DOCSLIB.ORG

MEDIEVAL and EARLY MODERN SCIENCE Volume I Flobm ? Q Hmfi '5 2£&E> £Julu F*\ Dtb) ( Fotjuly R*

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
MEDIEVAL and EARLY MODERN SCIENCE Volume I Flobm ? Q Hmfi '5 2£&E> £Julu F*\ Dtb) ( Fotjuly R* $1.10 in Canada EDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE VOLUME l Science in the Middle Acres: V-XI1I Centuries . C. CROMBIE REVISED SECOMD EDITION MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE Volume I floBM ? Q HMfi '5 2£&e> £JUlu f*\ dTb) ( fotJULy r* Alistair Cameron Crombie was bora in Brisbane, Australia, in 1915 and graduated in natural science from the Universities of Melbourne and Cambridge. He taught and carried out research in biology at Cambridge until 1946, when he went to the Univer- sity of London to teach the history and philosophy of science. In 1953 ne was appointed to his present post as Senior Lecturer in the History of Science in the University of Oxford. He has also served as Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the University of Washing- ton and ha* lectured at a number of other universities in Europe and America, in addition to broadcasting on the Third Programme of the BBC. He was the original editor of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. He is the author of a number of scientific and historical papers and of two books, Augustine to Gali- leo: the History of Science A.D. 400-1650 (1952, 1954, 1957) and Robert Grosseteste and the Origins of Experimental Science 1100-1700 (1953). MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN SCIENCE Volume I Science in the Middle Ages: V-XIII Centuries A. C. CROMBIE DOUBLEDAY ANCHOR BOOKS DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC. GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK 1959 The illustrations on the cover, showing geese in flight, are taken from De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of Falconry), Emperor Frederick II, Vatican MS Palatino Latino 1071 (xiii century). Cover design and typography by Edward Gorey. Medieval and Early Modern Science, Vol- ume I: Science in the Middle Ages is a revision of the first four chapters of Augustine to Galileo: the history of science a.d. 400- 1650 (London, 1952) by A. C. Crombie. Vol- ume II: Science in the Later Middle Ages and Early Modern Times, is a revision of Chapters V and VI. First published under the title Augustine to Galileo: the History of Science A.D. 400-1650 by the Falcon Press (London) Limited. Pub- lished 1953 by Harvard University Press. Re- vised edition, 1959. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 59-6472 Copyright © 1959 by A. C. Crombie All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America TO NANCY ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS (VOL. i) Acknowledgements are made to the following for supplying photographs for illustrations: the Chief Librarian of the Oeffentliche Bibliothek, University of Basel (Plates VII, VIII, IX); the Librarian of Cambridge University (Figs. 12, 14 and Plates I, III, XXX, XXXI, XXXV, XXXVI); the Director of the Universitatsbibliothek, Erlangen (Plate X); the Director of the British Museum, London (Fig. 4 and Plates VI, XII, XIV, XXI, XXII, XXIV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXXIII, XXXVIII, XXXIX); the Direc- tor of the Science Museum, London (Plate XXXVII: Crown Copyright); the Director of the Wellcome Museum of Medical History, London (Plate XX); Bodley's Librar- ian, Oxford (Plates II, V, XI, XVI, XXXII, XXXIV); the Librarian of Christ Church, Oxford (Plate XXIX); the Curator of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford (Plate IV); the Scriptor of the Vatican Library, Rome (Plate XIII, XVIII, cover design); the Director of the Biblioteca Nazionale di S. Marco, Venice (Plate XVII); the Director of the Oesterreichische National Bibliothek, Vienna (Plate XV). The following lent blocks for illustra- tions: Messrs. William Heinemann, Ltd. (Fig. 11); Ox- ford University Press (Fig. 4 and Plates XXIII, XXVI); Penguin Books Ltd. (Fig. 10). I should like to thank Mr. Stillman Drake and Dr. Michael Hoskin for reading the proofs and suggesting a number of valuable improvements. