Editors: Gian Battista Vai and W. Glen E. Caldwell
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This volume includes an eclectic group of papers by authors of varied backgrounds and nationality who describe contributions to natural science and philosophy by Italian or foreign geologists working in Italy between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries. Each of these scientists contributed to the emergence of modern geology as a distinct scientific discipline, starting with Aldrovandi, who coined the term geology in 1603, and continuing with Agricola, the early gemologists and mineralists, the Florentine artists, Descartes, Gassendi, Kircher, Steno, Marsili, Arduino, Gregory Watt, William Maclure, Brocchi, and Pilla. When Lyell disseminated the Huttonian doctrine in his Principles, he fully recognized the legacy of pioneering Italian studies in geology. The aim of the volume is to restore Lyell’s insights, which were not investigated further by Italian geoscientists and historians of science during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rediscovering the roots of modern geology is an invaluable and crucial goal for a sound assessment of long-term perspectives of this science and of science as a whole.
Published: 9/25/2006
ISBN Number: 0813724112
Pages: 223
Product Category: Special Papers