The two worlds of the Geneva sphere: heaven and earth in a 17th century Japanese model of the cosmos
Résumé
The early modern encounter between the sciences and technologies of Europe and East Asia that began with the 16 th century arrival of Jesuit missionaries in ʻthe Indiesʼ has been studied by many scholars. In Europe during this period, an interest in new developments in science and technology began to be seen as appropriate and even fashionable for people who had no pretensions to expertise. Most studies of the contacts initiated by the Jesuits have so far concentrated on the reception and appropriation of ʻwestern learningʼ at the levels of East Asian elite power and specialist knowledge, particularly in China. The nature of our sources─or at least the sources that scholars have chosen to study─has not made it easy to find out what happened outside those limited circles. A device─which I shall call the ʻGeneva sphereʼ from its current location─has recently come to light which appears to have been made in early Edo Japan, and which opens a so far unexpected window onto a way in which an East Asian public ʻconsumedʼ astronomical knowledge and imported technology with evident enthusiasm and relish, despite the disdain with which expert astronomers regarded their activity. I shall discuss this device, its nature and its origins, by way of exemplifying the broad issues set out in this abstract.
Origine :
Accord explicite pour ce dépôt
Licence : Copyright (Tous droits réservés)
Licence : Copyright (Tous droits réservés)
Loading...