Search

Münster's Cosmographiae universalis was used in Slovakia in the more educated classes of the population and in educational facilities. Cosmographiae by Sebastian Münster was a major project not only of the author and compiler, but also of the Basel printer family Petri (Henricpetri). This important book in terms of content and design was printed and published several times in various language versions over several decades. Cosmographiae owes its great success primarily to the author's factual and scientific approach to the text, but also to the large number of quality woodcuts that visually complemented the text. The czech version of this book Kosmograffie Cžeská was also created, which was modified in terms of content and supplemented with a text from biblical history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the classifications assigned to the Strait of Magellan in the politicalterritorial configuration of the New World during the sixteenth century and related global dynamics happening at the time. The text is divided into three parts. The first is a theoretical reading of the historiographic problems and the temporalities surrounding the discovery of the Strait, which led to its identification as a "world-passage." The second examines the facts, actors and territorialities that consolidated it as a geopolitical reference point between 1520 and 1560. And, finally, the third studies the variations in its strategic importance in the period between 1560-1580, variations that reveal its role in delineating, synchronizing and speculating on a series of continental issues that affected simultaneously local and global spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a systematic search for wide-separation (with Einstein radius θE ≳ 1.5″), galaxy-scale strong lenses in the 30 000 deg2 of the Pan-STARRS 3π survey on the Northern sky. With long time delays of a few days to weeks, these types of systems are particularly well-suited for catching strongly lensed supernovae with spatially-resolved multiple images and offer new insights on early-phase supernova spectroscopy and cosmography. We produced a set of realistic simulations by painting lensed COSMOS sources on Pan-STARRS image cutouts of lens luminous red galaxies (LRGs) with redshift and velocity dispersion known from the sloan digital sky survey (SDSS). First, we computed the photometry of mock lenses in gri bands and applied a simple catalog-level neural network to identify a sample of 1 050 207 galaxies with similar colors and magnitudes as the mocks. Second, we trained a convolutional neural network (CNN) on Pan-STARRS gri image cutouts to classify this sample and obtain sets of 105 760 and 12 382 lens candidates with scores of pCNN > 0.5 and > 0.9, respectively. Extensive tests showed that CNN performances rely heavily on the design of lens simulations and the choice of negative examples for training, but little on the network architecture. The CNN correctly classified 14 out of 16 test lenses, which are previously confirmed lens systems above the detection limit of Pan-STARRS. Finally, we visually inspected all galaxies with pCNN > 0.9 to assemble a final set of 330 high-quality newly-discovered lens candidates while recovering 23 published systems. For a subset, SDSS spectroscopy on the lens central regions proves that our method correctly identifies lens LRGs at z ∼ 0.1–0.7. Five spectra also show robust signatures of high-redshift background sources, and Pan-STARRS imaging confirms one of them as a quadruply-imaged red source at zs = 1.185, which is likely a recently quenched galaxy strongly lensed by a foreground LRG at zd = 0.3155. In the future, high-resolution imaging and spectroscopic follow-up will be required to validate Pan-STARRS lens candidates and derive strong lensing models. We also expect that the efficient and automated two-step classification method presented in this paper will be applicable to the ∼4 mag deeper gri stacks from the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) with minor adjustments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni is the property of Editrice Morcelliana S.p.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The H0LiCOW collaboration inferred via strong gravitational lensing time delays a Hubble constant value of H0 = 73.3−1.8+1.7 H 0 = 73. 3 − 1.8 + 1.7 $ H_0 = 73.3^{+1.7}_{-1.8} $ km s−1 Mpc−1, describing deflector mass density profiles by either a power-law or stars (constant mass-to-light ratio) plus standard dark matter halos. The mass-sheet transform (MST) that leaves the lensing observables unchanged is considered the dominant source of residual uncertainty in H0. We quantify any potential effect of the MST with a flexible family of mass models, which directly encodes it, and they are hence maximally degenerate with H0. Our calculation is based on a new hierarchical Bayesian approach in which the MST is only constrained by stellar kinematics. The approach is validated on mock lenses, which are generated from hydrodynamic simulations. We first applied the inference to the TDCOSMO sample of seven lenses, six of which are from H0LiCOW, and measured H0 = 74.5−6.1+5.6 H 0 = 74. 5 − 6.1 + 5.6 $ H_0 = 74.5^{+5.6}_{-6.1} $ km s−1 Mpc−1. Secondly, in order to further constrain the deflector mass density profiles, we added imaging and spectroscopy for a set of 33 strong gravitational lenses from the Sloan Lens ACS (SLACS) sample. For nine of the 33 SLAC lenses, we used resolved kinematics to constrain the stellar anisotropy. From the joint hierarchical analysis of the TDCOSMO+SLACS sample, we measured H0 = 67.4−3.2+4.1 H 0 = 67. 