuth coordinates for the sun trajectory in altitude-azimuth tracking at the tracker location, using certain sun angle formulas in sun vector calculations. Instead of follow the sun software, a sun tracking sensor such as a sun sensor or webcam or video camera with vision based sun following image processing software can also be used to determine the position of the sun optically. Such optical feedback devices are often used in solar panel tracking systems and dish tracking systems. Dynamic sun tracing is also used in solar surveying, DNI analyser and sun surveying systems that build solar infographics maps with solar radiance, irradiance and DNI models for GIS (geographical information system). In this way geospatial methods on solar/environment interaction makes use use of geospatial technologies (GIS, Remote Sensing, and Cartography).Climatic data and weather station or weather center data, as well as queries from sky servers and solar resource database systems (i.e. on DB2, Sybase, Oracle, SQL, MySQL) may also be associated with solar GIS maps. In such solar resource modelling systems, a pyranometer or solarimeter is normally used in addition to measure direct and indirect, scattered, dispersed, reflective radiation for a particular geographical location. Sunlight analysis is important in flash photography where photographic lighting are important for photographers. GIS systems are used by architects who add sun shadow applets to study architectural shading or sun shadow analysis, solar flux calculations, optical modelling or to perform weather modelling. Such systems often employ a computer operated telescope type mechanism with ray tracing program software as a solar navigator or sun tracer that determines the solar position and intensity. The purpose of this booklet is to assist developers to track and trace suitable source-code and solar tracking algorithms for their application, whether a hobbyist, scientist, technician or engineer. Many open-source sun following and tracking algorithms and source-code for solar tracking programs and modules are freely available to download on the internet today. Certain proprietary solar tracker kits and solar tracking controllers include a software development kit SDK for its application programming interface API attributes (Pebble). Widget libraries, widget toolkits, GUI toolkit and UX libraries with graphical control elements are also available to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) for your solar tracking or solar power monitoring program. The solar library used by solar position calculators, solar simulation software and solar contour calculators include machine program code for the solar hardware controller which are software programmed into Micro-controllers, Programmable Logic Controllers PLC, programmable gate arrays, Arduino processor or PIC processor. PC based solar tracking is also high in demand using C++, Visual Basic VB, as well as MS Windows, Linux and Apple Mac based operating systems for sun path tables on Matlab, Excel. Some books and internet webpages use other terms, such as: sun angle calculator, sun position calculator or solar angle calculator. As said, such software code calculate the solar azimuth angle, solar altitude angle, solar elevation angle or the solar Zenith angle (Zenith solar angle is simply referenced from vertical plane, the mirror of the elevation angle measured from the horizontal or ground plane level). Similar software code is also used in solar calculator apps or the solar power calculator apps for IOS and Android smartphone devices. Most of these smartphone solar mobile apps show the sun path and sun-angles for any location and date over a 24 hour period. Some smartphones include augmented reality features in which you can physically see and look at the solar path through your cell phone camera or mobile phone camera at your phone's specific GPS location. In the computer programming and digital signal processing (DSP) environment, (free/open source) program code are available for VB, .Net, Delphi, Python, C, C+, C++, Swift, ADM, F, Flash, Basic, QBasic, GBasic, KBasic, SIMPL language, Squirrel, Solaris, Assembly language on operating systems such as MS Windows, Apple Mac, DOS or Linux OS. Software algorithms predicting position of the sun in the sky are commonly available as graphical programming platforms such as Matlab (Mathworks), Simulink models, Java applets, TRNSYS simulations, Scada system apps, Labview module, Beckhoff TwinCAT (Visual Studio), Siemens SPA, mobile and iphone apps, Android or iOS tablet apps, and so forth. At the same time, PLC software code for a range of sun tracking automation technology can follow the profile of sun in sky for Siemens, HP, Panasonic, ABB, Allan Bradley, OMRON, SEW, Festo, Beckhoff, Rockwell, Schneider, Endress Hauser, Fudji electric. Honeywell, Fuchs, Yokonawa, or Muthibishi platforms. Sun path projection software are also available for a range of modular IPC embedded PC motherboards, Industrial PC, PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) and PAC (Programmable