The Flat Earth Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 272-283
Author(s):  
Nicholas Mee
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Stereographic Projection ◽  
Camera Obscura ◽  
Johannes Vermeer ◽  
Mercator Projection ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Familiar World ◽  
Projection Techniques ◽  
Celestial Sphere

Chapter 25 explains the construction and use of the astrolabe with reference to Geoffrey Chaucer’s A Treatise on the Astrolabe. The astrolabe is a rotating map of the heavens constructed using a stereographic projection of the celestial sphere. The projection techniques required to create this map is reminiscent of the projections used by artists to show perspective, and it is closely related to the techniques of cartographers. The most familiar world maps are produced using the Mercator projection devised by Gerardus Mercator in the sixteenth century. Johannes Vermeer included maps in many of his paintings, most notably The Geographer and The Astronomer, and the figure in these painting might be the great microscopist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek. The architect Philip Steadman made an in-depth study of whether Vermeer employed a camera obscura when painting.

Allegory, Realism, and Vermeer's Use of the Camera Obscura

2005 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-314
Author(s):  
Philip Steadman
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Symbolic Meaning ◽  
Camera Obscura ◽  
Genre Painting ◽  
Johannes Vermeer ◽  
Optical Images ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Dutch Painter ◽  
Extreme Care

AbstractCritics of the proposal that the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer used the camera obscura extensively in making his pictures of domestic scenes have argued that this cannot be the case, since his compositions are not 'photographic snapshots' but are very finely judged and balanced; his subject matter draws on the traditional motifs of Dutch genre painting; and the pictures are filled with complex allegorical and symbolic meaning. In this paper it is argued that all these are indeed characteristics of Vermeer's oeuvre, but that the artist produced them through the transcription of optical images of tableaux, set up by arranging real furniture and other 'props' with extreme care, in an actual room in his mother-in-law's house.

Defending God in Sixteenth-Century India

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Duquette
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Language School ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Magnum Opus

This book is the first in-depth study of the Śaiva oeuvre of the celebrated polymath Appaya Dīkṣita (1520–1593). It documents the rise to prominence and scholarly reception of Śivādvaita Vedānta, a Sanskrit-language school of philosophical theology which Appaya single-handedly established, thus securing his reputation as a legendary advocate of Śaiva religion in early modern India. Based to a large extent on hitherto unstudied primary sources in Sanskrit, this study offers new insights on Appaya’s early polemical works and main source of Śivādvaita exegesis, Śrīkaṇṭha’s Brahmamīmāṃsābhāṣya; it identifies Appaya’s key intellectual influences and opponents in his reconstruction of Śrīkaṇṭha’s theology; and it highlights some of the key arguments and strategies he used to make his ambitious project a success. Centred on his magnum opus of Śivādvaita Vedānta, the Śivārkamaṇidīpikā, this book demonstrates that Appaya’s Śaiva oeuvre was mainly directed against Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, the dominant Vaiṣṇava school of philosophical theology in his time and place. A far-reaching study of the challenges of Indian theism, this book opens up new possibilities for our understanding of religious debates and polemics in early modern India as seen through the lenses of one of its most important intellectuals.

scholarly journals Torri difensive e territori fluviali: architetture d’acque nel bacino del fiume Zhujiang, Guangdong

X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loredana Ficarelli ◽  
Valentina Vacca
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
River Basin ◽  
Morphological Characters ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Local Models ◽  
Water Control ◽  
Settlement Systems ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
Zhujiang River ◽  
River Line

