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Bestseller
BestsellerE-book
Author Safier, Neil.

Title Measuring the new world : enlightenment science and South America / Neil Safier.

Publication Info. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Item Status

Description 1 online resource (xviii, 387 pages, 20 pages of plates) : illustrations, maps (some color)
French language
Physical Medium polychrome
Description text file
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-371) and index.
Contents The ruined pyramids of Yaruquí -- An enlightened Amazon, with fables and a fold-out map -- Armchair explorers -- Correcting Quito -- A nation defamed and defended -- Incas in the king's garden -- The golden monkey and the monkey-worm.
Summary 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.
Local Note eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America
Subject Mission géodésique (France)
Mission géodésique (France)
Scientific expeditions -- Ecuador -- Quito -- History -- 18th century.
Scientific expeditions.
Ecuador -- Quito.
History.
Chronological Term 18th century
Subject Ecuador -- Discovery and exploration -- French.
Ecuador.
Discoveries in geography.
Amazon River Region -- Discovery and exploration.
Amazon River Region.
Science -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
Science.
Europe.
Communication in science -- Europe -- History -- 18th century.
Communication in science.
South America -- Historical geography.
South America.
Historical geography.
Chronological Term 1700 - 1799
Genre/Form Electronic books.
Electronic books -- History.
History.
Other Form: Print version: Safier, Neil. Measuring the new world. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2008 9780226733555 0226733556 (DLC) 2008018142 (OCoLC)176979549
ISBN 9780226733562 (electronic book)
0226733564 (electronic book)
128196638X
9781281966384
9780226733555 (cloth ; alkaline paper)
0226733556 (cloth ; alkaline paper)
Standard No. 9786611966386