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION One of the most remarkable developments in the world of scholarly letteTs in the last generation, and especially since the end of the Second World War, has been the growth of the study of the history of science both as a professional historical discipline and among the interests of the general reader. Considering how science has quietly come to take a central position in our culture this is perhaps not sur- prising; some knowledge of the history of science has be- come unavoidably part of the acquisition of historical awareness. Certainly the considerable interest shown in the period covered by this book is not difficult to explain. It has long been a matter of curiosity to know something of the scientific thought of those medieval centuries in which so many other essential aspects of our civilisation, ranging from the theory and practice of law and government to the character of feeling and execution in poetry and the plastic arts, had their genesis and formation. I hope that in these pages the reader curious to know something of the history of medieval science, not simply as the background to modern science but as interesting in itself, may find at least a general guide to his inquiries. The stories of science in antiquity and in modern times have been told more than once in recent works, both separately and as part of general histories of science, but there exists no adequate short history of science in this formative period that lies between. My purpose in writing this book has been to fill this gap. The scholarship of the last half-century has long since banished the time when the rumours about medieval Xll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION science, put about after the revival of interest in classical literature in the 15th century, could be regarded as an adequate substitute for the study of contemporary sources. In the pages that follow I have tried to use the results of recent research to tell, within the covers of a single gen- eral history, the story of Western science from its decay after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West to its full reflowering in the 17th century. Especially I have tried to bring out, what I believe to be the most striking result of recent scholarship, the essential continuity of the Western scientific tradition from Greek times to the 17th century and, therefore, to our own day. Certainly the scien- tific thought of the period from Augustine to Galileo can often be deceptive both in its similarities to, and in its differences from modern science, but this is the inevitable result of its position as part of the great adventure of philosophical reformation undertaken by the barbarian in- vaders as they painfully educated themselves from the clas- sical sources. If I have seemed to give too little attention to the originality of Arabic science in this period, that is not because I underrate the indispensable contribution made by medieval Arabic civilisation in developing ancient science as well as in transmitting it to the West, but be- cause it is specifically the history of science in the Latin civilisation of the West that is the subject of this study. A broader treatment, perhaps too broad for a short work, would also include a full account of the history of science in both Islam and Byzantium. My debt to those great pioneers whose documentary researches first let the light into medieval science in this century, Paul Tannery, Pierre Duhem, Charles Homer Haskins, Karl Sudhoff, to the bibliographical industry of George Sarton, and to the critical work of more recent scholars, especially of Lynn Thorndike, Alexandre Koyr6 and Anneliese Maier, will be obvious to anyone who turns these pages and indeed must be incurred by any student who enters this field. Since the war many specialised studies over the whole field have appeared and continue to do so PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Xlll in ever increasing numbers. I have tried to incorporate into this revision the relevant substance of those published since the first edition was completed, together with various changes in my own point of view. A.C.C. Oxford, 6 January 1958 CONTENTS LIST OF PLATES xix INTRODUCTION 1 I SCIENCE IN WESTERN CHRISTENDOM UNTIL THE TWELFTH-CENTURY REN- AISSANCE 9 Adelard of Bath (9-10). The Latin encyclopae- dists: Pliny, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Isidore of Se- ville (11-13). Early Christian philosophy of na- ture: Neoplatonism, symbolism, astrology; Au- gustine of Hippo (13-18). Practical