The ordering of time. From the ancient computus to the modern computer.

Borst, Arno:

ISBN 10: 074561258X / ISBN 13: 9780745612584

Edité par Cambridge, Polity Press, 1993

A propos de cet article

IX, 168 Seiten Mit Schutzumschlag. Sehr gut erhalten. Mit kurzer Widmung des Autors mit Bleistift ("Mit herzlichem Dank A.B.) 074561258X Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 222.

N° de réf. du vendeur 109303

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: The ordering of time. From the ancient computus to the modern computer.
• Éditeur: Cambridge, Polity Press
• Date de parution: 1993
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 074561258X
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780745612584
• Reliure: gebundene Ausgabe
• État de l'article: Sehr gut
• État de la jaquette: Jaquette
• Poids: 222 grammes
• Signé: Signé par l'auteur
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Kulturgeschichte

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

Designed to be an accessible history of the use and interpretation of time, Borst examines the ways that time has been calculated by numbers and measured by instruments through the ages 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 14th and 15th centuries; early modern chronology; and 20th-century data processing. Borst argues that although many centuries and countless different instruments separate the "computus" from the modern computer, each generation throughout the ages has had to answer the same question: how can we make the best use of our available time to improve our lives?

Présentation de l'éditeur

This book is a concise history of the use and interpretation of time, written by one of the foremost historians in Europe today.

Arno Borst examines the various ways that time has been calculated by numbers and measured by instruments through the ages, from the "computus" – an ancient method of determining times and dates – to the present–day computer. In a wide–ranging discussion, he analyses 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 "computus" from the modern computer, each generation throughout the ages 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.