On Earth as in Heaven : Cosmography and the Shape of the Earth from Copernicus to Descartes

ISBN-13: 9783639035865 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 144 str.

Jacqueline Biro

Opis

One of the key moments of the Scientific Revolution§was the §transformation in the understanding of the earth s§form. The §world as we now understand it spherical and mostly§rock with§shallow oceans was novel and controversial. Most§scholars around§1500 believed the world was mostly ocean with a small§sphere of land §floating in it like a bobbing apple. Crucial to the§work of key thinkers §such as Copernicus, Galileo and Descartes, the new§theory of the earth §had important implications for astronomy and the§universe as a whole. §Remarkably, the importance of this dramatic change in§concepts of the §earth has been overlooked by historians, as has the§vibrant scientific §field in which the developments both of geography and§astronomy took §place: cosmography. This book restores the period s§changing ideas §about the earth and its continents, and still more§importantly §cosmography, into the centre of the Scientific§Revolution.

O autorze

Jacqueline Biro is a senior policy analyst for the Australian
state government, with
recent roles in urban water, health and natural resources. In
addition to her graduate
work in history and philosophy of science she holds
qualifications in political economy
and communications.