empiricism: Cassiodorus; Bede's cosmology, calendar; Anglo- Saxon medicine, computus (18-25). Nominal- ism; Abelard (25). Adelard of Bath; physics at Chartres; the Tinueus (25-32). II THE RECEPTION OF GRECO-ARABIC SCIENCE IN WESTERN CHRISTENDOM 33 The transmission of science from the Greeks to the Arabs and to the Latin West (33-49); Hindu mathematics (49-52). Power over na- ture through magic and science; Roger Bacon (52-56). Greek natural philosophy and Chris- tianity: Aristotelianism, Averroes, Augustine, 13th-century schools (56-64). HI THE SYSTEM OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 65 (l) EXPLANATION OF CHANGE AND CONCEPTION OF SUBSTANCE 65 . XVI CONTENTS Summary of treatment (65-66). Conception of substance; Plato and Aristotle; physics, mathe- matics, metaphysics (66-69). Aristotle's expla- nation of change, 'nature/ four causes (69-72). Four kinds of change; neoplatonic conceptions of 'first matter'; classifications of science, mathe- matics and physics (72-75). (2) COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY 75 Aristotle's cosmology; natural place and natural motion (75-78). Aristotelian and Ptolemaic astronomy (78-86). Latin astronomical theory (86-89). Practical astronomy, instruments, trig- onometry (89-98). (3) METEOROLOGY AND OPTICS 98 Aristotle's sublunary region; William Merlee (98-99). Greek and Arabic optics, Alhazen (99- 102). Grosseteste (99-100, 102-4). Roger Ba- con (104-6). Witelo, Summa Philosophise, Pecham (106-10). Theodoric of Freiberg, expla- nation of the rainbow (110-13).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • “The Touch of Cold Philosophy”
    Edinburgh Research Explorer The Fragmentation of Renaissance Occultism and the Decline of Magic Citation for published version: Henry, J 2008, 'The Fragmentation of Renaissance Occultism and the Decline of Magic', History of Science, vol. 46, no. Part 1, No 151, pp. 1-48. <http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/shp/histsci/2008/00000046/00000001/art00001> Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: History of Science Publisher Rights Statement: With permission © Henry, J. (2008). The Fragmentation of Renaissance Occultism and the Decline of Magic. History of Science, 46(Part 1, No 151), 1-48 General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 The Fragmentation of Renaissance Occultism and the Decline of Magic* [History of Science, 46 (2008), pp. 1-48.] The touch of cold philosophy? At a Christmas dinner party in 1817 an admittedly drunken
    [Show full text]
  • Thomas Aquinas on the Separability of Accidents and Dietrich of Freiberg’S Critique
    Thomas Aquinas on the Separability of Accidents and Dietrich of Freiberg’s Critique David Roderick McPike Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctorate in Philosophy degree in Philosophy Department of Philosophy Faculty of Arts University of Ottawa © David Roderick McPike, Ottawa, Canada, 2015 Abstract The opening chapter briefly introduces the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist and the history of its appropriation into the systematic rational discourse of philosophy, as culminating in Thomas Aquinas’ account of transubstantiation with its metaphysical elaboration of the separability of accidents from their subject (a substance), so as to exist (supernaturally) without a subject. Chapter Two expounds St. Thomas’ account of the separability of accidents from their subject. It shows that Thomas presents a consistent rational articulation of his position throughout his works on the subject. Chapter Three expounds Dietrich of Freiberg’s rejection of Thomas’ view, examining in detail his treatise De accidentibus, which is expressly dedicated to demonstrating the utter impossibility of separate accidents. Especially in light of Kurt Flasch’s influential analysis of this work, which praises Dietrich for his superior level of ‘methodological consciousness,’ this chapter aims to be painstaking in its exposition and to comprehensively present Dietrich’s own views just as we find them, before taking up the task of critically assessing Dietrich’s position. Chapter Four critically analyses the competing doctrinal positions expounded in the preceding two chapters. It analyses the various elements of Dietrich’s case against Thomas and attempts to pinpoint wherein Thomas and Dietrich agree and wherein they part ways.
