Scientifica Historica: How the world's great science books chart the history of knowledge (Liber Historica)

Interesting, beautiful book. Great description and price by the seller!

Scientifica Historica, by Brian Clegg, is a very interesting book that examines the history of science by presenting some of the most influential science books of the times.Clegg gives you a survey of books and authors from the ancient world, though the renaissance, to the modern classical, on to post-classical, and finally modern times ('the next generation'). He starts with the Ishango Bone (20,000 to 18,000 BCE) and Egyptian Hieroglyphics and ends with Sabine Hossenfelder's Lost Math (2018). And you will find just about everything in between.Although this is not always an easy read, this has major interest for anyone interested in the history of science itself. There is also a lot here about the history of publishing. From scrolls to copyists to Gutenberg's printing press, to the modern era, a lot of what did or didn't get published depended on cost, availability, or sensibility.Of course, with such an expansive subject (e.g. 'science') and wide range of time, you will almost certainly think of books that were omitted. (For me, the most glaring omission would be Homer Smith's From Fish to Philosopher.) Additionally, the topic of 'science books' itself is a little vague. You might wonder how Alvin Toffler's Future Shock got into the same book as Euclid's Elements, Newton's Principia, or Hawkening's a Brief History of Time.That said, in spite of the wide-scope of the book, Clegg is able to tie together Assyrian clay tablets with Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry. Somehow, he weaves together a narrative that fits it all together.The only glaring error that I noted was that the cover of the Hebrew version of Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind was printed upside down.The highlight of the book are the many color plates. They are all printed on 9 1/2" x 7 3/4" matte stock. They might have been better served on glossy paper and--although this is already a large format book--it might have been better served being an even more over-sized coffee table book.All-in-all an excellent book for anyone interested in the history of science. Recommended.

The book arrived early and is as described .. maybe even better! Would definitely order from this seller again!

book arrived in excellent condition, good quality for price

This is a review of Scientifica Historica: How the world's great science books chart the history of knowledge.What a fantastic book! So many things positive things to say about it.First of all, this is a physically beautiful book that is the perfect coffee-table book with a perk - you will want to read it as well as putting it on display. I really dare anyone to sit in front of it and not pick it up to look through it. It's so reader friendly and easy to find sections/topics that interest you.The book is replete with so many gorgeous illustrations and graphs; on almost every page! Even the endpapers have a design of historical drawings. Beautiful! (I know some people may not care that much about the way a book looks but many years ago I was a design judge for independent publishers and this one would've gotten a big thumb's up from me.)As for the the reading material, the book is divided up into 5 different sections:The Ancient World - Laying the foundationsRenaissance in Print- The revolution in books.Modern-Classical - Victorian stabilityPost-Classical - The world turned upside downThe Next Generation - Transforming understandingIt's easy to navigate through the chapters which is a big plus with books of this ilk.Here's a quote that may best give you an idea of the purpose and content of this book and what you can look forward to by reading it:"The power of writing for science is that books act as a storage medium for ideas and discoveries; we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time. Science can only work as it does by building on the discoveries and theories of others. Isaac Newton famously said (probably paraphrasing Robert Burton) "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." Newton's ability to make use of others' ideas was only possible thanks to the written word. And books have been central to the spread of science in this manner ever since humanity began to look for rational expirations as what they observed around them over 2,500 years ago."Recommended.

The author looks at scientific knowledge with an interesting twist, by examining the books scientists wrote and how they made history. It is more reference book than casual read -- in an early page, I encountered the word "indubitably" and realized the text was more formal than I'm used to reading.The author, being British, also uses words that will sound odd to Americans; for example, maths (plural). Having just read a book on Carl Linnaeus, I searched for his name and thought he'd been overlooked until I realized the author used his Latinized name, Carl von Linne.The book is divided into five time periods: the ancient world, the Renaissance, modern classical, post classical and the next generation. The final section was most interesting to me, because I have appreciated today's authors who make complicated scientific matters understandable for the average person. I also appreciate that the author took the time to note the scarcity of women in the history of science. Too bad that can't be changed! How many discoveries and advances have we missed or were delayed because half the minds of the world were shut out? (Nice to see Antoinette Brown Blackwell included, though. I only knew about her as a suffragist.)The illustrations are beautiful, and the book is a delight to look at. I'll need to take each section slowly, though, to take it all in.