Collaborative Research: The Aratus Project on Astronomy and Scientific Writing

这个科学史上的合作研究项目将产生第一个完整的英文翻译的评论和学术著作阿拉图斯的文学作品，Phaenomena，一个流行的文本诗处理希腊和罗马古代天文学。这本书以现已失传的欧多克索斯的著作为基础，对星星知识进行了通俗易懂的总结。作为天文学的入门文本，这本书取得了立竿见影的成功。围绕着这本书，出现了大量的训诂文献，其中既有天文学专家（如喜帕恰斯）撰写的评论，也有非专家作者撰写的评论，还有写在他著作副本中的scholia（旁注）。该项目将探讨后来的评论家对阿拉图斯作品的接受情况，并比较后者阅读，理解和与此文本及其所包含的天文学互动的方式。该项目的成果将通过一个专门的网站向公众公布，该网站将首次提供带有现代英语翻译的古代文本;这些文本将通过一个创新和开放的在线平台提供，该平台将展示Aratus及其评注和scholia的文本，沿着其中所包含的天文学的交互式可视化。此外，PI将制作一本关于喜帕恰斯对阿拉图斯的评论的学术专著，她将开发一个关于古代天文学和科学史的展览和新课程。它有四个主要目标。它将使阿拉图斯和他的未被充分重视的训诂界亮，研究喜帕恰斯的评论下的辩论的性质，科学和最好的体裁来传播它，讨论古代接受阿拉图斯之间的不同类型的读者群，并讨论不同体裁的科学写作在古代。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，他们对阿拉图斯作为天文学权威的地位持有广泛不同的意见。该项目将突出这一被遗忘的知识世界，并将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网站免费提供，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喜帕恰斯，他对阿拉图斯做出了回应，托勒密与他有着深入的接触;理解这一缺失的智力环节对古代科学的研究至关重要。PI将制作一个版本和喜帕恰斯对阿拉图斯的评论，将作为一个独立的学术专著出版。该项目也是创新的社会历史的科学写作和评论作为一种体裁;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。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.