    [Show full text]
  • Renaissance Theories of Vision Edited by John Hendrix, University of Lincoln, UK and Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University, USA, and Charles H
    Renaissance Theories of Vision Edited by John Hendrix, University of Lincoln, UK and Rhode Island School of Design and Roger Williams University, USA, and Charles H. Carman, University at Buffalo, USA Visual Culture in Early Modernity December 2010 244 x 172 mm 258 pages Hardback 978-1-4094-0024-0 £65.00 Includes 18 b&w illustrations How are processes of vision, perception, and sensation conceived in the Renaissance? How are those conceptions made manifest in the arts? The essays in this volume address these and similar questions to establish important theoretical and philosophical bases for artistic production in the Renaissance and beyond. The essays also attend to the views of historically significant writers from the ancient classical period to the eighteenth century, including Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, St Augustine, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Ibn Sahl, Marsilio Ficino, Nicholas of Cusa, Leon Battista Alberti, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Gregorio Comanini, John Davies, Rene Descartes, Samuel van Hoogstraten, and George Berkeley. Contributors carefully scrutinize and illustrate the effect of changing and evolving ideas of intellectual and physical vision on artistic practice in Florence, Rome, Venice, England, Austria, and the Netherlands. The artists whose work and practices are discussed include Fra Angelico, Donatello, Leonardo da Vinci, Filippino Lippi, Giovanni Bellini, Raphael, Parmigianino, Titian, Bronzino, Johannes Gumpp and Rembrandt van Rijn. Taken together, the essays provide the reader with a fresh perspective on the intellectual confluence between art, science, philosophy, and literature across Renaissance Europe. Contents Introduction, John S. Hendrix and Charles H. Carman; Classical optics and the perspectivae traditions leading to the Renaissance, Nader El-Bizri; Meanings of perspective in the Renaissance: tensions and resolution, Charles H.
    [Show full text]
  • A Classified Bibliography on the History of Scientific Instruments by G.L'e
    A Classified Bibliography on the History of Scientific Instruments by G.L'E. Turner and D.J. Bryden Originally published in 1997, this Classified Bibliography is "Based on the SIC Annual Bibliographies of books, pamphlets, catalogues and articles on studies of historic scientific instruments, compiled by G.L'E. Turner, 1983 to 1995, and issued by the Scientific Instrument Commission. Classified and edited by D.J. Bryden" (text from the inside cover page of the original printed document). Dates for items in this bibliography range from 1979 to 1996. The following "Acknowledgments" text is from page iv of the original printed document: The compiler thanks the many colleagues throughout the world who over the years have drawn his attention to publications for inclusion in the Annual Bibliography. The editor thanks Miss Veronica Thomson for capturing on disc the first 6 bibliographies. G.L'E. Turner, Oxford D.J. Bryden, Edinburgh April 1997 ASTROLABE ACKERMANN, S., ‘Mutabor: Die Umarbeitung eines mittelalterlichen Astrolabs im 17. Jahrhundert’, in: von GOTSTEDTER, A. (ed), Ad Radices: Festband zum fünfzigjährrigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften der Johann Wolfgang Goethe- Universtät Frankfurt am Main (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1994), 193-209. ARCHINARD, M., Astrolabe (Geneva: Musée d'histoire des Sciences de Genève, 1983). 40pp. BORST, A., Astrolab und Klosterreform an der Jahrtausendwende (Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitatsverlag, 1989) (Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften Philosophisch-historische Klasse). 134pp. BROUGHTON, P., ‘The Christian Island "Astrolabe" ’, Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 80, no.3 (1986), 142-53. DEKKER, E., ‘An Unrecorded Medieval Astrolabe Quadrant c.1300’, Annals of Science, 52 (1995), 1-47.
    [Show full text]
  • Article: XXVIII, Le 2 Septembre 1859, (Letter Du R
    CMYK RGB Hist. Geo Space Sci., 3, 33–45, 2012 History of www.hist-geo-space-sci.net/3/33/2012/ Geo- and Space doi:10.5194/hgss-3-33-2012 © Author(s) 2012. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Access Open Sciences Advances in Science & Research Open Access Proceedings Father Secchi and the first Italian magnetic observatoryDrinking Water Drinking Water Engineering and Science N. Ptitsyna1 and A. Altamore2 Engineering and Science Open Access Access Open Discussions 1Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radiowave Propagation, Russian Academy of Science, St. Petersburg Filial, Russia 2Physical Department “E. Amaldi”, University “Roma Tre”, Rome, Italy Discussions Earth System Earth System Correspondence to: N. Ptitsyna ([email protected]) Science Science Received: 23 October 2011 – Revised: 19 January 2012 – Accepted: 30 January 2012 – Published: 28 February 2012 Open Access Open Abstract. The first permanent magnetic observatory in Italy was built in 1858 by Pietro AngeloAccess Open Data Secchi, a Data Jesuit priest who made significant contributions in a wide variety of scientific fields, ranging from astronomy to astrophysics and meteorology. In this paper we consider his studies in geomagnetism, which have never Discussions been adequately addressed in the literature. We mainly focus on the creation of the magnetic observatory on the roof of the church of Sant’Ignazio, adjacent to the pontifical university, known as the CollegioSocial Romano. Social From 1859 onwards, systematic monitoring of the geomagnetic field was conducted in the Collegio Romano Open Access Open Geography Observatory, for long the only one of its kind in Italy. We also look at the magnetic instrumentsAccess Open Geography installed in the observatory, which were the most advanced for the time, as well as scientific studies conducted there in its early years.
