Early Modern (15th-18th Century)

R.P. Greg in his catalogue (1860) lists a stone fall but give no details.

Museionline results from a partnership between Microsoft and Adnkronos Cultura and provides updated information concerning over 3,500 museums. The site aims at enhancing and promoting the Italian cultural heritage worldwide. Besides detailed service information on each museum, Adnkronos Cultura provides information on cultural programmes, exhibitions, and the activities carried out by Italian museums.

For a long time, two separate lines of thought governed our perceptions of tidal friction. Empirical evidence from observations of solar eclipses made as early as in Antiquity pointed to a secular acceleration of the mean angular motion of the Moon amongst the stars which was first noted by Edmund Halley in 1695. However, according to the solitary theoretical speculations of the philosopher Immanuel Kant (1754), oceanic tides retarded the rotation of the earth. When did these two lines of thought converge?

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Humans have been fascinated by the Moon for thousands of years, explaining it both as a deity and a physical world, recognizing its monthly re-occurrences, speculating on the origins of its surface features, and ultimately visiting it. Exploring the Moon provides knowledge about the Moon and its history of exploration.

The desire to explore the unknown has been a driving force in human history since the dawn of time. From the earliestdocumented accounts, ancient civilizations have explored the earth by sea. Early adventurers were motivated by religious beliefs, the desire forconquest, the need to establish trade routes, and hunger for gold. Modern history books begin the age of exploration with the fourteenth century, but there is evidence that exploration between Europe and Asia began much earlier. Travel between Greece and India, for instance, was common in Alexander the Great's time because his vast empire included territories of both countries. The Han Dynasty of China and the Roman Empire, likewise, had regular trade relations and even exchanged a few diplomats.

The Sumerians and ancient greeks were expert astronomers. I have not got much data on Sumerian astronomers, but suffice to say that they gave us the degree as a unit of angular measurement as they liked a sexagesimal system and 360 was almost the same as the number of days in a year. The Greeks came later but on quite a few of them I can find enough data to help me fill this page. Among them we find the following people:

The Ryhiner map collection is one of the most valuable and outstanding collections of the world. It consists of more than 16,000 maps, charts, plans and views from the 16th to the 18th century, covering the whole globe. Together with the 20,000 manuscript maps of the State Archives, the Canton of Berne owns not only a local, but a worldwide geographical memory. It's our duty to preserve this cultural heritage and make it accessible.

German LIbrary of the Year 2002

Eclipses of the Sun and Moon have always left a deep impression on their viewers. The loss of the Sun, the bringer of life for ancient people, was considered a bad omen. Many ancient people—including those in the Caribbean and the islands of the Pacific— believed that during an eclipse a monster or dragon was eating the Sun. The time of an eclipse was one of prayers, sacrifices, and noise as they attempted to make the dragon drop its prey—and the dragon always did!