4 − 3.2 + 4.1 $ H_0 = 67.4^{+4.1}_{-3.2} $ km s−1 Mpc−1. This measurement assumes that the TDCOSMO and SLACS galaxies are drawn from the same parent population. The blind H0LiCOW, TDCOSMO-only and TDCOSMO+SLACS analyses are in mutual statistical agreement. The TDCOSMO+SLACS analysis prefers marginally shallower mass profiles than H0LiCOW or TDCOSMO-only. Without relying on the form of the mass density profile used by H0LiCOW, we achieve a ∼5% measurement of H0. While our new hierarchical analysis does not statistically invalidate the mass profile assumptions by H0LiCOW – and thus the H0 measurement relying on them – it demonstrates the importance of understanding the mass density profile of elliptical galaxies. The uncertainties on H0 derived in this paper can be reduced by physical or observational priors on the form of the mass profile, or by additional data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time delay cosmography uses the arrival time delays between images in strong gravitational lenses to measure cosmological parameters, in particular the Hubble constant H0. The lens models used in time delay cosmography omit dark matter subhalos and line-of-sight halos because their effects are assumed to be negligible. We explicitly quantify this assumption by analyzing mock lens systems that include full populations of dark matter subhalos and line-of-sight halos, applying the same modeling assumptions used in the literature to infer H0. We base the mock lenses on six quadruply imaged quasars that have delivered measurements of the Hubble constant, and quantify the additional uncertainties and/or bias on a lens-by-lens basis. We show that omitting dark substructure does not bias inferences of H0. However, perturbations from substructure contribute an additional source of random uncertainty in the inferred value of H0 that scales as the square root of the lensing volume divided by the longest time delay. This additional source of uncertainty, for which we provide a fitting function, ranges from 0.7 − 2.4%. It may need to be incorporated in the error budget as the precision of cosmographic inferences from single lenses improves, and it sets a precision limit on inferences from single lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time delay cosmography uses the arrival time delays between images in strong gravitational lenses to measure cosmological parameters, in particular the Hubble constant H0. The lens models used in time delay cosmography omit dark matter subhalos and line-of-sight halos because their effects are assumed to be negligible. We explicitly quantify this assumption by analyzing mock lens systems that include full populations of dark matter subhalos and line-of-sight halos, applying the same modeling assumptions used in the literature to infer H0. We base the mock lenses on six quadruply imaged quasars that have delivered measurements of the Hubble constant, and quantify the additional uncertainties and/or bias on a lens-by-lens basis. We show that omitting dark substructure does not bias inferences of H0. However, perturbations from substructure contribute an additional source of random uncertainty in the inferred value of H0 that scales as the square root of the lensing volume divided by the longest time delay. This additional source of uncertainty, for which we provide a fitting function, ranges from 0.7 − 2.4%. It may need to be incorporated in the error budget as the precision of cosmographic inferences from single lenses improves, and it sets a precision limit on inferences from single lenses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article urges a rethinking of South Asian cosmography to counter our notion of seascapes lying outside notions of sovereignty, territoriality and technologies of control. While seas have emerged as central to economic and political security for most of the worlds' states, this is seen as a comparatively new phenomenon because South Asia's territoriality has always been seen as land-based. The emphasis on the modern has resulted in a neglect of South Asia's rich tradition of maritime expressiveness and generates a 'maritime blindness' affecting policy formulation, despite works on seafaring which trace diverse maritime perceptions from Pali and Sanskrit literature, sculptures, coins, paintings and epigraphy. This article claims that waterscapes were not absent in Asian ideas of territoriality, but differentiating between awareness in literary expressions of political selfhood wherein rulers saw the sea as boundary or even space of overlordship, and actual instances of ordering and controlling maritime spaces is important. By contrast, China's example as keeper of meticulous records pertaining to maritime matters shows attempts at actively controlling maritime spaces and provides new ways of reading South Asian perceptions of the sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a cosmography approach to using the data of the Hubble diagram for supernovae, quasars, and gamma-ray bursts, we study dark energy (DE) parameterizations and the concordance cold dark matter (ΛCDM) universe. Using different combinations of data samples including (i) supernovae (Pantheon), (ii) Pantheon + quasars. and (iii) Pantheon + quasars + gamma-ray bursts, and applying the minimization of χ2 function of the distance modulus of data samples in the context of the Markov Chain Monte Carlo method, we obtain constrained values of cosmographic parameters in a model-independent cosmography scenario. We then investigate our analysis, for different concordance ΛCDM cosmology, wCDM, Chevallier–Polarski–Linder, and Pade parameterizations. Comparing the numerical values of the cosmographic parameters obtained for DE scenarios with those of the model-independent method, we show that the concordance ΛCDM model has serious issues when we involve quasar and gamma-ray burst data in our analysis. While high-redshift quasars and gamma-ray bursts can falsify the concordance model, our results using a cosmography approach indicate that the other DE parameterizations are still consistent with these observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study possible systematic effects on the values of the cosmological parameters measured through strong lensing analyses of the Hubble Frontier Field galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223. We use the observed positions of a large set of spectroscopically selected multiple images, including those of supernova "Refsdal" with their published time delays. Starting from our reference model in a flat ΛCDM cosmology, published in Grillo et al. (2018), we confirm the relevance of the longest measurable time delay, between SX and S1, and an approximately linear relation between its value and that of H0. We perform true blind tests by considering a range of time delays around its original estimate of 345 ± 10 days, as an accurate measurement of this time delay is still not known at the time of analysis and writing. We investigate separately the impact of a constant sheet of mass at the cluster redshift, of a power-law profile for the mass density of the cluster main halo and of some scatter in the cluster member