1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910782453803321

Autore

Safier Neil

Titolo

Measuring the new world [[electronic resource] ] : enlightenment science and South America / / Neil Safier

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2008

ISBN

1-281-96638-X

9786611966386

0-226-73356-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (406 p.)

Classificazione

NK 4760

Disciplina

509/.033

Soggetti

Scientific expeditions - Ecuador - Quito - History - 18th century

Science - Europe - History - 18th century

Communication in science - Europe - History - 18th century

Ecuador Discovery and exploration French

Amazon River Region Discovery and exploration

South America Historical geography

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 327-371) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The ruined pyramids of Yaruquí -- An enlightened Amazon, with fables and a fold-out map -- Armchair explorers -- Correcting Quito -- A nation defamed and defended -- Incas in the king's garden -- The golden monkey and the monkey-worm.

Sommario/riassunto

Prior to 1735, South America was terra incognita to many Europeans. But that year, the Paris Academy of Sciences sent a mission to the Spanish American province of Quito (in present-day Ecuador) to study the curvature of the earth at the Equator. Equipped with quadrants and telescopes, the mission's participants referred to the transfer of scientific knowledge from Europe to the Andes as a "sacred fire" passing mysteriously through European astronomical instruments to observers in South America. By taking an innovative interdisciplinary look at the traces of this expedition, Measuring the New World examines the transatlantic flow of knowledge from West to East. Through ephemeral monuments and geographical maps, this book explores how the social and cultural worlds of South America



contributed to the production of European scientific knowledge during the Enlightenment. Neil Safier uses the notebooks of traveling philosophers, as well as specimens from the expedition, to place this particular scientific endeavor in the larger context of early modern print culture and the emerging intellectual category of scientist as author.