Automation Controller) such as the Siemens S7-1200 or Siemens Logo, Beckhoff IPC or CX series, OMRON PLC, Ercam PLC, AC500plc ABB, National Instruments NI PXI or NI cRIO, PIC processor, Intel 8051/8085, IBM (Cell, Power, Brain or Truenorth series), FPGA (Xilinx Altera Nios), Xeon, Atmel megaAVR, or Arduino AtMega microcontroller, with servo motor, stepper motor, direct current DC pulse width modulation PWM (current driver) or alternating current AC SPS or IPC variable frequency drives VFD motor drives (also termed adjustable-frequency drive, variable-speed drive, AC drive, micro drive or inverter drive) for electrical, mechatronic, pneumatic, or hydraulic solar tracking actuators. The above motion control and robot control systems include analogue or digital interfacing ports on the processors to allow for tracker angle orientation feedback control through one or a combination of angle sensor or angle encoder, shaft encoder, precision encoder, optical encoder, magnetic encoder, direction encoder, rotational encoder, chip encoder, tilt sensor, inclination sensor, or pitch sensor. Note that the tracker's elevation or zenith axis angle may measured using an altitude angle-, declination angle-, inclination angle-, pitch angle-, or vertical angle-, zenith angle- sensor or inclinometer. Similarly the tracker's azimuth axis angle be measured with a azimuth angle-, horizontal angle-, or roll angle- sensor. Chip integrated accelerometer magnetometer gyroscope type angle sensors can also be used to calculate displacement. Other options include the use of thermal imaging systems such as a Fluke thermal imager, or robotic or vision based solar tracker systems that employ face tracking, head tracking, hand tracking, eye tracking and car tracking principles in solar tracking. With unattended decentralised rural, island, isolated, or autonomous off-grid power installations, remote control, monitoring, data acquisition, digital datalogging and online measurement and verification equipment becomes crucial. It assists the operator with supervisory control to monitor the efficiency of remote renewable energy resources and systems and provide valuable web-based feedback in terms of CO2 and clean development mechanism (CDM) reporting. A power quality analyser for diagnostics through internet, WiFi and cellular mobile links is most valuable in frontline troubleshooting and predictive maintenance, where quick diagnostic analysis is required to detect and prevent power quality issues. Solar tracker applications cover a wide spectrum of solar energy and concentrated solar devices, including solar power generation, solar desalination, solar water purification, solar steam generation, solar electricity generation, solar industrial process heat, solar thermal heat storage, solar food dryers, solar water pumping, hydrogen production from methane or producing hydrogen and oxygen from water (HHO) through electrolysis. Many patented or non-patented solar apparatus include tracking in solar apparatus for solar electric generator, solar desalinator, solar steam engine, solar ice maker, solar water purifier, solar cooling, solar refrigeration, USB solar charger, solar phone charging, portable solar charging tracker, solar coffee brewing, solar cooking or solar dying means. Your project may be the next breakthrough or patent, but your invention is held back by frustration in search for the sun tracker you require for your solar powered appliance, solar generator, solar tracker robot, solar freezer, solar cooker, solar drier, solar pump, solar freezer, or solar dryer project. Whether your solar electronic circuit diagram include a simplified solar controller design in a solar electricity project, solar power kit, solar hobby kit, solar steam generator, solar hot water system, solar ice maker, solar desalinator, hobbyist solar panels, hobby robot, or if you are developing professional or hobby electronics for a solar utility or micro scale solar powerplant for your own solar farm or solar farming, this publication may help accelerate the development of your solar tracking innovation. Lately, solar polygeneration, solar trigeneration (solar triple generation), and solar quad generation (adding delivery of steam, liquid/gaseous fuel, or capture food-grade CO$_2$) systems have need for automatic solar tracking. These systems are known for significant efficiency increases in energy yield as a result of the integration and re-use of waste or residual heat and are suitable for compact packaged micro solar powerplants that could be manufactured and transported in kit-form and operate on a plug-and play basis. Typical hybrid solar power systems include compact or packaged solar micro combined heat and power (CHP or mCHP) or solar micro combined, cooling, heating and power (CCHP, CHPC, mCCHP, or mCHPC) systems used in distributed power generation. These systems are often combined in concentrated solar CSP and CPV smart microgrid configurations for off-grid rural, island or isolated microgrid, minigrid and distributed power renewable energy systems. Solar