Imperial unknowns : the French and British in the Mediterranean, 1650-1750 / / Cornel Zwierlein [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910136606103321
• Autore: Zwierlein Cornel
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016
• ISBN: 1-316-73307-6; 1-316-73114-6; 1-316-74465-5; 1-316-61750-5; 1-316-71104-8; 1-316-74658-5; 1-316-75430-8; 1-316-74851-0
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (xiii, 416 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 382.091822
• Soggetti: Mediterranean Region Commerce History 17th century; Mediterranean Region Commerce History 18th century; Mediterranean Region Relations Great Britain; Mediterranean Region Relations France; Great Britain Relations Mediterranean Region; France Relations Mediterranean Region
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Oct 2016).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Cover ; Half-title page; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Note on Conventions; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; History of Empires, History of Ignorance; Actors, Institutions, Places, Period; Terminology and the Questions a History of Ignorance Asks; Disclaimers: The Author's Ignorances; 1 Politics and Economy: Nationalizing Economics; The Constructive Power of Non-Knowledge; Norms as Specifiers of National Non-Knowledge; Baldus versus Grotius: Conceiving the Empires and Their Unknowns; Conclusion: Operative National Non-Knowledge; 2 Religion: Empires Ignoring, Learning, Forgetting ReligionsEntangling ; Powers of Non-Knowledge between West and East (Greek Church, Samaritans, Phoenicians); English Chaplains versus French State Catholicism: Conditions and Functions of Non-Knowledge Communication; Comparison and Conclusion; 3 History: How to Cope with Unconscious Ignorance; The Forgotten Arabic Middle Ages; Growing Awareness; Structure Replaces Content; Standardization and Spatialization; Conclusion; 4 Science: Mediterranean Empires and Scientific Unknowns; From Avicenna to the Queries of the Royal Society (1692); Enlightened FalsificationsFrom Natural History to Nation's History; Conclusion: Scientific Unknowns and the Mediterranean; Conclusion; Historicizing Ignorance, Synchronizing Empires; Bibliography; Index
• Sommario/riassunto: In this major new study, the history of the French and British trading empires in the early modern Mediterranean is used as a setting to test a new approach to the history of ignorance: how can we understand the very act of ignoring - in political, economic, religious, cultural and scientific communication - as a fundamental trigger that sets knowledge in motion? Zwierlein explores whether the Scientific Revolution between 1650 and 1750 can be understood as just one of what were in fact many simultaneous epistemic movements and considers the role of the European empires in this phenomenon. Deconstructing central categories like the mercantilist 'national', the exchange of 'confessions' between Western and Eastern Christians and the bridging of cultural gaps between European and Ottoman subjects, Zwierlein argues that understanding what was not known by historical agents can be just as important as the history of knowledge itself.

Agnes Mary Clerke and the rise of astrophysics / / M.T. Brück [[electronic resource]]

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910780251303321
• Autore: Brück M. T (Mary T.)
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2002
• ISBN: 1-107-12478-6; 0-511-01999-8; 1-280-43371-X; 9786610433711; 0-511-17645-7; 0-511-15727-4; 0-511-32957-1; 0-511-53652-6; 0-511-04467-4
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (x, 275 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)
• Disciplina: 520/.92
• Soggetti: Astronomers - Ireland; Astronomy - History - 19th century
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references (p. 269-270) and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Family background in County Cork -- Ireland and Italy -- London, the literary scene -- The History of astronomy -- A circle of astronomers -- A visit to South Africa -- The System of the stars -- Social life in scientific circles -- Homer, the Herschels and a revised History -- The opinion moulder -- Popularisation, cryogenics and evolution -- Problems in astrophysics -- Women in astronomy in Britain in Agnes Clerke's time -- Revised System of the stars -- Cosmogonies, cosmology and nature's spiritual clues -- Last days and retrospect.
• Sommario/riassunto: Born in Ireland in the mid-nineteenth century, Agnes Mary Clerke achieved fame as the author of A History of Astronomy during the Nineteenth Century. Through her quarter-century career, she became the leading commentator on astronomy and astrophysics in the English-speaking world. The biography of Agnes Clerke describes the ; life and work of this extraordinary woman. It also chronicles the development of astronomy in the last decades of pre-Einstein science, and introduces many of the great figures in astronomy of that age including Huggins, Lockyer, Holden and Pickering; their achievements and their rivalries. The story follows her friendship with William and Margaret Huggins, and her prolific correspondence with eminent astronomers of the time. This biography will fascinate scientists, and anyone who admires intellectual achievement brought about through love of learning and sheer hard work.