Defensive towers and river territories: water architecture in the Zhujiang river basin, GuangdongThe contribution intends to provide a reading and an in-depth study of the defensive heritage located in the Zhujiang river basin and its delta in Guangdong, China. The paper focuses on the case of diaolou, defensive towers already listed as UNESCO since 2007, built from the sixteenth century until the first half of the twentieth century in Kaiping country. These buildings show an interesting mixture of some local models and typologies and specific characters and styles borrowed from western examples. The research takes as a privileged point of view the relationships that these settlement systems forge with the hydrographic resource, which generates a territorial groove that determines the morphology of the territory and constitutes a historical vehicle of crossings. The arrangement of the fortified towers with respect to the river line is influenced by centripetal and centrifugal actions aimed at responding to defensive needs in the geography of this territory. The heritage of the diaolou seems to respond to two types of defensive demands: one linked to historical facts and the frequent bandit raids that took place in the Guangdong area in the nineteenth century; the other connected to geographical and hydraulic data, as the protection from the phenomenon of inundation and the consequent placement of the towers in the floodplain of the Zhujiang river. The course of the river gets in shape through the architectural technique, in the construction of towers and defensive works and, in the same way, some aspects of the design of this territory are defined through the description of the forms of the river. Architecture, hydraulic engineering and geography work together in defining the form of the settlement and invest the scale of the buildings, generating specific architectural types and morphological characters suitable for responding to the problem of water control, conservation and distribution.

THE PECULIARITIES OF MAPS IN NATO

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-50
Author(s):  
O. Goncharenko ◽  
V. Kukol ◽  
S. Mikheli
Keyword(s):  
Stereographic Projection ◽  
Basic Data ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Military Operations ◽  
Engineering Structures ◽  
Digital Maps ◽  
Mercator Projection ◽  
The Creation

The article describes basic data about the features of creating and operating of NATO maps. The article provides informationabout scale standards for NATO topographic maps. The structure of topographic maps, the order of their creation, mainpurposes, tasks, requirements according to NATO standards are considered. Topographic maps at scales of 1:25 000, 1:50 000and 1: 100 000 are created by NATO countries in accordance with national requirements while maintaining their traditionaltransition to the creation of topographic maps, but adhering to a single NATO standard for mandatory mapping of WGS -84 andUTM grids, the printing of explanation symbols and abbreviations in English and application of geographical names in Latin. Atpresent, there is a coherent NATO geopolitics for the creation of topographic special maps (including digital maps), the basicprinciple of which is that each NATO member is responsible for providing the necessary cartographic materials to its troops andNATO forces on its territory and to the globe. for planning and conducting military operations. A 1: 250,000 scale map is used tostudy and evaluate in detail individual, relatively small but important areas, when crossing water obstacles, during hostilities inlarge settlements, as well as when designing and constructing large engineering structures. Projections of topographic maps ofscale 1: 250 000 are considered, specifics of delineation and designations adopted for the map, features of the content of th etopographic map according to NATO standards. The maps are created in the Universal Transversal Mercator Projection (UTM),the Universal Polar Stereographic Projection (UPS) and the Lambert Conformal Conic Projection. The article presents a system ofgraphic symbols and symbols of NATO.

Approximation of a Great Circle by using a Circular Arc on a Mercator Chart

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 497-508
Author(s):  
Miljenko Lapaine ◽  
Tomislav Jogun
Keyword(s):  
Stereographic Projection ◽  
Great Circle ◽  
Actual Length ◽  
Circular Arc ◽  
Projection Plane ◽  
Mercator Projection

This paper describes George Biddell Airy's almost completely unknown method of approximating an orthodromic arc (great circle arc) using a circular arc in the normal aspect Mercator projection of a sphere. In addition, it is demonstrated that the centre of the circle can be defined in at least two different ways, which yields slightly different results. Airy's approach is built upon in this paper. The method of computing coordinates of Airy's circle arc centre is described. The formulae derived in the paper can be used to calculate the length of Airy's approximation of the orthodromic arc connecting two points on the sphere and on the Mercator chart. Moreover, the actual length of the orthodromic arc on the sphere and on the Mercator chart can be computed using the formulae derived in this paper. The purpose of the paper is not to suggest an application of Airy's method in navigation, but to analyse Airy's proposal and to show that a great circle arc on a Mercator chart is close to a circular arc for distances which are not too great. This property can be useful in education, having in mind that the stereographic projection is the only one that maps any circle on a sphere onto a circle in the projection plane.

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