    [Show full text]
  • Geomagnetic Research in the 19Th Century: a Case Study of the German Contribution
    Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics 63 (2001) 1649–1660 www.elsevier.com/locate/jastp Geomagnetic research in the 19th century: a case study of the German contribution Wilfried Schr,oder ∗, Karl-Heinrich Wiederkehr Geophysical Institute, Hechelstrasse 8, D 28777 Bremen, Germany Received 20 October 2000; received in revised form 2 March 2001; accepted 1 May 2001 Abstract Even before the discovery of electromagnetism by Oersted, and before the work of AmpÂere, who attributed all magnetism to the 7ux of electrical currents, A.v. Humboldt and Hansteen had turned to geomagnetism. Through the “G,ottinger Mag- netischer Verein”, a worldwide cooperation under the leadership of Gauss came into existence. Even today, Gauss’s theory of geomagnetism is one of the pillars of geomagnetic research. Thereafter, J.v. Lamont, in Munich, took over the leadership in Germany. In England, the Magnetic Crusade was started by the initiative of John Herschel and E. Sabine. At the beginning of the 1840s, James Clarke Ross advanced to the vicinity of the southern magnetic pole on the Antarctic Continent, which was then quite unknown. Ten years later, Sabine was able to demonstrate solar–terrestrial relations from the data of the colonial observatories. In the 1980s, Arthur Schuster, following Balfour Stewart’s ideas, succeeded in interpreting the daily variations of the electrical process in the high atmosphere. Geomagnetic research work in Germany was given a fresh impetus by the programme of the First Polar Year 1882–1883. Georg Neumayer, director of the “Deutsche Seewarte” in Hamburg, was one of the initiators of the Polar Year.
    [Show full text]
  • Geophysical Journal International
    Geophysical Journal International Geophys. J. Int. (2017) 210, 1347–1359 doi: 10.1093/gji/ggx245 Advance Access publication 2017 June 7 GJI Geomagnetism, rock magnetism and palaeomagnetism The HISTMAG database: combining historical, archaeomagnetic and volcanic data Patrick Arneitz,1 Roman Leonhardt,1 Elisabeth Schnepp,2 Balazs´ Heilig,3 Franziska Mayrhofer,1,4 Peter Kovacs,3 Pavel Hejda,5 Fridrich Valach,6 Gergely Vadasz,3 Christa Hammerl,1 Ramon Egli,1 Karl Fabian7 and Niko Kompein1 1ZAMG, 1190 Vienna, Austria. E-mail: [email protected] 2Palaeomagnetic Laboratory Gams, 8130 Frohnleiten, Austria 3Geological and Geophysical Institute of Hungary, 8237 Tihany, Hungary 4Department for Geodynamics and Sedimentology, University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria 5Institute of Geophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha 4, Czech Republic 6Geomagnetic Observatory, Earth Science Institute, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 947 01 Hurbanovo 7Geological Survey of Norway, 7491 Trondheim, Norway Accepted 2017 June 6. Received 2017 May 23; in original form 2017 February 10 SUMMARY Records of the past geomagnetic field can be divided into two main categories. These are instru- mental historical observations on the one hand, and field estimates based on the magnetization acquired by rocks, sediments and archaeological artefacts on the other hand. In this paper, a new database combining historical, archaeomagnetic and volcanic records is presented. HISTMAG is a relational database, implemented in MySQL, and can be accessed via a web-based inter- face (http://www.conrad-observatory.at/zamg/index.php/data-en/histmag-database). It com- bines available global historical data compilations covering the last ∼500 yr as well as archaeomagnetic and volcanic data collections from the last 50 000 yr.