tracking algorithms are also used in modelling of trigeneration systems using Matlab and Simulink platform as well as in automation and control of renewable energy systems through intelligent parsing, multi-objective, adaptive learning control and control optimization strategies. Solar tracking algorithms also find application in developing solar models for country or location specific solar studies, for example in terms of measuring or analysis of the fluctuations of the solar radiation (i.e. direct and diffuse radiation) in a particular area. Solar DNI, solar irradiance and atmospheric information and models can thus be integrated into a solar map, solar atlas or geographical information systems (GIS). Such models allows for defining local parameters for specific regions that may be valuable in terms of the evaluation of different solar in photovoltaic of CSP systems on simulation and synthesis platforms such as Matlab and Simulink or in linear or multi-objective optimization algorithm platforms such as COMPOSE, EnergyPLAN or DER-CAM. A dual-axis solar tracker and single-axis solar tracker may use a sun tracker program or sun tracker algorithm to position a solar dish, solar panel array, heliostat array, PV panel, solar antenna or infrared solar nantenna. A self-tracking solar concentrator performs automatic solar tracking by computing the solar vector. Solar position algorithms (TwinCAT, SPA, or PSA Algorithms) use an astronomical algorithm to calculate the position of the sun. It uses astronomical software algorithms and equations for solar tracking in the calculation of sun's position in the sky for each location on the earth at any time of day. Like an optical solar telescope, the solar position algorithm pin-points the solar reflector at the sun and locks onto the sun's position to track the sun across the sky as the sun progresses throughout the day. Optical sensors such as photodiodes, light-dependant-resistors (LDR) or photoresistors are used as optical accuracy feedback devices. Lately we also included a section in the book (with links to microprocessor code) on how the PixArt Wii infrared camera in the Wii remote or Wiimote may be used in infrared solar tracking applications. In order to harvest free energy from the sun, some automatic solar positioning systems use an optical means to direct the solar tracking device. These solar tracking strategies use optical tracking techniques, such as a sun sensor means, to direct sun rays onto a silicon or CMOS substrate to determine the X and Y coordinates of the sun's position. In a solar mems sun-sensor device, incident sunlight enters the sun sensor through a small pin-hole in a mask plate where light is exposed to a silicon substrate. In a web-camera or camera image processing sun tracking and sun following means, object tracking software performs multi object tracking or moving object tracking methods. In an solar object tracking technique, image processing software performs mathematical processing to box the outline of the apparent solar disc or sun blob within the captured image frame, while sun-localization is performed with an edge detection algorithm to determine the solar vector coordinates. An automated positioning system help maximize the yields of solar power plants through solar tracking control to harness sun's energy. In such renewable energy systems, the solar panel positioning system uses a sun tracking techniques and a solar angle calculator in positioning PV panels in photovoltaic systems and concentrated photovoltaic CPV systems. Automatic on-axis solar tracking in a PV solar tracking system can be dual-axis sun tracking or single-axis sun solar tracking. It is known that a motorized positioning system in a photovoltaic panel tracker increase energy yield and ensures increased power output, even in a single axis solar tracking configuration. Other applications such as robotic solar tracker or robotic solar tracking system uses robotica with artificial intelligence in the control optimization of energy yield in solar harvesting through a robotic tracking system. Automatic positioning systems in solar tracking designs are also used in other free energy generators, such as concentrated solar thermal power CSP and dish Stirling systems. The sun tracking device in a solar collector in a solar concentrator or solar collector Such a performs on-axis solar tracking, a dual axis solar tracker assists to harness energy from the sun through an optical solar collector, which can be a parabolic mirror, parabolic reflector, Fresnel lens or mirror array/matrix. A parabolic dish or reflector is dynamically steered using a transmission system or solar tracking slew drive mean. In steering the dish to face the sun, the power dish actuator and actuation means in a parabolic dish system optically focusses the sun's energy on the focal point of a parabolic dish or solar concentrating means. A Stirling engine, solar heat pipe, thermosyphin, solar phase change material PCM receiver, or a fibre optic sunlight receiver means is located at the focal point of the solar concentrator. The dish Stirling engine configuration is referred to as a dish Stirling system or Stirling power generation system. Hybrid solar power systems (used in combination with biogas, biofuel, petrol, ethanol, diesel, natural gas or PNG) use a combination of power sources to harness and store solar energy in a storage medium. Any multitude of energy sources can be combined through the use of controllers and the energy stored in batteries, phase change material, thermal heat storage, and in cogeneration form converted to the required power using thermodynamic cycles (organic Rankin, Brayton cycle, micro turbine, Stirling) with an inverter and charge controller. 