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The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy

by James Evans (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy combines new scholarship with hands-on science to bring readers into direct contact with the work of ancient astronomers. While tracing ideas from ancient Babylon to sixteenth-century Europe, the book places its greatest emphasis on the Greek period, when astronomers developed the geometric and philosophical ideas that have determined the subsequent character of Western astronomy. The author approaches this history through the concrete details of ancient astronomical practice. Carefully organized and generously illustrated, the book can teach readers how to do real astronomy using the methods of ancient astronomers. For example, readers will learn to predict the next retrograde motion of Jupiter using either the arithmetical methods of the Babylonians or the geometric methods of Ptolemy. They will learn how to use an astrolabe and how to design sundials using Greek and Roman techniques. The book also contains supplementary exercises and patterns for making some working astronomical instruments, including an astrolabe and an equatorium. More than a presentation of astronomical methods, the book provides a critical look at the evidence used to reconstruct ancient astronomy. It includes extensive excerpts from ancient texts, meticulous documentation, and lively discussions of the role of astronomy in the various cultures. Accessible to a wide audience, this book will appeal to anyone interested in how our understanding of our place in the universe has changed and developed, from ancient times through the Renaissance.
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  1. ISBN-10
    0195095391
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0195095395
  3. Publisher
    Oxford University Press
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 1998
  5. Language
    English
  6. Dimensions
    8.2 x 1.26 x 11.73 inches
  7. Print length
    496 pages
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In Ptolemy's The Almagest, the earth is placed at the center of the universe and the planets move in crystal spheres against a backdrop of fixed stars. While these ideas have been swept away since the scientific revolution, Ptolemy's influence on astronomy was profound and long--we'll be dealing with the Y3K problem before Copernicus's time of influence catches up.

James Evans, historian and astronomer at the University of Puget Sound, believes that "staying close to the practice of astronomy means explaining a subject in enough detail for the reader to understand what the ancient astronomers actually did." As this unique book teaches you to do astronomy the old-fashioned way, you gain a profoundly deeper understanding of what the Greeks and their successors thought and did. "There is all the difference in the world between knowing about and knowing how to do," says Evans. The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy is truly hands-on history, and deserves to be widely imitated. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Review

"The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy is one of the most exciting and original books ever written on ancient, as well as medieval and Renaissance, astronomy, indeed, on the history of science. Here, for the first time, the reader can learn not only about ancient astronomy, but how to do ancient astronomy. The breadth of coverage is encyclopedic, from the Babylonians and Greeks, Ptolemy in particular, through Arabic astonomers of the middle ages, to Copernicus and Kepler. James Evans writes with an understanding and clarity that guides the reader through two thousand years of astronomy so that it is, as it were, brought back to life and can be understood as thoroughly as modern science. This is an ideal way to write the history of science and to learn the history of science." --N.M. Swerdlow, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago

"Jim Evans combines a keen historical sense with a tinkerer's ingenuity and a gifted teacher's enthusiasm. His perceptive physical insights illuminate the intricacies of the early planetary theories. What I find particularly marvelous is the accuracy of his presentation (something remarkably hard to come by)." --Owen Gingerich, Professor of Astronomy and History of Science, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

"It is a beautifully designed book, comprising 475 8-by-11 inch pages with clearly drawn illustrations . . . Based on twenty years of teaching his students not just ideas, but the actual nitty-gritty of historic models, Jim has masterfully explicated a tremendous range of historical astronomy, stretching from the Babylonians to Kepler. The focus is on the Greeks and Ptolemy, but much else is also covered. In each case he explains the astronomy in a modern sense and then carefully shows what the ancient astronomers actually did. Relying on tables and graphical methods more than geometry and trigonometry, he gives examples and provides exercises that allow the reader to enter worlds of the past. In addition, patterns and instructions are given so that one can construct and use cardboard versions of an astrolabe and of Ptolemaic slats. . . . Rarely does one see such a combination of usefulness, elegance, accuracy, and scholarship."--HAD News

"There are many 'history of astronomy' books, but none that I've seen attempt to do what James Evans does--which is to show how astronomical observations and calculations were done in ancient and medieval times. His massive book of almost 500 oversized pages is heavily illustrated with hundreds of black-and-white diagrams showing how astronomers long ago made their computations. . . . This book tells not only the what, but also the how. . . . This book . . . provides an enormous amount of information on how astronomers through the millennia made their observations and calculations and on how they were influenced by each other and extended the work of their predecessors. None worked in a vacuum, and Evans traces how ideas flowed through the centuries. . . . We all talk about ancient astronomy in our planetarium shows. This heavy book will show the dedicated student how to actually do ancient astronomy. It is wonderful . . . There is no other like it."--Planetarian