    [Show full text]
  • Roman) Prelims 22/6/05 2:15 Pm Page 23
    001_025 (Roman) Prelims 22/6/05 2:15 pm Page 23 ENTRIES BY THEME Apparatus, Equipment, Implements, Techniques Weights and measures Agriculture Windmills Alum Arms and armor Biography Artillery and fire arms Abelard, Peter Brewing Abraham bar Hiyya Bridges Abu Ma‘shar al Balkh (Albumasar) Canals Adelard of Bath Catapults and trebuchets Albert of Saxony Cathedral building Albertus Magnus Clepsydra Alderotti, Taddeo Clocks and timekeeping Alfonso X the Wise Coinage, Minting of Alfred of Sareschel Communication Andalusi, Sa‘id al- Eyeglasses Aquinas, Thomas Fishing Archimedes Food storage and preservation Arnau de Vilanova Gunpowder Bacon, Roger Harnessing Bartholomaeus Anglicus House building, housing Bartholomaeus of Bruges Instruments, agricultural Bartholomaeus of Salerno Instruments, medical Bartolomeo da Varignana Irrigation and drainage Battani, al- (Albategnius) Leather production Bede Military architecture Benzi, Ugo Navigation Bernard de Gordon Noria Bernard of Verdun Paints, pigments, dyes Bernard Silvester Paper Biruni, al- Pottery Boethius Printing Boethius of Dacia Roads Borgognoni, Teodorico Shipbuilding Bradwardine, Thomas Stirrup Bredon, Simon Stone masonry Burgundio of Pisa Transportation Buridan, John Water supply and sewerage Campanus de Novara Watermills Cecco d’Ascoli xxiii 001_025 (Roman) Prelims 22/6/05 2:15 pm Page 24 xxii ENTRIES BY THEME Chaucer, Geoffrey John of Saint-Amand Columbus, Christopher John of Saxony Constantine the African John of Seville Despars, Jacques Jordanus de Nemore Dioscorides Khayyam, al- Eriugena,
    [Show full text]
  • REBIRTH, REFORM and RESILIENCE Universities in Transition 1300-1700
    REBIRTH, REFORM AND RESILIENCE Universities in Transition 1300-1700 Edited by James M. Kittelson and Pamela J. Transue $25.00 REBIRTH, REFORM, AND RESILIENCE Universities in Transition, 1300-1700 Edited by James M. Kittelson and Pamela]. Transue In his Introduction to this collection of original essays, Professor Kittelson notes that the university is one of the few institutions that medieval Latin Christendom contributed directly to modern Western civilization. An export wherever else it is found, it is unique to Western culture. All cultures, to be sure, have had their intellec­ tuals—those men and women whose task it has been to learn, to know, and to teach. But only in Latin Christendom were scholars—the company of masters and students—found gathered together into the universitas whose entire purpose was to develop and disseminate knowledge in a continu­ ous and systematic fashion with little regard for the consequences of their activities. The studies in this volume treat the history of the universities from the late Middle Ages through the Reformation; that is, from the time of their secure founding, through the period in which they were posed the challenges of humanism and con­ fessionalism, but before the explosion of knowl­ edge that marked the emergence of modern science and the advent of the Enlightenment. The essays and their authors are: "University and Society on the Threshold of Modern Times: The German Connection," by Heiko A. Ober­ man; "The Importance of the Reformation for the Universities: Culture and Confessions in the Criti­ cal Years," by Lewis W. Spitz; "Science and the Medieval University," by Edward Grant; "The Role of English Thought in the Transformation of University Education in the Late Middle Ages," by William J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Magnetic Field of Planet Earth
    Space Sci Rev DOI 10.1007/s11214-010-9644-0 The Magnetic Field of Planet Earth G. Hulot · C.C. Finlay · C.G. Constable · N. Olsen · M. Mandea Received: 22 October 2009 / Accepted: 26 February 2010 © The Author(s) 2010. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract The magnetic field of the Earth is by far the best documented magnetic field of all known planets. Considerable progress has been made in our understanding of its charac- teristics and properties, thanks to the convergence of many different approaches and to the remarkable fact that surface rocks have quietly recorded much of its history. The usefulness of magnetic field charts for navigation and the dedication of a few individuals have also led to the patient construction of some of the longest series of quantitative observations in the history of science. More recently even more systematic observations have been made pos- sible from space, leading to the possibility of observing the Earth’s magnetic field in much more details than was previously possible. The progressive increase in computer power was also crucial, leading to advanced ways of handling and analyzing this considerable corpus G. Hulot () Equipe de Géomagnétisme, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Institut de recherche associé au CNRS et à l’Université Paris 7), 4, Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris, cedex 05, France e-mail: [email protected] C.C. Finlay ETH Zürich, Institut für Geophysik, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland C.G. Constable Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0225, USA N.
