Prior to 1735, South America was largely terra incognita to many
Europeans. But that year, the Paris Academy of Sciences sent a
joint French and Spanish mission to the Spanish American province
of Quito (in present-day Ecuador) to study the curvature of the
Earth at the Equator--an expedition that would put South America on
the map and in the minds of Europeans for centuries to come.
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 curious observers in South
America.
By looking at the social and material traces of this expedition,
"Measuring the New World "examines the transatlantic flow of
knowledge in reverse--from West to East. Through ephemeral
monuments and geographical maps, from the Andes to the Amazon
River, the 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, including Charles-Marie de La Condamine
and others, as well as maps and 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.
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