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

• Autore: Safier Neil
• Pubblicazione: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 2008
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (406 p.)
• Disciplina: 509/.033
• Soggetto topico: Scientific expeditions - Ecuador - Quito - History - 18th century; Science - Europe - History - 18th century; Communication in science - Europe - History - 18th century
• Soggetto geografico: Ecuador Discovery and exploration French; Amazon River Region Discovery and exploration; South America Historical geography
• Soggetto genere / forma: Electronic books.
• Classificazione: NK 4760
• 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.
• Titolo autorizzato: Measuring the new world
• ISBN: 1-281-96638-X; 9786611966386; 0-226-73356-4
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Record Nr.: 9910454179103321
• Lo trovi qui: Univ. Federico II