"Evans offers one of the most comprehensive books on ancient astronomy. The title is appropriate, for it encompasses astronomy from ancient Babylonian observations through the zenith of Greek science during the eight centuries beginning about 600 BCE, through the Middle Ages in Europe and the Islamic lands of the Middle East, to Copernicus and Kepler. This Western tradition centers on the observable sky and its measure. . . . [T]he book can be used as a text for hands-on work in such areas as navigation and surveying, as well as in studying the historical development of the field. In its devotion to detail, it has few equals. Though limited to pretelescopic astronomy, it has much for the present-day astronomy on constellations, due to the richness and sophistication of the astronomy of these periods. As treatise, handbook, and source, it is unexcelled. Recommended for all libraries."--Choice

"Evans . . . shows with clarity and skill how the tradition passed down the years through several translations and commentaries in Greek, Arabic and Latin, before finally reaching the culminating achievements of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler. These Renaissance astronomers followed in Ptolemy's footsteps until Kepler finally abandoned the entire edifice of the geocentric cosmology . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to know more about the fascinating history of the intellectual struggle to bring sense to the celestial sphere and the complicated motions of the planets. The printing and binding are of high standard, while the index is both useful and detailed. There are also numerous figures and tables that enrich the clarity of the explanations. . . . If you would like to know more about the technical side of ancient astronomy, this book is for you . . . Certainly every university library should have a copy on its shelves."--Physics World

"[This book] surveys two thousand years of astronomy, from the Babylonian and Greek periods through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. General readers, classicists, and astronomers will find this book accessible, informative, and, above all, illustrative of the tools, methods and uses to which the practice of astronomy was applied during these periods. Organized in a textbook-like manner of historical introduction followed by application and example, the book challenges readers on a practical level by encouraging the construction and use of several mechanical models; the astrolabe, sundial, and Ptolemaic slats, from patterns provided by the author. . . . [The book] is highly recommended for upper-level undergraduates in the areas of astronomy, history of science and classics. Other readers may find Evan's [sic] book difficult reading at times but will look far and wide before finding a basic treatment of this subject so clearly written and comprehensive in scope."--E-STREAMS

"While tracing ideas from ancient Babylon to Renaissance Europe, Evans emphasizes the details of astronomical practice. He discusses the evidence used to reconstruct ancient astronomy, and shows readers how they can do astronomy using ancient methods."--Science

"[H]istorians all too easily forget how much of relevance can be learned from surviving artefacts. This is especially true of the history of Antiquity . . . Thus the highly sophisticated gearing mechanism found in the sea in 1900 . . . has no counterpart in the written record, and no historian would have believed such a mechanism possible in Antiquity . . . The problem is that we are trained to read books, but artefacts are less easy for us to comprehend. As far as ancient astronomy is concerned, the problem has now been solved by this handsome and quite admirable volume. The author . . . deals in successive chapters with the birth of astronomy; the celestial sphere; applications of spherics; calendars and time reckoning; solar theory; the fixed stars; and planetary theory. A most unusual but welcome feature is the constant demand from the author that the reader demonstrate his mastery of the explanation by tackling exercises . . ."--Meteoritics & Planetary Science

"James Evans's book is a large-scale detailed survey of practically all facets of Mesopotamian and Greco-Roman astronomy, both mathematical and nonmathematical, from the second millennium B.C. to the second century A.D. Evans's conception of astronomy is not just an intellectual pasttime but very much an activity, and one that the reader is continually invited to share. One learns how to convert dates between ancient calendars, how to compile a Greek-style weather calendar, how to make a sundial, how to use an astrolabe, how to calculate planetary positions in both the Babylonian and Ptolemy's manner. Trying these things out for oneself is often the most effective way of understanding the principles, and one also gains a much more accurate general impression of what this astronomy was about than from conventional presentations that focus almost exclusively on the evolution of celestial mechanics." - American Journal of Physics, Vol. 68, No. 3, March 2000

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (October 1, 1998)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 496 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0195095391
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0195095395
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.22 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.2 x 1.26 x 11.73 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

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James Evans

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Daniel Putman
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History of the Ancient Astronomers
Reviewed in the United States on October 8, 2012
Verified Purchase
I read Evans' book on ancient astronomy because I was interested in the history of astronomy. So this is a limited review; I cannot speak to the quality of the exercises for the students. It is difficult to find any biography for any of the ancient astronomers simply because the data is so limited that filling up a separate volume is nearly impossible. In desperation I turned to Evans' text. It turned out to be a serendipitous move. Simply as history, this is an excellent book.

Evans starts out with references to the sky in the earliest Greek and Babylonian manuscripts and then has a 16 page overview from that point up to Copernicus. He then begins to interweave exercises, observations to be done, and applications into the text. Each chapter has many sub-headings which makes it easy for the reader to select those sections that are historical compared to the hands-on sections. As is apparent from looking "inside" the book on Amazon, the chapters are divided by topic with the last one on the planets being by far the longest. This makes sense since the planets were so important for developing ancient theory. Readers find the same names appearing in different contexts and by the end I had a strong grasp of the contributions of many of the pre-modern astronomers.

