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I received a large group of e-mails saying that my previous message was un-readable so here is the announcement again.... Histers, On November 5th, 2010, the Library of Congress' Rare Book and Special Collections Division will sponsor a conference to celebrate its recent acquisition of an original and un-trimmed copy of the Sidereus Nuncius, first published 400 years ago by Galileo Galilei, in March, 1610. The "Starry Messenger", as it is often translated, contains the first telescopic images of the moon, along with its mountains and craters, as well as diagrams showing the location and motion of the moons of Jupiter, and the first telescopic celestial maps of parts of the Milky Way. The book was revolutionary not only in its findings and observations, but also in the influence that it had on latter scientific and cartographic representations of celestial objects. The Sidereus Nuncius has been the subject of much recent debate in philosophical circles and in the history of science, and its importance to later techniques of celestial representation in maps and prints has been the subject of many studies by such seminal figures as Cassirer, Wallace, van Fraassen, Feyerabend and others. The speakers at the Library's conference will approach the book from a variety of disciplinary standpoints and present new research on the book itself, and also on Galileo's lasting influence on scientific representation and the beginnings of modern astronomical mapping. The speakers will discuss a variety of themes found in the book including; the use of telescope (Reeves); Galileo's debt to the scientific and logical methodologies of his classical and medieval predecessors (Hessler); his representations and maps of the Milky Way and Jupiter's moons(Gingerich); the construction and printing of the book and early scientific celestial representation (Needham); and Galileo's lasting influence on scientific methodology and empiricism (Miller and Machamer). The speakers are: Paul Needham Scheide Librarian Firestone Library Princeton University Eileen Reeves Professor of Renaissance Literature Princeton University David Miller Visiting Professor in the Philosophy of Science Duke University Owen Gingerich Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and History of Science Harvard University John Hessler Senior Cartographic Librarian Geography and Map Division Library of Congress Peter Machamer Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science University of Pittsburgh The conference is free and is open to the public. More details will be available in the coming weeks and I shall post them here for those interested. John Hessler Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society Senior Cartographic Librarian Geography and Map Division Library of Congress www.warpinghistory.blogspot.com _______________________________________________ MapHist: E-mail discussion group on the history of cartography hosted by the Faculty of Geosciences, University of Utrecht. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the University of Utrecht. The University of Utrecht does not take any responsibility for the views of the author. List Information: http://www.maphist.nl Maphist mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.geo.uu.nl/mailman/listinfo/maphist
