Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of English Weather, 1650-1820University of Chicago Press, 2001 M04 19 - 272 páginas From the time of Aristotle until the late eighteenth century, meteorology meant the study of "meteors"—spectacular objects in the skies beneath the moon, which included everything from shooting stars to hailstorms. In Reading the Skies, Vladimir Jankovic traces the history of this meteorological tradition in Enlightenment Britain, examining its scientific and cultural significance. Jankovic interweaves classical traditions, folk/popular beliefs and practices, and the increasingly quantitative approaches of urban university men to understanding the wonders of the skies. He places special emphasis on the role that detailed meteorological observations played in natural history and chorography, or local geography; in religious and political debates; and in agriculture. Drawing on a number of archival sources, including correspondence and weather diaries, as well as contemporary pamphlets, tracts, and other printed sources reporting prodigious phenomena in the skies, this book will interest historians of science, Britain, and the environment. |
Contenido
IMPERFECT MIXTURES | 14 |
Meteorologica | 16 |
Early modern meteors | 22 |
A dominion of exhalations | 28 |
OBSERVING THE EXTRAORDINARY | 33 |
Wonders marvels and ominous meteors | 36 |
Vulgar Baconians | 44 |
Rehabilitating the unusual | 50 |
Calendars diaries narratives | 113 |
Stationary intelligencers | 120 |
RUSTIC SEASONS | 125 |
An impasse in theory | 126 |
The weather in order | 129 |
Shepherds as experts | 131 |
A return to the ancients | 137 |
LABORATORY ATMOSPHERES | 143 |
PUBLIC METEORS | 55 |
Providential visitations | 56 |
The Great Storm | 59 |
Aerial appearances and astounding apparitions | 64 |
Lord Derwentwaters lights | 68 |
MEMORIALS OF UNCOMMON ACCIDENTS | 78 |
Curious plotting | 81 |
Collectable weather | 90 |
The common voice | 97 |
PROVINCIAL WEATHER | 103 |
The Rev Borlase and his network of correspondents | 105 |
Electrification | 146 |
Chemical hegemony | 151 |
What is in a name? | 154 |
Weather remodeled | 156 |
CONCLUSION | 165 |
Meteoric phenomena reported by individuals between 1694 and 1795 | 169 |
NOTES | 176 |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 235 |
265 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of English Weather, 1650-1820 Vladimir Jankovic Vista previa limitada - 2001 |
Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of English Weather, 1650-1820 Vladimir Janković Vista previa limitada - 2000 |
Reading the Skies: A Cultural History of English Weather, 1650-1820 Vladimir Janković Vista de fragmentos - 2000 |
Términos y frases comunes
Account agricultural ancient antiquarian apparitions appeared argued Aristotelian Aristotle Aristotle's atmosphere Aurora Borealis authors Bacon Baconian barometer Borlase's British Cambridge University Press causes century Childrey chorographic clouds Concerning Cornwall County culture Description Diary Discourse early modern earth earthquakes Edmund Halley eighteenth eighteenth-century electrical England English Essays exhalations extraordinary fiery meteors fire fireballs Georgics Halley Henry Ibid James John Journal Kirwan knowledge late Letter London Ludgvan Manchester marvels Meteor Seen meteoric reportage meteoric tradition meteorological Meteorological Observations narratives Natural History natural philosophy naturalists northern lights Oxford phenomena Phil Philosophical Transactions Plot's political popular prodigies prognostics provincial quoted rain Ralph Thoresby reason region reports Richard Richard Kirwan Robert Robert Plot Royal Society Science scientific seventeenth seventeenth-century Simon Schaffer social Speculum Britanniae Storm strange sublunary theological theory Thomas Thoresby Thunder and Lightning tion Trans unusual vapors weather Whiston William Borlase William Derham wind Wonderful wrote
Pasajes populares
Página 1 - Whenever people talk to me about the weather, I always feel quite certain that they mean something else.
Referencias a este libro
The Vital Landscape: Nature and the Built Environment in Nineteenth-century ... William M. Taylor Sin vista previa disponible - 2004 |
Entre empire et nation: les représentations de la ville de Québec et de ses ... Alain Parent Vista previa limitada - 2005 |