Measuring the new world
Measuring the new world
复制标题
测量新世界
DOI：
10.7208/chicago/9780226733562.001.0001
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
4.8
通讯作者：
Neil Safier
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Neil Safier
在1735年之前，南美洲对许多欧洲人来说基本上是未知的。但就在那一年，巴黎科学院向西裔美国人的基多省（今厄瓜多尔）派出了一个法国和西班牙联合使命，研究地球在赤道的曲率--这一探险将使南美洲在地图上出现，并在未来几个世纪的欧洲人心目中留下深刻印象。装备了象限和望远镜的使命参与者将科学知识从欧洲转移到安第斯山脉称为“圣火”，通过欧洲的天文仪器神秘地传递给南美洲好奇的观察者。通过观察这次探险的社会和物质痕迹，“测量新世界”考察了知识反向的跨大西洋流动--从西方到东方。通过短暂的纪念碑和地理地图，从安第斯山脉到亚马逊河，这本书探讨了南美的社会和文化世界如何在启蒙运动期间为欧洲科学知识的产生做出贡献。尼尔·萨菲尔使用了旅行哲学家的笔记本，包括查尔斯-玛丽·德拉孔达明和其他人，以及探险队的地图和标本，将这一特殊的科学奋进置于早期现代印刷文化和新兴的科学家作为作者的知识范畴的更大背景下。
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.