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Measuring the new world : enlightenment science and South America /

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 w...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Clasificación:Libro Electrónico
Autor principal: Safier, Neil
Formato: Electrónico eBook
Idioma:Inglés
Publicado: Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Temas:
Acceso en línea:Texto completo
Descripción
Sumario: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 ins
Descripción Física:1 online resource (xviii, 387 pages, 20 pages of plates) : illustrations, maps (some color)
Bibliografía:Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-371) and index.
ISBN:9780226733562
0226733564