Last Week for Exhibit “On the Sunny Side”

October 1, 2013

This will be the last week for our exhibit “On the Sunny Side,” showcasing books, periodicals, manuscripts, photographs, and other materials from Special Collections and University Archives.
As the hours of sunshine diminish, we all may find ourselves more aware of the impact of daylight (sunlight!) hours on daily life. We invite you this week to take a few minutes to walk to Memorial Library and visit the exhibit on the 9th floor.

detail from geocentric depiction of eclipses as contained in MS 83 (1570), Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison. See also https://www.library.wisc.edu/specialcollections//exhibits/sacrobosco/index.html

Shown here is a detail from a geocentric depiction of eclipses as contained in an Italian manuscript of 1570 (written some decades after the publication of Copernicus’ treatise on the revolutions of the heavenly bodies). This manuscript, along with other editions of, and commentaries on, the late medieval text “On the sphere” by Joannes de Sacro Bosco (or Sacrobosco), has found use already this semester by students in History of Science 323 (the Scientific Revolution), as taught by Prof. Florence Hsia with Robin Rider. For more from our holdings of such works, see the small online exhibit “Sacrobosco and His Commentators.”