Reading the Skies


Printed:	2001	Author:	Vladimir Jankovic
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press	ISBN:	0226392163
Suppliers:

A Cultural History of the English Weather 1650-1820
Paperback, 263 pages, (April 2001) Usually ships within 24 hours.
Amazon Review
From the time of Aristotle until the late 18th century, meteorology meant the study of "meteors" - spectacular objects in the skies beneath the moon, which included everything from shooting stars to hailstorms. In "Reading the Skies", Vladimir Jankovic traces the history of this meteorological tradition in Enlightenment Britain, examining its scientific and cultural significance. He interweaves classical traditions, folk/popular beliefs and practices, and the increasingly quantitative approaches of urban university men to understanding the wonders of the skies. He places special emphasis on the role that detailed meteorological observations played in natural history and chorography, or local geography; in religious and political debates; and in agriculture. Drawing on a number of archival sources, including correspondence and weather diaries, as well as contemporary pamphlets, tracts, and other printed sources reporting prodigious phenomena in the skies, this book should interest historians of science, Britain, and the environment. REF 14