I'm still reading Mary Evershed's own book about Dante and the early astronomers. She begins with a useful set of chapters explaining various theories and discussing Ptolemy. Part II is then her discussion of Dante. I'm not there yet. However, I did finish the biography that George sent me by Tracy Daugherty. Besides being interested [...]
Category: science and engineering
The astronomers and Dante
George sent me a book called Dante and the Early Astronomer. It was published in 2019 and written by Tracy Daugherty, an English professor at Oregon State University. The book is about a woman named Mary Ackworth Orr Evershed. She, herself, wrote a book called Dante and the Early Astronomers. That 's' is important to [...]
Water on the moon
There is a longstanding argument about water on the moon. Does it exist? Hence, if the Chinese say that their lander has found water there (and they do), that's a big deal. If this is tl:dr skip down to the *** In fact there is a longstanding argument about exactly where the water on earth [...]
Francesco Faa di Bruno, priest, mathematician, & ?
As I wandered through the 1908 Catholic Encyclopedia the other day I stumbled over Father Francesco Faa di Bruno. Born in Alessandria, Piemonte (later part of Italy) in 1825, he died in Turin, Italy in 1888. The Encyclopedia said that he was an Italian mathematician and priest. It also said he was a captain in [...]
Chaucer and the tides
Recently I came across a blog post discussing two geniuses from the 14th century, Guillame de Machaut and Nicole Oresme. https://yardsaleofthemind.wordpress.com/2023/02/20/timelines/ Machaut was musical and lived from 1300 to 1377. Oresme (~ 1320 to 1382) was a priest, professor, and scientist (natural philosopher). The blogger says that he can’t think of any other genius from [...]
Janey's blog 