Page 1
Page 1
Il cielo sopra Roma : I luoghi dell’astronomia = The sky above Rome : The places of astronomy
Astronomy in Rome has always been there, but a little hidden: it was in the palaces, in the churches or, better, above the churches, speculas scattered along a path that few know by now. Intrigued and frightened, the Romans witnessed the burning of Giordano Bruno in a familiar corner of Campo de 'Fiori, but they probably didn't quite understand what guilt he was accused of. They certainly did not think that he was a philosopher and a scientist who had tried to imagine what the world was like.
A History of Physical Theories of Comets, From Aristotle to Whipple
The book describes the major physical theories of comets in the past two millennia. It demonstrates the evolution of ideas about the nature, position, motion and physical constitution of comets from Aristotle to Whipple. Unlike the available works on the history of comets, which either illustrate relatively short periods in the history of physical cometology or portray a landscape view without adequate details, the present study focuses on details of each theory. It also investigates the interaction between observational and mathematical astronomy, and the physical sciences in defining the properties of comets.