    [Show full text]
  • 8.4 History of the Magnetic Method in Exploration There Is Little Doubt That the Chinese Were the First to Observe and Employ Th
    8.4 History of the magnetic method in exploration There is little doubt that the Chinese were the first to observe and employ the directional properties of magnetic objects in navigation. They may have invented and used the compass as early as 2600 before the Common Era, but more likely it was as late as 1100 in the Common Era before the compass was used as a navigational instrument. The compass was first noted in Europe around 1200, but the reference by an English monk suggests that the compass had previously been known for an extended period of time. In 1269, P. de Maricourt (P. Peregrinus) investigated the properties of a spherical lodestone. He studied the dipolar nature of magnetic objects and named the poles after the geographic directions that they pointed to (i.e. north and south). He also identified the forces of attraction between unlike poles and the repulsion between like poles. Although the matter was possibly observed earlier by the Chinese and also by Christopher Columbus in his voyages of discovery of the Caribbean Islands in 1492, N. Hartmann in 1510 is credited as the first European to record the declination of the geomagnetic field. In 1544, he was also the first to observe the inclination of the field. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, R. Norman constructed the first inclinometer with the dipping magnetic needle located on a horizontal pivot. With it he was able to show that the inclination of the field corresponds to that on a spherical lodestone, indicating that the cause of the directional component of the compass was within the Earth.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography of Historical Geomagnetic Main Field Survey and Secular Variation Reports at WDC-A, 1993
    WORLD DATA CENTER-A for Solid Earth Geophysics BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HISTORICAL GEOMAGNETIC MAIN FIELD SURVEY AND SECULAR VARIATION REPORTS AT THE WORLD DATA CENTER-A FOR SOLID EARTH GEOPHYSICS August 1993 NATIONAL GEOPHYSICAL DATA CENTER WORLD DATA CENTERlA for Solid Earth Geophysics BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HISTORICAL GEOMAGNETIC MAIN FIELD SURVEY AND SECULAR VARIATION REPORTS AT THE WORLD DATA CENTER-A FOR SOLID EARTH GEOPHYSICS Susan McLean Dennis Smith August 1993 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE, DATA, AND INFORMATION SERVICE National Geophysical Data Center Boulder, Colorado 80303-3328, USA ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors wish to thank Joy Ikelman and Doreen Ardourel for their efforts to edit this report. Imposing order on chaos is never easy. DISCLAIMER While every effort has been made to ensure that these data are accurate and reliable within the limits of the current state of the art, NOAA cannot assume liability for any damages caused by any errors or omissions in the data, nor as a result of the failure of the data to function on a particular system. NOAA makes no warranty, expressed nor implied, nor does the fact of distribution constitute such a warranty. .. 11 Contents Introduction ............................... 1 Bibliography .............................. 3 Appendices ............................. 119 Appendix I . Index by Date of Publication ....... 121 Appendix I1 . Index by Descriptive Word ........ 159 Appendix I11 . Index by Seismic Region ........ 177 Appendix IV . Index by Geographic Region ...... 181 Appendix V . The World Data Center System ..... 189 Introduction In order to determine the extent of historical data publications at the World Data Center-A for Solid Earth Geophysics, a digital inventory was begun in 1992.
    [Show full text]