Collaborative Research: The Aratus Project on Astronomy and Scientific Writing

科学史上的这一合作研究项目将产生Aratus文学作品《Phaenomea》的评论和学术论文的第一个完整的英文翻译，这是一首涉及希腊和罗马古代天文学的流行文本诗。它提供了一个可访问的恒星知识摘要，基于现已丢失的尤多克斯作品，作为天文学的入门文本，它立即和持久地取得了成功；围绕它发展了一部巨大的注释文献。这些文献包括天文学专家(如希帕丘斯)和非专家作者所写的评论，以及在他的作品副本中所写的学术论文(边注)。该项目将探索后来的评论家对阿拉图斯的作品的接受情况，并比较后者阅读、理解和与这本文本和它所包含的天文学互动的方式。这一项目的结果将通过一个专门的网站公布，该网站将首次提供具有现代英文译本的古代文本；将通过一个创新和开放的在线平台提供这些文本，该平台将展示《Aratus》及其评注和学术论文的文本，以及其中所载天文学的互动可视化。此外，国际天文学联合会还将出版一本关于希帕丘斯对阿拉塔斯的评论的学术专著，并将开发古代天文和科学史的展览和新课程。这是科学史上的一次开创性调查。它有四个主要目标。它将使Aratus和他被低估的训诫社区曝光，根据关于科学本质的辩论和传播它的最佳体裁来研究Hipparchus的评论，讨论不同类型的读者对Aratus的古代接受，并讨论古代科学写作的不同体裁。这些古代文献的作者形成了一个未被充分研究的思想家群体，他们对阿拉塔斯作为天文学权威的地位持有广泛不同的看法。该项目将突出这一被遗忘的知识世界，并将通过首次将其中许多文本翻译成现代英语并通过在线数字门户免费提供，从而拓宽古代作家的传统经典。该项目中正在调查的一个关键人物是希帕丘斯，他回应阿拉塔斯，并与托勒密深入接触；了解这种缺失的智力联系对于研究古代科学至关重要。PI将出版一本关于希帕丘斯对Aratus的评论的版本和评论，并将作为一本独立的学术专著出版。该项目还在其科学写作和评论的社会历史作为一种体裁方面具有创新性；这些文本的作者都是写作科学，但使用非常不同的体裁和媒体。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This collaborative research project in the history of science will produce the first full English translations of the commentaries and scholia to Aratus's literary work, Phaenomena, a popular text poem dealing with astronomy of Greek and Roman antiquity. It presented an accessible summary of star lore based upon a now lost work of Eudoxus, and it was an immediate and lasting success as an introductory text to astronomy; an immense exegetical literature grew up around it. This literature included commentaries written by both experts in astronomy, such as Hipparchus, and non-expert authors, as well as scholia (marginal notes) written in copies of his work. The project will explore the reception of Aratus's work among later commentators, and compare the way that the latter read, understood, and interacted with this text and the astronomy it contained. Results of this project will be made public through a dedicated website which will make available ancient texts with modern English translations for the first time; they will be made accessible through an innovative and open access online platform that will display the text of Aratus and of its commentaries and scholia, along with interactive visualizations of the astronomy they contain. In addition, the PI will produce a scholarly monograph on Hipparchus' commentary to Aratus, and she will develop an exhibition and new courses on ancient astronomy and history of science.This project is a pioneering investigation in history of science. It has four main goals. It will bring Aratus and his under-appreciated exegetical community to light, study the commentary of Hipparchus under the light of the debate about the nature of science and of the best genres to disseminate it, discuss the ancient reception of Aratus among different types of readership, and discuss the different genres of scientific writing in antiquity. The authors of these ancient texts form an understudied community of thinkers, who held widely varying opinions on Aratus' status as an authority on astronomy. The project will highlight this forgotten intellectual world, and it will broaden the traditional canon of ancient authors by translating many of these texts into modern English for the first time and making them freely available through an online digital portal. One key figure under investigation in the project is Hipparchus, who responds to Aratus and with whom Ptolemy deeply engages; understanding this missing intellectual link is critical to studies of ancient science. The PI will produce an edition and commentary on Hipparchus' commentary to Aratus that will be published as an independent, scholarly monograph. The project is also innovative for its social history of scientific writing and of commentary as a genre; the authors of these texts were all writing sciences but using very different genres and media.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.