260 research outputs found

    Collation Model for LJS 490: [Astronomical compendium]

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    Collection of astronomical and astrological texts. Includes tables of solar declination (f. 13r), fixed stars (f. 22r), elevation of the pole star in various cities (f. 26r), new and full moons (f. 83r-84v), sightings and transits or eclipses of Venus and Mercury (f. 87r), and the position of the sun in the ecliptic (f. 87v); treatises on instruments, such as the astrolabe (f. 17r-22r, 29r-33v, 43r-49r, 50r-50v), the sundial (f. 23r-25v), the quadrant (f. 27r-28v, 78v), the Jacob\u27s staff (baculus, f. 45r-49r, 79r, 91r), and the chilinder or traveler\u27s dial (f. 77r-78v); treatises on other scientific subjects, such as practical geometry (f. 41r-42v), determination of the date of Easter (computus, f. 64v-67v, 70v-75r, 89r-90v), and analysis of urine (f. 68r-70r); digressions on the work of Johannes Sacrobosco (f. 35r-39r); and excerpts from the Compilatio de astrorum scientia of Leopold of Austria (f. 80r-81v). Cities in the Baden-Württemberg region of Germany are mentioned frequently, along with major cities in Europe, especially Italy.https://repository.upenn.edu/sims_models/1059/thumbnail.jp

    \u3cem\u3eThe Goody Bag\u3c/em\u3e - September 1992

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    Contents: Vietnamese Sampan Held Captive at Patriots Point..... p.1 Hobby Diver Reports and Queries..... p.1 Drawings by Fieldschool STudents..... p.3 The Book Locker..... p.4 Fall \u2792 Fieldschool..... p.5 Land Ho!..... p.6 So, You Want to be an Underwater Archaeologist ?..... p.

    The Harold C. Ernst Collection of Portable Sundials

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    A catalog of sundials from the Harold C. Ernst Collection of Portable Sundials, and a handy reference book on the subject of portable sundials. The sundial is the most ancient scientific instrument to come down to us unchanged. As such it is deserving of a better position in life than that of an ornament. It has played a vital part in the life of man for many thousands of years, and even today it serves us well where the mechanical watch fails. The authors particularly draw attention to the system of classifying, labeling, and cataloging sundials, described in Chapter II. This is the first attempt to bring order out of confusion in sundials

    A Time to Print, a Time to Reform

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    The public mechanical clock and movable type printing press were arguably the most important and complex technologies of the late medieval period. We posit that towns with clocks became upper-tail human capital hubs--clocks required extensive technical know-how and fine mechanical skill. This meant that clock towns were in position to adopt the printing press soon after its invention in 1450, as presses required a similar set of mechanical and technical skills to operate and repair. A two-stage analysis confirms this conjecture: we find that clock towns were 34-40 percentage points more likely to also have a press by 1500. The press, in turn, helped facilitate the spread of the Protestant Reformation. A three-stage instrumental variables analysis indicates that the press influenced the adoption of Protestantism, while the clock\u27s effect on the Reformation was mostly indirect. Our analysis therefore suggests that the mechanical clock was responsible--directly and indirectly--for two of the most important movements in the making of the modern world: the spread of printing and the Reformation

    Information and Empire: Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1854

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    From the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century Russia was transformed from a moderate-sized, land-locked principality into the largest empire on earth. How did systems of information and communication shape and reflect this extraordinary change? Information and Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850 brings together a range of contributions to shed some light on this complex question. Communication networks such as the postal service and the gathering and circulation of news are examined alongside the growth of a bureaucratic apparatus that informed the government about its country and its people. The inscription of space is considered from the point of view of mapping and the changing public ‘graphosphere’ of signs and monuments. More than a series of institutional histories, this book is concerned with the way Russia discovered itself, envisioned itself and represented itself to its people. Innovative and scholarly, this collection breaks new ground in its approach to communication and information as a field of study in Russia. More broadly, it is an accessible contribution to pre-modern information studies, taking as its basis a country whose history often serves to challenge habitual Western models of development. It is important reading not only for specialists in Russian Studies, but also for students and non-Russianists who are interested in the history of information and communications

    Information and Empire

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    "From the mid-sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century Russia was transformed from a moderate-sized, land-locked principality into the largest empire on earth. How did systems of information and communication shape and reflect this extraordinary change? Information and Mechanisms of Communication in Russia, 1600-1850 brings together a range of contributions to shed some light on this complex question. Communication networks such as the postal service and the gathering and circulation of news are examined alongside the growth of a bureaucratic apparatus that informed the government about its country and its people. The inscription of space is considered from the point of view of mapping and the changing public ‘graphosphere’ of signs and monuments. More than a series of institutional histories, this book is concerned with the way Russia discovered itself, envisioned itself and represented itself to its people. Innovative and scholarly, this collection breaks new ground in its approach to communication and information as a field of study in Russia. More broadly, it is an accessible contribution to pre-modern information studies, taking as its basis a country whose history often serves to challenge habitual Western models of development. It is important reading not only for specialists in Russian Studies, but also for students and non-Russianists who are interested in the history of information and communications.

    Time for Growth

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    This paper studies the impact of the early adoption of one of the most important high-technology machines in history, the public mechanical clock, on long-run growth in Europe. We avoid endo-geneity by considering the relationship between the adoption of clocks with an instrument based on the appearance of repeated solar eclipses. This is motivated by the predecessor technologies of mechanical clocks, astronomic instruments that measured the course of heavenly bodies. We find a significant increase in growth rates between 1500 and 1700 in the range of 30 percentage points in early adopter cities and areas. Finally, additional quantitative analysis suggests a positive relationship between mechanical clocks and contemporary long-term orientation nowadays
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