#early science

[recsspecs]

Source: Science: The Definitive Visual Guide

[uwmspeccoll]

Science Saturday / Halloween Crossover

Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, and what better way to celebrate than to look at a “scientific” work about monsters, Gaspar Schott’s Physica Curiosa!

Gaspar Schott was 17th-century German Jesuit scientist whose compilations, “experiments,” and deep interest in magic occasionally led to some pretty dodgy publications of his own – much to the delight of his 21st-century readers! Such is the case with his Physica Curiosa (almost-full title below), published in Würzburg (Herbipolis) in 1662. 

This two-volume set explores the physical curiosities of the known and unknown worlds, mixing (as the extended title suggests) observed fauna, flora, and astronomical phenomena with fabulous beasts, monsters, angels, demons, specters, and portents.

P. Gasparis Schotti ... Physica curiosa, sive Mirabilia naturæ et artis libris XII. comprehensa; quibus pleraque, quæ de angelis, dæmonibus, hominibus, spectris, energumensis, monstris, portentis, animalibus, meteoris, &c. rara, arcana, curiosaq́ue circumferuntur, ad veritatis trutinam expenduntur, variis ex historia ac philosophia petitis disquisitionibus excutiuntur, & innumeris exemplis illustrantur ...

You can browse a digital copy of Physica Curiosa online through the Internet Archive! Which seems like a great Halloween activity. There is also a full moon tonight! SPOOKY!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

View our other posts about Physica Curiosa.

View other Halloweeny-like posts.

View more Science Saturday posts.

-- Sarah, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[kundst]

The human conception according to Leonarde da Vinci in c. 1492

[ninja-muse]

A big chunk of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks have been digitized and can be viewed online

The British Library has digitized 570 loose pages of notes written and drawn by Leonard da Vinci to compile a notebook which is called, The Codex Arundel. You can view the document online for free,…

[wiki-walkthrough]

Today's article is on language deprivation experiments, historical attempts to uncover the origin of language by raising infants without the use of spoken or sign language. Few, if any of these experiments have been well documented, and none have produced any tangible results. It is very unlikely any future variations will be carried out due to the several psychological disturbance and violation of ethics it would result in.

[marklakshmanan]

How the Occult Gave Birth to Science

For scientists of yore anything—from mermaids to alchemy—was on the table.

[spaceintruderdetector]

https://archive.org/details/godwin-joscelyn-athanasius-kircher-a-renaissance-man-and-the-quest-for-lost-knowledge/mode/2up

[pl4-tonic]

It's kind of lame that in early science we depended on the sky and the stars and the observation of the planet to determine how things would come about and different weather patterns and we chalked it up to the gods and it was like /actually useful/ but today we have a prevalent use of a christian god whose only function is to promote thought control and societale obedience and has the sole function of creating an oppressed society rather than a thriving one back in the early millenias of humankind.