这本书详细介绍了全自动太阳能跟踪，太阳跟踪系统的出现，太阳能跟踪器和太阳跟踪系统。智能全自动太阳能跟踪器是定向向着太阳的有效载荷设备。这种可编程计算机的太阳能跟踪装置，包括太阳跟踪，太阳能跟踪系统，以及微控制器，微处理器和/或基于PC机的太阳跟踪控制，以定向太阳能反射器，太阳透镜，光电板或其他光学配置朝向太阳的原理。机动空间框架和运动系统，确保运动动力学和采用的驱动技术和传动原理引导光学配置，如曼金，抛物线，圆锥曲线，或卡塞格林式太阳能集热器面向太阳，不断跟随太阳运动的轮廓。 从阳光透过太阳能跟踪器或实用的太阳能跟踪系统利用电力，可再生能源控制的自动化系统需要自动太阳跟踪软件和太阳位置算法来实现控制与自动化架构，电路板和硬件的动态运动控制。上轴太阳跟踪系统，如高度，方位角双轴或多轴太阳跟踪系统使用太阳跟踪算法或光线追踪传感器或软件，以确保通过天空中太阳的通道被跟踪的高精度的自动太阳跟踪器的应用，通过正确的夏至，春分太阳和冬至。一种高精度太阳位置计算器或太阳位置算法是这样的自动太阳能跟踪系统的设计和施工中的重要一步。 В этой книге подробно Автоматическая Solar-Tracking, ВС-Tracking-Systems, Solar-трекеры и ВС Tracker Systems. Интеллектуальный автоматический солнечной слежения является устройством, которое ориентирует полезную нагрузку к солнцу. Такое программируемый компьютер на основе солнечной устройство слежения включает принципы солнечной слежения, солнечных систем слежения, а также микроконтроллер, микропроцессор и / или ПК на базе управления солнечной отслеживания ориентироваться солнечных отражателей, солнечные линзы, фотоэлектрические панели или другие оптические конфигурации к ВС Моторизованные космические кадры и кинематические системы обеспечения динамики движения и использовать приводной техники и готовится принципы, чтобы направить оптические конфигурации, такие как Манжен, параболических, конических или Кассегрена солнечных коллекторов энергии, чтобы лицом к солнцу и следовать за солнцем контур движения непрерывно. В обуздывать силу от солнца через солнечный трекер или практической солнечной системы слежения, системы возобновляемых контроля энергии автоматизации требуют автоматического солнечной отслеживания программного обеспечения и алгоритмов солнечные позиции для достижения динамического контроля движения с архитектуры автоматизации управления, печатных плат и аппаратных средств. На оси системы слежения ВС, таких как высота-азимут двойной оси или многоосевые солнечные системы трекер использовать алгоритм отслеживания солнце или трассировки лучей датчиков или программное обеспечение, чтобы обеспечить прохождение солнца по небу прослеживается с высокой точностью в автоматизированных приложений Солнечная Tracker , прямо через летнего солнцестояния, солнечного равноденствия и зимнего солнцестояния.Высокая точность позиции ВС калькулятор или положение солнца алгоритм это важный шаг в проектировании и строительстве автоматической системой солнечной слежения.

Download or read book PASCAL written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Obras Completas written by Juan Luis Vives and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 1444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Illusions in Motion written by Erkki Huhtamo and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2023-08-22 with total page 461 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the cultural, material, and discursive history of an early manifestation of media culture in the making. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, huge circular panoramas presented their audiences with resplendent representations that ranged from historic battles to exotic locations. Such panoramas were immersive but static. There were other panoramas that moved—hundreds, and probably thousands of them. Their history has been largely forgotten. In Illusions in Motion, Erkki Huhtamo excavates this neglected early manifestation of media culture in the making. The moving panorama was a long painting that unscrolled behind a “window” by means of a mechanical cranking system, accompanied by a lecture, music, and sometimes sound and light effects. Showmen exhibited such panoramas in venues that ranged from opera houses to church halls, creating a market for mediated realities in both city and country. In the first history of this phenomenon, Huhtamo analyzes the moving panorama in all its complexity, investigating its relationship to other media and its role in the culture of its time. In his telling, the panorama becomes a window for observing media in operation. Huhtamo explores such topics as cultural forms that anticipated the moving panorama; theatrical panoramas; the diorama; the "panoramania" of the 1850s and the career of Albert Smith, the most successful showman of that era; competition with magic lantern shows; the final flowering of the panorama in the late nineteenth century; and the panorama's afterlife as a topos, traced through its evocation in literature, journalism, science, philosophy, and propaganda.

