Chasing Shadows: Mathematics, Astronomy, and the Early History of Eclipse Reckoning (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Mathematics) - Hardcover

Montelle, Clemency

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801896916 ISBN 13: 9780801896910

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011

Synopsis

Lunar and solar eclipses have always fascinated human beings. Digging deep into history, Clemency Montelle examines the ways in which theoretical understanding of eclipses originated and how ancient and medieval cultures shared, developed, and preserved their knowledge of these awe-inspiring events.

Eclipses were the celestial phenomena most challenging to understand in the ancient world. Montelle draws on original research―much of it derived from reading primary source material written in Akkadian and Sanskrit, as well as ancient Greek, Latin, and Arabic―to explore how observers in Babylon, the Islamic Near East, Greece, and India developed new astronomical and mathematical techniques to predict and describe the features of eclipses. She identifies the profound scientific discoveries of these four cultures and discusses how the societies exchanged information about eclipses. In constructing this history, Montelle establishes a clear pattern of the transmission of scientific ideas from one culture to another in the ancient and medieval world.

Chasing Shadows is an invitingly written and highly informative exploration of the early history of astronomy.

About this title

About the Author

Clemency Montelle is a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Canterbury.

Review

"A substantial contribution to the history of ancient astronomy. It is especially significant because of the cultures discussed and in particular its treatment of Indian astronomy."

(John Steele, Brown University)

"This very well written book is densely packed with information."

(John Silvester Spaceflight)

"I am not aware of any other book that covers the treatment of eclipses in early astronomy in anything like the breadth of culture and geography, the depth of mathematical astronomy, the scholarly analysis, and the general accessibility that we find in this book."

(Dennis Duke Journal for the History of Astronomy)

"The book is splendid. It is a sophisticated scholarly work with important broader theses... Chasing Shadows will be a first contact for scholars on the history of eclipse theory for many years to come."

(Glen Van Brummelen Aestimatio: Critical Reviews in the History of Science)

"The book sets a high standard for scholarship, and is written in compelling prose. It will be the standard reference for the history of eclipses."

(John McCleary MAA Reviews)

Edition details

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0801896916
• ISBN 13: 9780801896910
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 424