John M. Steele

Astronomy is, together with mathematics, the oldest science in existence. It is also one of the very few instances of a scientific activity that inspired a huge respect and support in a wide variety of civilizations in spite of the fact that its real practical contributions were almost nil (of course its contributions on a psychological and symbolic levels, through religious observance and astrology, and on the philosophical level, were hugely important). This tiny little book, hardly one hundred and forty pages long, is a very nice introduction to the astronomical achievements of the middle eastern peoples from the Mesopotamia's cultures in the third millenium BCE, the Greek and Roman contributions (most notably Ptolemy's, working in Roman Egypt in the second Century CE) up until the medieval Islamic contributions culminating with Nasīr al-Tūsī's and Ibn al-Shātir's improvements on Ptolemy's planetary theory and their possible (indirect) influence upon european scholars such as Regiomontanus and Copernicus. A very interesting book indeed.… (altro)