Download or read book Le grand dictionnaire Hachette Oxford written by Marie-Hélène Corréard and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2007-05-10 with total page 2084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A book that lists French language words and gives their equivalent in English, and English language words with their equivalent in French.

Download or read book A Concordance to the Poems of Robert Browning written by Leslie Nathan Broughton and published by . This book was released on 1925 with total page 1412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Texts from the Islands written by Wolfgang Marschall and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries Third Series written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The record of each copyright registration listed in the Catalog includes a description of the work copyrighted and data relating to the copyright claim (the name of the copyright claimant as given in the application for registration, the copyright date, the copyright registration number, etc.).

Download or read book International Catalogue of Scientific Literature written by and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 1164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book General Oversight on Patent Trademark and Copyright Systems written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Catalog of Copyright Entries written by Library of Congress. Copyright Office and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 730 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The European Vision of America written by Hugh Honour and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Between Worlds written by J. H. Chajes and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-03-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After a nearly two-thousand-year interlude, and just as Christian Europe was in the throes of the great Witch Hunt and what historians have referred to as "The Age of the Demoniac," accounts of spirit possession began to proliferate in the Jewish world. Concentrated at first in the Near East but spreading rapidly westward, spirit possession, both benevolent and malevolent, emerged as perhaps the most characteristic form of religiosity in early modern Jewish society. Adopting a comparative historical approach, J. H. Chajes uncovers this strain of Jewish belief to which scant attention has been paid. Informed by recent research in historical anthropology, Between Worlds provides fascinating descriptions of the cases of possession as well as analysis of the magical techniques deployed by rabbinic exorcists to expel the ghostly intruders. Seeking to understand the phenomenon of spirit possession in its full complexity, Chajes delves into its ideational framework—chiefly the doctrine of reincarnation—while exploring its relation to contemporary Christian and Islamic analogues. Regarding spirit possession as a form of religious expression open to—and even dominated by—women, Chajes initiates a major reassessment of women in the history of Jewish mysticism. In a concluding section he examines the reception history of the great Hebrew accounts of spirit possession, focusing on the deployment of these "ghost stories" in the battle against incipient skepticism in the turbulent Jewish community of seventeenth-century Amsterdam. Exploring a phenomenon that bridged learned and ignorant, rich and poor, men and women, Jews and Gentiles, Between Worlds maps for the first time a prominent feature of the early modern Jewish religious landscape, as quotidian as it was portentous: the nexus of the living and the dead.

Download or read book Through a Speculum That Shines written by Elliot R. Wolfson and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive treatment of visionary experience in some of the main texts of Jewish mysticism, this book reveals the overwhelmingly visual nature of religious experience in Jewish spirituality from antiquity through the late Middle Ages. Using phenomenological and critical historical tools, Wolfson examines Jewish mystical texts from late antiquity, pre-kabbalistic sources from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, and twelfth- and thirteenth-century kabbalistic literature. His work demonstrates that the sense of sight assumes an epistemic priority in these writings, reflecting and building upon those scriptural passages that affirm the visual nature of revelatory experience. Moreover, the author reveals an androcentric eroticism in the scopic mentality of Jewish mystics, which placed the externalized and representable form, the phallus, at the center of the visual encounter. In the visionary experience, as Wolfson describes it, imagination serves a primary function, transmuting sensory data and rational concepts into symbols of those things beyond sense and reason. In this view, the experience of a vision is inseparable from the process of interpretation. Fundamentally challenging the conventional distinction between experience and exegesis, revelation and interpretation, Wolfson argues that for the mystics themselves, the study of texts occasioned a visual experience of the divine located in the imagination of the mystical interpreter. Thus he shows how Jewish mystics preserved the invisible transcendence of God without doing away with the visual dimension of belief.