{"product_id":"astronomy-and-history-selected-essays-9780387908441","title":"Astronomy and History Selected Essays","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe collection of papers assembled here on a variety of topics in ancient and medieval astronomy was originally suggested by Noel Swerdlow of the University of Chicago. He was also instrumental in making a selection which would  in general  be on the same level as my book The Exact Sciences in Antiquity. It may also provide a general background for my more technical History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy and for my edition of Astronomi cal Cuneiform Texts. Several of these republished articles were written because I wanted to put to rest well-entrenched historical myths which could not withstand close scrutiny of the sources. Examples are the supposed astronomical origin of the Egyptian calendar (see 9)  the discovery of precession by the Babylonians 16  and the \"simplification\" of the Ptolemaic system in Copernicus De Revolutionibus 40. In all of my work I have striven to present as accurately as I could what the original sources reveal (which is often very different from the received view). Thus  in 32 discussion of the technical terminology illuminates the meaning of an ancient passage which has been frequently misused to support modern theories about ancient heliocentrism; in 33 an almost isolated instance reveals how Greek world-maps really looked; and in 43 the Alexandrian Easter computus  held in awe by many historians  is shown from Ethiopic sources to be based on very simple procedures.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45652005290037,"sku":"ByrdShop_0387908447","price":89.31,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780387908441.jpg?v=1781848396","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/astronomy-and-history-selected-essays-9780387908441","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}