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What did the Romans know about their world? Quite a lot, as Daryn
Lehoux makes clear in this fascinating and much-needed contribution
to the history and philosophy of ancient science. Lehoux contends
that even though many of the Romans' views about the natural world
have no place in modern science-that umbrella-footed monsters and
dog-headed people roamed the earth and that the stars foretold
human destinies - their claims turn out not to be so radically
different from our own. Lehoux explores a wide range of sources
from what is unquestionably the most prolific period of ancient
science, from the highly technical works by Galen and Ptolemy to
the more philosophically oriented physics and cosmologies of
Cicero, Lucretius, Plutarch, and Seneca. Examining the tools and
methods that the Romans employed for their investigations of
nature, as well as their cultural, intellectual, political, and
religious contexts, Lehoux demonstrates that the Romans had
sophisticated and novel approaches to nature, approaches that were
empirically rigorous, philosophically rich, and epistemologically
complex.
The Greeks and Romans lived according to a distinctively Hellenic
conception of time as an aspect of cosmic order and regularity.
Appropriating ideas from Egypt and the Near East, the Greeks
integrated them into a cosmological framework governed by
mathematics and linking the cycles of the heavenly bodies to the
human environment. From their cosmology they derived instruments
for measuring and tracking the passage of time that were
sophisticated embodiments of scientific reasoning and technical
craft, meant not solely for the study of specialists and
connoisseurs but for the public gaze. Time and Cosmos in
Greco-Roman Antiquity, the accompanying catalogue for the
exhibition at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New
York University, explores through thematic essays and beautiful
illustrations the practical as well as the artistic, ideological,
and spiritual role of time technology and time imagery in the
Mediterranean civilizations. Highlights among the more than one
hundred objects from the exhibition include marvelously inventive
sundials and portable timekeeping devices, stone and ceramic
calendars, zodiac boards for displaying horoscopes, and mosaics,
sculptures, and coins that reflect ancient perceptions of the
controlling power of time and the heavens. Contributors include
James Evans, Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum, Stephan Heilen, Alexander
Jones, Daryn Lehoux, Karlheinz Schaldach, John Steele, and Bernhard
Weisser. Exhibition Dates: October 19, 2016-April 23, 2017 Cover
photograph (c) Bruce M. White, 2016
The focus of this book is the interplay between ancient astronomy,
meteorology, physics and calendrics. It looks at a set of popular
instruments and texts (parapegmata) used in antiquity for
astronomical weather prediction and the regulation of day-to-day
life. Farmers, doctors, sailors and others needed to know when the
heavens were conducive to various activities, and they developed a
set of fairly sophisticated tools and texts for tracking temporal,
astronomical and weather cycles. Sources are presented in full,
with an accompanying translation. A comprehensive analysis explores
questions such as: What methodologies were used in developing the
science of astrometeorology? What kinds of instruments were
employed and how did these change over time? How was the material
collected and passed on? How did practices and theories differ in
the different cultural contexts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and
Rome?
The focus of this book is the interplay between ancient astronomy,
meteorology, physics and calendrics. It looks at a set of popular
instruments and texts (parapegmata) used in antiquity for
astronomical weather prediction and the regulation of day-to-day
life. Farmers, doctors, sailors, and others needed to know when the
heavens were conducive to various activities, and they developed a
set of fairly sophisticated tools and texts for tracking temporal,
astronomical, and weather cycles. For the first time the sources
are presented in full, with an accompanying translation. A new and
comprehensive analysis explores questions such as: What
methodologies were used in developing the science of
astrometeorology? What kinds of instruments were employed and how
did these change over time? How was the material collected and
passed on? How did practices and theories differ in the different
cultural contexts of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome?
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