The Origins Of The Telescope (amsterdam University Press - History Of Science And Scholarship In The Netherlan)

"The origins of the telescope have been debated since the instrument's appearance in the Hague in 1608. Civic and national pride has led local dignitaries, popular writers, and scholars to present sharply divergent histories over the years, crediting a variety of people and places with the invention. Drawing on newly discovered documents, re-examined records, and tests of early lenses and telescopes, this fascinating study proposes a new and convincing account of the origins of the instrument that changed mankind's vision of the universe."--Publisher's description Contents......Page 5 Introduction......Page 7 The ‘true inventor’ of the telescope. A survey of 400 years of debate......Page 15 The city of Middelburg, cradle of the telescope......Page 51 The telescope at the court of the stadtholder Maurits......Page 79 The long road to the invention of the telescope......Page 99 Suspicious spectacles. Medical perspectives on eyeglasses, the case of Hieronymus Mercurialis......Page 121 William Bourne’s invention. Projecting a telescope and optical speculation in Elizabethan England......Page 135 Alhacen and Kepler and the origins of modern lens-theory......Page 153 Complete inventions: The mirror and the telescope......Page 173 Galileo and the telescope......Page 189 Did Galileo copy the telescope? A ‘new’ letter by Paolo Sarpi......Page 209 The world’s oldest surviving telescopes......Page 237 Labour on lenses: Isaac Beeckman’s notes on lens making......Page 263 Testing telescope optics of seventeenth-century Italy......Page 277 Kepler’s legacy: telescopes and geometrical optics, 1611-1669......Page 287 The Netherlands, Siam and the telescope. The first Asian encounter with a Dutch invention......Page 307 Music as a liberal art and the invention of the telescope......Page 327 Bibliography......Page 347 The authors......Page 367 Index......Page 369