Author: Increase MatherPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46
Book Description
Κομητογραφια. Or a discourse concerning Comets ... as also two Sermons occasioned by the late blazing stars
Author: Increase MatherComets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology
Author: Sara SchechnerPublisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691227675
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381
Book Description
In a lively investigation into the boundaries between popular culture and early-modern science, Sara Schechner presents a case study that challenges the view that rationalism was at odds with popular belief in the development of scientific theories. Schechner Genuth delineates the evolution of people's understanding of comets, showing that until the seventeenth century, all members of society dreaded comets as heaven-sent portents of plague, flood, civil disorder, and other calamities. Although these beliefs became spurned as "vulgar superstitions" by the elite before the end of the century, she shows that they were nonetheless absorbed into the science of Newton and Halley, contributing to their theories in subtle yet profound ways. Schechner weaves together many strands of thought: views of comets as signs and causes of social and physical changes; vigilance toward monsters and prodigies as indicators of God's will; Christian eschatology; scientific interpretations of Scripture; astrological prognostication and political propaganda; and celestial mechanics and astrophysics. This exploration of the interplay between high and low beliefs about nature leads to the conclusion that popular and long-held views of comets as divine signs were not overturned by astronomical discoveries. Indeed, they became part of the foundation on which modern cosmology was built.
Catalogue of the American Library of the Late Mr. George Brinley
Author: George BrinleyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 366
Book Description
Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society
Author: Massachusetts Historical SocietyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Massachusetts
Languages : en
Pages : 794
Book Description
For the statement above quoted, also for full bibliographical information regarding this publication, and for the contents of the volumes [1st ser.] v. 1- 7th series, v. 5, cf. Griffin, Bibl. of Amer. hist. society. 2d edition, 1907, p. 346-360.
Enchanted Europe
Author: Euan CameronPublisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 019161372X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 488
Book Description
Since the dawn of history people have used charms and spells to try to control their environment, and forms of divination to try to foresee the otherwise unpredictable chances of life. Many of these techniques were called 'superstitious' by educated elites. For centuries religious believers used 'superstition' as a term of abuse to denounce another religion that they thought inferior, or to criticize their fellow-believers for practising their faith 'wrongly'. From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, scholars argued over what 'superstition' was, how to identify it, and how to persuade people to avoid it. Learned believers in demons and witchcraft, in their treatises and sermons, tried to make 'rational' sense of popular superstitions by blaming them on the deceptive tricks of seductive demons. Every major movement in Christian thought, from rival schools of medieval theology through to the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment, added new twists to the debates over superstition. Protestants saw Catholics as superstitious, and vice versa. Enlightened philosophers mocked traditional cults as superstitions. Eventually, the learned lost their worry about popular belief, and turned instead to chronicling and preserving 'superstitious' customs as folklore and ethnic heritage. Enchanted Europe is the first comprehensive, integrated account of western Europe's long, complex dialogue with its own folklore and popular beliefs. Drawing on many little-known and rarely used texts, Euan Cameron constructs a compelling narrative of the rise, diversification, and decline of popular 'superstition' in the European mind.
Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University
Author: John Langdon SibleyPublisher: BoD – Books on Demand
ISBN: 3385200342
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 650
Book Description
Reprint of the original, first published in 1873.
Biographical Sketches of Graduates of Harvard University
Author: John Langdon SibleyAmerican Culture Series, 1493-1875
Author: Ophelia Y. LoPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 664
Book Description
The American Culture Series is a microfilm collection of early American books and pamphlets dated from 1493-1875 which provides primary source materials essential to the study of Americana. The collection consists of two parts. ACS I, which covers the time span from 1493-1806, is a complete unit of about 250 titles on 26 reels. ACS II, which extends the coverage to 1875, consists of more than 5,500 titles on reels 27 through 643.
Author: 
Author: Nathaniel Paine