1700s
18th century
A01=Neil Safier
academic
amazon river
astronomy
Author_Neil Safier
Category=PDX
colonialism
earth
ecuador
enlightenment
eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
europe
european
expedition
explorer
geographical
geography
historical
history
intellectual
interdisciplinary
knowledge
maps
paris academy of sciences
region
regional
research
scholarly
science
scientific
scientist
south america
transatlantic
Product details
- ISBN 9780226733555
- Weight: 794g
- Dimensions: 16 x 24mm
- Publication Date: 01 Apr 2008
- Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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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.
Neil Safier is assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia.
