Spinning the Cosmos

This open access book investigates the epistemological concept of and the knowledge transfer interwoven with the moveable paper wheels found in medieval and early modern books—the so-called “volvelles.” The earliest known volvelles emerged in the mid-thirteenth century and were cut out and installed...

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Hlavní autor: Citron, Alica-Nana
Médium: Online
Jazyk:angličtina
Vydáno: Springer Nature 2025
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On-line přístup:ONIX_20250613T105552_9783031909764_18
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author Citron, Alica-Nana
author_browse Citron, Alica-Nana
author_facet Citron, Alica-Nana
author_sort Citron, Alica-Nana
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This open access book investigates the epistemological concept of and the knowledge transfer interwoven with the moveable paper wheels found in medieval and early modern books—the so-called “volvelles.” The earliest known volvelles emerged in the mid-thirteenth century and were cut out and installed by the reader, often appearing in books dealing with astronomical subjects. The brain processes and remembers images more easily than words—the so-called “picture superiority effect”—especially if the images move, making volvelles a useful method to help students of the Quadrivium memorizing the heavenly movements, thus the composition of a device embedded within a text promises a comprehensive insight into the didactic concepts of early modern knowledge transfer. The Tractatus de Sphaera by Johannes de Sacrobosco (1195–1256), the standard university textbook for astronomy from the thirteenth until the seventeenth century, was particularly noted as containing volvelles of different kinds. The project “The Sphere,” located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, has collected a corpus of 359 printed De sphaera editions, building a promising basis for examining different volvelles and placing the results in a cultural context. These volumes had never been analyzed in detail before, nor was there such a large corpus that could provide a quantitative database for such an investigation. The results of the book show that a book and knowledge tradition as widespread as that of the Sphaera contained more than one third of volvelles and was used in university teaching in the early modern period. For historians, this sheds light on a new aspect of movable paper instruments in university didactics and book history in the early modern period.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-1613302025-06-18T05:02:37Z Spinning the Cosmos Citron, Alica-Nana Johannes de Sacrobosco' de Sphaera De Sphaera Mundi Johannes de Sacrabosco Volvelles volvelles in books history of science history of astronomy thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science This open access book investigates the epistemological concept of and the knowledge transfer interwoven with the moveable paper wheels found in medieval and early modern books—the so-called “volvelles.” The earliest known volvelles emerged in the mid-thirteenth century and were cut out and installed by the reader, often appearing in books dealing with astronomical subjects. The brain processes and remembers images more easily than words—the so-called “picture superiority effect”—especially if the images move, making volvelles a useful method to help students of the Quadrivium memorizing the heavenly movements, thus the composition of a device embedded within a text promises a comprehensive insight into the didactic concepts of early modern knowledge transfer. The Tractatus de Sphaera by Johannes de Sacrobosco (1195–1256), the standard university textbook for astronomy from the thirteenth until the seventeenth century, was particularly noted as containing volvelles of different kinds. The project “The Sphere,” located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, has collected a corpus of 359 printed De sphaera editions, building a promising basis for examining different volvelles and placing the results in a cultural context. These volumes had never been analyzed in detail before, nor was there such a large corpus that could provide a quantitative database for such an investigation. The results of the book show that a book and knowledge tradition as widespread as that of the Sphaera contained more than one third of volvelles and was used in university teaching in the early modern period. For historians, this sheds light on a new aspect of movable paper instruments in university didactics and book history in the early modern period. 2025-06-14T05:01:52Z 2025-06-14T05:01:52Z 2025-06-13T09:20:02Z 2025 book ONIX_20250613T105552_9783031909764_18 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/103564 9783031909764 9783031909757 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/161330 eng SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology open access image/jpeg image/jpeg n/a n/a https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103564/1/9783031909764.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/103564/1/9783031909764.pdf Springer Nature Springer Nature Switzerland 10.1007/978-3-031-90976-4 10.1007/978-3-031-90976-4 9fa3421d-f917-4153-b9ab-fc337c396b5a H2020 European Research Council 178e65b9-dd53-4922-b85c-0aaa74fce079 9783031909764 9783031909757 EU collection European Research Council (ERC) Springer Nature Switzerland 98 Cham [...] 101042034 open access
spellingShingle Johannes de Sacrobosco' de Sphaera
De Sphaera Mundi
Johannes de Sacrabosco
Volvelles
volvelles in books
history of science
history of astronomy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
Citron, Alica-Nana
Spinning the Cosmos
title Spinning the Cosmos
title_full Spinning the Cosmos
title_fullStr Spinning the Cosmos
title_full_unstemmed Spinning the Cosmos
title_short Spinning the Cosmos
title_sort spinning the cosmos
topic Johannes de Sacrobosco' de Sphaera
De Sphaera Mundi
Johannes de Sacrabosco
Volvelles
volvelles in books
history of science
history of astronomy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
topic_facet Johannes de Sacrobosco' de Sphaera
De Sphaera Mundi
Johannes de Sacrabosco
Volvelles
volvelles in books
history of science
history of astronomy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues::TBX History of engineering and technology
thema EDItEUR::Q Philosophy and Religion::QD Philosophy
thema EDItEUR::T Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes::TB Technology: general issues
thema EDItEUR::P Mathematics and Science::PD Science: general issues::PDX History of science
url ONIX_20250613T105552_9783031909764_18
work_keys_str_mv AT citronalicanana spinningthecosmos