Posts Tagged ‘Great Fire of London’
“We say the cows laid out Boston. Well, there are worse surveyors.”*…
On plotting the relationships of things in space…
Written by Leonhard Zubler, a Swiss goldsmith and instrument maker who is credited with popularizing the use of the plane table as a tool for surveying, Novum instrumentum geometricum illuminates the shared history of land-surveying and militaristic range-finding technologies. The text is intercut with elaborate copperplate engravings that showcase the might of trigonometry and triangulation in the immediacy of conflict. Bombardiers pack canons that are aimed with advanced precision at distant towers; the construction of ornate fortifications are planned with ease thanks to geometric instruments; and seemingly insurmountable crags are brought down to earth through the surveyor’s sightline. Readers are promised that they will learn how to measure the width of a moat or the height of wall in order to breach them more efficiently.
Novum instrumentum geometricum mainly features images related to an early modern instrument known as the triquetrum or Dreistab, a three-armed ruler, with two pivot points, used for charting angles in the heavens and on earth. Zubler most often showcases a two-armed variation known as the Zweistab, which includes a “finely divided scale and micrometer slide for exact settings”, writes Uta Lindgren. As if to show the versatility of this technology, the instrument is wielded on the masts of ships, balconies, and by a man perched atop the stump of a felled tree — even comically enlarged to depict its arms stretching out to touch the objects of their reconnaissance. Frequently two instruments are employed in parallel, by a pair of figures a fixed distance apart, which would allow the surveyors to estimate the distance to a faraway point using trigonometry.
Little is known about Leonhard Zubler (b. 1565), aside from his divorce in 1604, and probable death by plague circa 1611. He once created an extensive plan for modernizing the cityscape of Zurich, which was subsequently lost. During his lifetime, Zubler’s instruments were so desired that he was able to open a commercial outlet in Frankfurt am Main in 1608…
More mesmerizing illustrations: “Angles of Reconnaissance: Novum Instrumentum Geometricum (1607)” from @PublicDomainRev.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson
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As we triangulate, we might recall that it was on this date in 1667, about a year after the Great Fire of London, that Robert Hooke, a physicist (“natural philosopher”), astronomer, geologist, meteorologist, and architect was sub-contracted by friend and fellow architect Christopher Wren to conduct a survey of the fire-damaged area to establish ownership and facilitate reconstruction. As Lisa Jardine observed, “in the four weeks from the 4th of October, [Hooke] helped map the fire-damaged area, began compiling a Land Information System for London, and drew up building regulations for an Act of Parliament to govern the rebuilding.” Hooke also designed some of the buildings that made up the “new” London, among them: the Monument to the Great Fire of London (1672), Montagu House in Bloomsbury )1674 and Bethlem Royal Hospital (1674), which became known as “Bedlam.”
In 1670, Hooke was appointed Surveyor of the Royal Works. Together with Scottish cartographer and printer John Ogilby, he made precise and detailed surveys that led to the production in 1677 of a large-scale map of London, the first-known to be of a specific scale (1:1200).
“I’ve always lived by signs”*…
Justin McElroy, Municipal Affairs Reporter for CBC Vancouver, has taken to Twitter to perform an important public service…
I’ve identified 185 communities in the province of British Columbia that have welcome signs.
And in this thread, I’m going to rank every single one.
You can follow the thread, which is underway now: Rating the Welcome Signs of British Columbia, from @j_mcelroy. Via @broderick.
* Iris Murdoch, Henry and Cato
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As we contemplate connoisseurship, we might might send significant birthday greetings to a master of a different kind of sign, William Lilly; he was born on this date in 1602 (O.S.). Described as a genius at something “that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all,” he was an astrologer who was powerfully influential in his own time and hugely impactful on the future course of Western astrological tradition.
Lilly’s autobiography, published towards the end of his life in 1681, at the request of his patron Elias Ashmole, gives candid accounts of the political events of his era, and biographical details of contemporaries that are unavailable elsewhere. It was described, in the late 18th century, as “one of the most entertaining narratives in our language”, in particular for the historical portrayal it leaves of men like John Dee, Simon Forman, John Booker, Edward Kelley, including a whimsical first meeting of John Napier and Henry Briggs, respective co-inventors of the logarithm and Briggsian logarithms, and for its curious tales about the effects of crystals and the appearance of Queen Mab. In it, Lilly describes the friendly support of Oliver Cromwell during a period in which he faced prosecution for issuing political astrological predictions. He also writes about the 1666 Great Fire of London, and how he was brought before the committee investigating the cause of the fire, being suspected of involvement because of his publication of images, 15 years earlier, which depicted a city in flames surrounded by coffins… To his supporters he was an “English Merlin”; to his detractors he was a “juggling wizard and imposter.”…
Wikipedia
“Oxygen / Everything needs it”*…
As tongues of flame lapped the planet’s largest tract of rain forest over the past few weeks, it has rightfully inspired the world’s horror. The entire Amazon could be nearing the edge of a desiccating feedback loop, one that could end in catastrophic collapse. This collapse would threaten millions of species, from every branch of the tree of life, each of them—its idiosyncratic splendor, its subjective animal perception of the world—irretrievable once it’s gone. This arson has been tacitly encouraged by a Brazilian administration that is determined to develop the rain forest, over the objections of its indigenous inhabitants and the world at large. Losing the Amazon, beyond representing a planetary historic tragedy beyond measure, would also make meeting the ambitious climate goals of the Paris Agreement all but impossible. World leaders need to marshal all their political and diplomatic might to save it.
The Amazon is a vast, ineffable, vital, living wonder. It does not, however, supply the planet with 20 percent of its oxygen.
As the biochemist Nick Lane wrote in his 2003 book Oxygen, “Even the most foolhardy destruction of world forests could hardly dint our oxygen supply, though in other respects such short-sighted idiocy is an unspeakable tragedy.”…
There are very many very good reasons not to burn down the Amazon rain forest. Still, humans could burn every living thing on the planet and still not dent its oxygen supply: “The Amazon Is Not Earth’s Lungs.”
(Again– burning down the rainforest is bad, very very bad. But as long-time environmental reporter Michael Shellenberger argues, if we ground our concerns in the actual details of what’s happening, we’re much likelier to find effective responses.)
* Mary Oliver (from her collection Twist)
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As we take a deep breath, we might recall that it was on this date in 1666 that the Great Fire of London broke out. The conflagration raged for four days, mostly in the City of London, within the old Roman walls; it did not spread to the aristocratic district of Westminster, to Charles II’s Palace of Whitehall, nor to most of the suburban slums. It destroyed 13,200 houses, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and 87 parish churches. Miraculously, fewer than 20 people lost their lives.
The Banality of Evil– The Next Generation…
From the BBC:
The granddaughter of Italy’s fascist dictator Benito Mussolini has said that blood and parts of his brain have been stolen to sell on the internet.
Alessandra Mussolini, a former showgirl turned MP, said she immediately informed the police when she found out.
The listing, on auction site Ebay, reportedly showed images of a wooden container and ampoules of blood.
Ebay, which does not allow the sale of human matter on its site, said that the listing was removed within hours.
The initial price requested for the material was 15,000 euros ($22,000; £13,000).
The rest of the story– including doctors’ assurance that it must be a hoax, as Mussolini’s remains were destroyed years ago– here.
As we shudder our way from the ridiculous to the sublime, we might recall that it was on this date in 1697 that the “new” St. Paul’s Cathedral in London opened– designed by Christoper Wren after the Great Fire destroyed it’s predecessor (which had been designed by many over the years, most presently, by the extraordinary Inigo Jones).
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