A Portable Cosmos

Zusatztext
A Portable Cosmos is set to become the definitive history of the Antikythera Mechanism, and will be of great value to specialists, as well as students and those interested in ancient Greco-Roman science and technology.

Informationen zum Autor
Alexander Jones is a classicist and historian of science whose interests center on astronomy and related scientific traditions in the Greco-Roman world and the ancient Near East. Before joining the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in 2008, he was for many years on the faculty of the Department of Classics and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Klappentext

The Antikythera Mechanism, now 82 small fragments of corroded bronze, was an ancient Greek machine simulating the cosmos as the Greeks understood it. Reflecting the most recent researches, A Portable Cosmos presents it as a gateway to Greek astronomy and technology and their place in Greco-Roman society and thought.

Zusammenfassung
In 1901 divers salvaging antiquities from a Hellenistic shipwreck serendipitously recovered the shattered and corroded remains of an ancient Greek gear-driven device, now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Since its discovery, scholars relying on direct inspection and on increasingly powerful radiographic tools and surface imaging have successfully reconstructed most of the functions and workings of the Mechanism. It was a machine simulating the cosmos as the Greeks understood it, with a half dozen dials displaying coordinated cycles of time and the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. A Portable Cosmos presents the Antikythera Mechanism as a gateway to understanding Greek astronomy and scientific technology and their place in Greco-Roman society and thought. Although the Mechanism has long had the reputation of being an object we would not have expected the ancient world to have produced, the most recent researches have revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman would see how astronomical phenomena were intertwined with one´s natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of the genre of wonder-working devices that mimicked nature by means concealed from the viewer, and a mobile textbook of popular science.

...

A Portable Cosmos is both an excellent focussed case study of an individual object and a comprehensive broader treatment of the relevant aspects of ancient science and technology. It is beautifully and thoughtfully illustrated, with numerous diagrams and photographs placed strategically throughout, not just of the mechanism but of various other relevant ancient objects such as calendar and other almanac-style parapegma inscriptions, manuscripts, astrolabes etc. I shall definitely be adding it to the syllabi of my 'Nature and the Natural World in Antiquity' and 'Ancient Technology' courses, and I recommend that other instructors do the same.

Auteur

Alexander Jones is a classicist and historian of science whose interests center on astronomy and related scientific traditions in the Greco-Roman world and the ancient Near East. Before joining the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in 2008, he was for many years on the faculty of the Department of Classics and the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto.

Texte du rabat

The Antikythera Mechanism, now 82 small fragments of corroded bronze, was an ancient Greek machine simulating the cosmos as the Greeks understood it. Reflecting the most recent researches, A Portable Cosmos presents it as a gateway to Greek astronomy and technology and their place in Greco-Roman society and thought.

Résumé
In 1901 divers salvaging antiquities from a Hellenistic shipwreck serendipitously recovered the shattered and corroded remains of an ancient Greek gear-driven device, now known as the Antikythera Mechanism. Since its discovery, scholars relying on direct inspection and on increasingly powerful radiographic tools and surface imaging have successfully reconstructed most of the functions and workings of the Mechanism. It was a machine simulating the cosmos as the Greeks understood it, with a half dozen dials displaying coordinated cycles of time and the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets. A Portable Cosmos presents the Antikythera Mechanism as a gateway to understanding Greek astronomy and scientific technology and their place in Greco-Roman society and thought. Although the Mechanism has long had the reputation of being an object we would not have expected the ancient world to have produced, the most recent researches have revealed that its displays were designed so that an educated layman would see how astronomical phenomena were intertwined with one's natural and social environment. It was at once a masterpiece of the genre of wonder-working devices that mimicked nature by means concealed from the viewer, and a mobile textbook of popular science.

Contenu

• Preface

• Chapter 1. The Wreck and the Discovery

• Chapter 2. The Investigations

• Chapter 3. Looking at the Mechanism

• Chapter 4. Calendars and Games

• Chapter 5. Stars, Sun, and Moon

• Chapter 6. Eclipses

• Chapter 7. The Wanderers

• Chapter 8. Hidden Workings

• Chapter 9. Afterword: The Meaning of the Mechanism

• Bibliography