Commercial and Sublime

Popular Astronomy Lectures in Britain, 1780–1860

Hsiang-Fu Huang (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

336 Seiten

2026
University of Pittsburgh Press (Verlag)
9780822948735 (ISBN)

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The astronomy lecturing trade in Britain experienced a theatrical turn in the early 1800s, as practitioners relied on larger and more elaborate visual aids to enhance the scenic and dramatic effects of their traveling spectacles. Commercial and Sublime explores this phenomenon in the long nineteenth century, a time when astronomical shows rose in popularity and the lecturing trade developed a commercial side where business, profits, and competition took center stage. Astronomy lecturing during this period, Hsiang-Fu Huang reveals, also heavily exploited the notion of the sublime, where displays and the rhetoric of awe and wonder were meant to arouse religious sentiment by pointing to the sublimity of the universe and the Creator behind it. His book explores the various practitioners, sites, curriculums, apparatus, and audiences of popular astronomy lectures, focusing specifically on those outside the scientific elite whose commercial endeavors opened up a flourishing market for various types of performances, including Lent shows in theaters, courses in learned or mechanics’ institutes, and itinerant lectures around provincial towns and in the surrounding countryside.

Hsiang-Fu Huang is associate professor of history at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He is also an honorary research associate in the Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London. Huang is currently a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Erscheinungsdatum	05.12.2025
Reihe/Serie	Sci & Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Zusatzinfo	38 b&w illustrations
Verlagsort	Pittsburgh PA
Sprache	englisch
Maße	156 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Weltraum / Astronomie
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
ISBN-13	9780822948735 / 9780822948735
Zustand	Neuware