The book changed my thinking entirely about Ptolemy. Living in the time we do, it is easy to have a fairly strong negative stereotype of "Ptolemaic astronomy." Evans completely shatters that stereotype. Ptolemy was not only an excellent astronomer for his time but a superb organizer of the information available to him. There is extensive detail about Ptolemy in the book. Evans discusses the relationship between data and theory, especially as it applies to Ptolemy. It sheds light not just on Ptolemy but also many other ancients like Aristotle. Ptolemy, like Aristotle, was not responsible for the doctrinaire uses of his ideas hundreds of years after his death. (I often wonder how Aristotle would have responded to the use of his ideas to block the study of nature, a study which he himself considered so important.) The reader will find in here a biography of Ptolemy that is better than any single volume out there.

The book also brought several other people to my attention, especially Hipparchus. Hipparchus was one of the very first to make careful observation and careful analysis central to his ideas. His name keeps popping up in places you would not expect. He seems almost like a person born in the wrong time. I had also known in general that Muslim culture had kept science alive through the European Dark Ages but Evans fleshes this fact out in detail by talking about the contributions of several individuals. Evans corrected and filled in some very simple and often inaccurate concepts I had. I cannot comment on the book as a classroom text. But I found it an excellent source of historical information about the ancient astronomers. Strictly from the historical perspective, I can highly recommend this book.
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Peter D. McLoughlin
5.0 out of 5 stars A really good introduction on how astronomy was done before the telescope.
Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2013
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This book is as the title states both a history of astronomy done by the ancients and the tools and methods that they employed. This book has all kinds of information on the Ptolemaic system which even though cast aside by the Copernican revolution was a great achievement. It also talks about the methods and instruments of ancient astronomy. You can learn how astrolabe works (hint it is method of taking the apparent three dimensional sphere of the starry sky and placing it on a flat surface) which translates the coordinates and movement of the stars. You even can make an astrolabe with the detailed diagrams in the back of the book. It also covers what the ancients knew about precession, how Eratosthenes calculated the size of the earth and the distance to the moon. It is a restorative antidote to ridicule of the ancients received by us moderns for not knowing the earth went around the sun. It places the early astronomers back to the eminent position they deserve.
2 people found this helpful
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N. Priddy
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantasti Book!
Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2010
Verified Purchase
I took the class from the Author at the U. of Washington in 1984, and have kept the handouts all these years. It was one of the best classes I ever took, and the material was always fantastic!

The book takes you thru a long history of the foundations of astronomy with well documented informaton, as well as many hands-on projects you can do. You atually get to redo some ancient astronmy -- building sundials, and even an armillary sphere!

This would be a wonderful book to work thru with a child interested in the sky.
3 people found this helpful
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Ignacio Fernandez Mendez
5.0 out of 5 stars In a word, enjoyable
Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2013
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I have not finished this book but so far i can say something, it's difficult to find such good presentations of ancient astronomy that include "practical" (meaning, you can do some things ancient astronomers did) aspects. I loved the historical presentation and the book including directions for building your own astrolabe. Really, enjoyable.
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Top reviews from other countries

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bookbuyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly detailed. Recommend!
Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
Excellent source material for astronomers. Quite detailed but one can skip over the sections that overwhelm.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars hte definitive guide for the ancient astronomy
Reviewed in Brazil on October 14, 2016
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one of the most interesting books i've ever read,a tour de force in the history of this science along old civilizations, enriched by explanation of mathematical/observational astronomy concepts. A must read for amateur astronomers and even astrologers who study medieval and classical astrology.
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Darth Vader
5.0 out of 5 stars The book I looked for a very long time...
Reviewed in Germany on June 16, 2007
Verified Purchase
This book is fantastic. Any astronomer (amateurs and professional ones) being

interested in the history and practice of old astronomy should have a copy of this book. I looked for a very long time in book stores and on the net for such a book with those topics. It is well structured, nicely written, easy to read, the Mathematics could be a little more profound, but that fact does not damage the whole impression of the book. Many images of ancient astronomic devices and schematical diagrams illustrate the history and practice of ancient astronomy vividly.

The book is also suited for students and scientists of History, for many citations and references to the ancient authors are to be found inside of the book.

The information on the astronomy of the Middle Ages is short, in fact, but

at that time people believed that the Earth is a disk, so what?
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Richard C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for any amateur astronomer
Reviewed in Canada on August 30, 2019
Verified Purchase
I’m 1/3 through this book and I’m amazed how much I’ve gained in understanding of ancient astronomy. As an amateur astronomer myself this book complements and gives me a new perspective of how things came to be. It’s very well written and a definite must have
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Prof Dr Thomas Sonar
5.0 out of 5 stars DAS Buch zur frühen Astronomie
Reviewed in Germany on November 7, 2007
Verified Purchase
Der Evans ist in kürzester Zeit zu einem unverzichtbaren Klassiker geworden. Hier lernt man nicht nur die Geschichte der frühen Astronomie, sondern auch die Astronomie selber. Evans ist es in wunderbar lesbarer Weise gelungen, ein spannendes Kapitel der Menschheitsgeschichte verständlich zu beschreiben. Ein großartiges Buch in einem großen Format.
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