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Synopsis
This book is a concise history of the use and interpretation of time, written by one of the foremost medievalists in Europe today.
Arno Borst examines the various ways that time has been calculated by numbers and measured by instruments over several centuries, from the computus--an ancient method of determining times and dates--to the present-day computer. In a wide-ranging discussion, he analyzes the classical Greek concepts of divine, natural, and human time; the universal time of ancient Rome; the Easter cycle of the Middle Ages; the development of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; early modern chronology; and twentieth-century data processing.
Borst argues that although many centuries and countless different instruments--sundials, horologia, abaci, astrolabes, calendars, and calculating machines--separate the medieval computus from the modern computer, each generation has had to answer the same question: how can we make the best use of our available time to improve our lives? The computer, he suggests, is merely a new instrument employed for an ancient purpose.
Lively and accessible, The Ordering of Time will be welcomed by students and researchers in social and cultural history, the history of science and mathematics, as well as anyone interested in the history of time and numbers.
Arno Borst examines the various ways that time has been calculated by numbers and measured by instruments over several centuries, from the computus--an ancient method of determining times and dates--to the present-day computer. In a wide-ranging discussion, he analyzes the classical Greek concepts of divine, natural, and human time; the universal time of ancient Rome; the Easter cycle of the Middle Ages; the development of the mechanical clock in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; early modern chronology; and twentieth-century data processing.
Borst argues that although many centuries and countless different instruments--sundials, horologia, abaci, astrolabes, calendars, and calculating machines--separate the medieval computus from the modern computer, each generation has had to answer the same question: how can we make the best use of our available time to improve our lives? The computer, he suggests, is merely a new instrument employed for an ancient purpose.
Lively and accessible, The Ordering of Time will be welcomed by students and researchers in social and cultural history, the history of science and mathematics, as well as anyone interested in the history of time and numbers.
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Review
′ The Ordering of Time is a good piece of work.′ Times Higher Education Supplement
About the Author
Arno Borst is Emeritus Professor of Medieval History at the University of Konstanz in Germany. Borst′s previous books include Medieval Worlds (Polity, 1992).
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The Ordering of Time: From the Ancient Computus to the Modern Computer
Published by
University of Chicago Press, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A., 1994
ISBN 10: 0226066584
ISBN 13: 9780226066585
New
Hardcover
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Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. 1st Edition. FIRST EDITION. New. fine.Shelf CL104 Hardcover book never read or opened. No creases. Not price clipped. No marks. No previous owner names. No underlining .Not a remainder. Not ex library. Not a book club edition.Text complete and unmarked. Seller Inventory # 335687