Centaurus Journal
About Centaurus
Centaurus is the official English language journal of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS). The journal was started in 1950 and has remained one of the major journals devoted to the history of science and its social and cultural aspects. It has a special interest in aspects connected to Europe as a distinct regional and cultural space, but its focus is not restricted to that. Centaurus publishes original research papers, review articles, notes and commentaries. Book reviews and review essays are also included. There is an annual call for special issues. For the results of these calls and other news of Centaurus see www.eshs.org/-Centaurus-27-.html
For the last publications see the official website.
You are very welcome to submit your papers at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cnt. The editor-in-chief, Ida Stamhuis (i.h.stamhuis@vu.nl), is ready to answer your questions. Please don’t hesitate to contact her or speak to her during the conference.
To be published:
Predicting eclipses and planetary positions has always been a desideratum for the astral sciences, whether in China, India, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, or Italy. A variety of sources can reveal a corresponding variety of mathematical practices and thus may constitute a challenge for the historian seeking to understand the mathematical, astronomical or cultural significance of a procedure or instrument. The authors and editors of the Centaurus special issue: On Recovering Mathematical Practices from Sources of the Early Astral Sciences, which will appear at the end of 2016, promote the idea that analyses of mathematical practices also can yield important insights about the material and textual dimensions of the sources.
Editors and authors: Matthieu Husson, Richard Kremer, Sebastian Falk, Li Liang, Sho Hirose and Daniel Morgan.
Published:
Today, we have all but lost the direct experience of electricity, and with it, a sensibility to its poetic force as well as its significant past. Serious historical and critical work is necessary to unearth the scientific and artistic potential of electricity and its variegated experiences, uses and representations in the past. Read more in the Special Issue Electricity and Imagination (2015 (57) 129–228).
The 1931 International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in London is best known for the delivery of the paper on the economic and bourgeois embedding of Newton's Principia by Boris Hessen. However, instead of making western historians of science conscious of the importance of connecting science and society in their analysis, this conference became the stage for the public humiliation of the Soviet delegates. Read more in Five Tourniquets and a Ship's Bell (Chivers 2015 (57) 61–95).