Frommer's Europe by Rail
You’ll never fall into the tourist traps when you travel with
Frommer’s. It’s like having a friend show you around, taking you to the
places locals like best. Our expert authors have already gone
everywhere you might go -- they’ve done the legwork for you, and
they’re not afraid to tell it like it is, saving you time and money. No
other series offers candid reviews of so many hotels and restaurants in
all price ranges. Every Frommer’s Travel Guide
is up-to-date, with exact prices for everything, dozens of color maps,
and exciting coverage of shopping, and nightlife. You’d be lost without
us!
What do these things have in common? Fireworks, wood-block printing, canal lock-gates, kites, the wheelbarrow, chain suspension bridges and the magnetic compass. The answer is that they were all invented in China, a country that, right through the Middle Ages, maintained a cultural and technological sophistication that made foreign dignitaries flock to its imperial courts for trade and favour. But then, around 1700, the flow of ingenuity began to dry up and even reverse as Europe bore the fruits of the scientific revolution back across the globe.
Nestled on a bend of the River Rhine, in the South West corner of Germany, is the City of Worms. It’s one of the oldest cities in central Europe; it still has its early city walls, its 11th century Romanesque cathedral and a 500-year-old printing industry, but in its centre is a statue of the monk, heretic and founder of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. In 1521 Luther came to Worms to explain his attacks on the Catholic Church to the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, and the gathered dignitaries of the German lands. What happened at that meeting, called the Diet of Worms, tore countries apart, set nation against nation, felled kings and plunged dynasties into suicidal bouts of infighting.
But why did Martin Luther risk execution to go to the Diet, what was at stake for the big players of medieval Europe and how did events at the Diet of Worms irrevocably change the history of Europe?
Europe1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World (Six Vol. Set)
In the distinguished tradition of its Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (1999) and Dictionary of the Middle Ages (1982-1989), Scribner has published an encyclopedia that is even grander than these award-winning works. Europe, 1450 to 1789 spans the mid-fifteenth century, a period of relative stability following the chaos of the late Middle Ages, to the French Revolution. The focus is on Europe within the context of world history, including meaningful developments in the arts, religion, politics, exploration, and warfare. Alphabetical entries range from broad and expected topics like the Enlightenment and the Renaissance to the more narrowly defined, such as Advice and etiquette books, Balloons, and tulips. Cross-references are numerous, and each signed entry is followed by a bibliography and see also references.
The 1,100-plus entries range in length from half a page to eight pages, and the number of bibliographical references from a few to 40. Major topics are represented by extended, in-depth essays, but the more tangential entries--Concubinage, Sanitation, Virtue --are also informative. More than a third of the entries are biographical. The first volume contains a helpful 120-page chronology dividing notable subjects into three categories--"Art and Architecture," "Drama and Music," and "Literature and Scholarship." Volume 6 has a "Systematic Outline of Contents," so users can locate all entries under a broad topic like "Law," "Religion," or "Science." Each volume lists the contents of all volumes in the set (though there is only one index at the end of the last volume), and each includes the same six maps representing major political changes during this period. Overall, there are 90 archival maps in the set. Gorgeous illustrations are sprinkled throughout, including an eight-page color section in the middle of each volume. Breathtaking reproductions of paintings provide a good argument for print encyclopedias over their online counterparts. Landmark pieces of art and architecture are also splendidly exhibited. Additionally, there are 750 black-and-white illustrations.
Mathematics from the Indian subcontinent has provided foundations for much of our modern thinking on the subject. They were thought to be the first to use zero as a number. Our modern numerals have their roots there too. And mathematicians in the area that is now India, Pakistan and Bangladesh were grappling with concepts such as infinity centuries before Europe got to grips with it. There’s even a suggestion that Indian mathematicians discovered Pythagoras’ theorem before Pythagoras.
Some of these advances have their basis in early religious texts which describe the geometry necessary for building falcon-shaped altars of precise dimensions. Astronomical calculations used to decide the dates of religious festivals also encouraged these mathematical developments.
So how were these advances passed on to the rest of the world? And why was the contribution of mathematicians from this area ignored by Europe for centuries?