scaling relations. Remarkably, we find that these systematic effects do not introduce a significant bias on the inferred values of H0 and Ωm and that the statistical uncertainties dominate the total error budget: a 3% uncertainty on the time delay of image SX translates into approximately 6% and 40% (including both statistical and systematic 1σ) uncertainties for H0 and Ωm, respectively. Furthermore, our model accurately reproduces the extended surface brightness distribution of the supernova host. We also present the interesting possibility of measuring the value of the equation-of-state parameter w of the dark energy density, currently with a 30% uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro is the property of Hipogrifo: revista de literatura y cultura del siglo de oro and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Trashumante. Revista Americana de Historia Social is the property of Universidad de Antioquia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the historical and cultural significance of cosmography in the early modern Spanish Empire, as seen in Juan de Miramontes Zuázola's seventeenth-century epic poem, Armasantárticas (2006). It takes the description of a pilot in the harbor of Callao, Peru, on the eve of Francis Drake's arrival at the port as its point of departure. The essay examines the portrayal of cosmography as a "secret science", to use the words of María M. Portuondo (2009). The poem suggests that Drake's surprise attack was made possible by cosmographical knowledge. It also depicts cosmography as a countermeasure to combat future pirate incursions by sending the cosmographer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa on a data-collecting expedition to the Strait of Magellan. Consistent with the important role accorded to cosmography in matters of the state, Armas antárticas also makes out the practitioners of cosmography to be heroic in their own right. This departs markedly from the conventional notions of epic heroism, whether it be of the traditional, chivalric sort or of the early modern, gunpowder sort. Such a perspective is in line with the new kind of epic heroism pioneered by Luis Camões in his sixteenth-century epic, Os Lusíadas (1973), as analyzed by Ayesha Ramachandran (2015), but it also carries with it negative connotations that blur the distinction between seafarers like Ferdinand Magellan and Francis Drake. It was sailors like Drake, moreover, who foiled attempts to keep cosmography secret, prompting a reorientation of its strategic use away from secrecy and toward controlled dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article sets out to explore the tradition and the innovative forces involved in the production of the first city atlas, Civitates orbis terrarum, a six-volume collection of town images published by Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg between 1572 and 1617. In doing so, it considers the consequences of the rediscovery of Ptolemy's notions of geography and chorography and traces how time-honoured ideas and new practices of describing places meet in the depiction of early modern cities. The article discusses the potential of chorography as a genre capable of representing a city while trying to convey information about its character and addresses the role of printing in the dissemination of city views. The analysis extends from classic notions and modern practices of chorography to the humanist pursuit of a global vision that can be identified in the design of the Civitates, where the metaphor of the theatre appears to extend from the material of the atlas to the book itself. The research is mostly based on social and cultural histories of cartography and cosmography which can contribute to a better understanding of the complex significance of city images in Braun and Hogenberg's project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cosmography becomes non-predictive when cosmic data span beyond the redshift limit z ≃ 1. This leads to a strong convergence issue that jeopardizes its viability. In this work, we critically compare the two main solutions of the convergence problem, i.e. the y -parametrizations of the redshift and the alternatives to Taylor expansions based on Padé series. In particular, among several possibilities, we consider two widely adopted parametrizations, namely y 1 = 1− a and |$y_2=\arctan (a^{-1}-1)$|⁠ , being a the scale factor of the Universe. We find that the y 2-parametrization performs relatively better than the y 1-parametrization over the whole redshift domain. Even though y 2 overcomes the issues of y 1, we get that the most viable approximations of the luminosity distance dL (z) are given in terms of Padé approximations. In order to check this result by means of cosmic data, we analyse the Padé approximations up to the fifth order, and compare these series with the corresponding y -variables of the same orders. We investigate two distinct domains involving Monte Carlo analysis on the Pantheon Superovae Ia data, H (z) and shift parameter measurements. We conclude that the (2,1) Padé approximation is statistically the optimal approach to explain low- and high-redshift data, together with the fifth-order y 2-parametrization. At high redshifts, the (3,2) Padé approximation cannot be fully excluded, while the (2,2) Padé one is essentially ruled out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Archaeological discoveries related to hemerology and calendrical astrology have drawn attention to the existence of a square geometric pattern consisting in its simplest form of a central cross and four right angles in the corners opening to the exterior. In this paper I examine the most common terms used in modern research to name the diagram. I then rank the existing diagrams based on the specific contexts for which they were designed, along with a presentation of the technical features of each diagram. Finally, I show how the various forms taken by these diagrams may lead to a better understanding of their meaning and functions and provide preliminary answers to questions such as the purpose of inserting a diagram in a technical text, the advantage of a diagram compared with a list or a table, and more generally, the relationship between text and image in the excavated manuscripts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employing autobiographical accounts, Shafir also suggests that Katib Çelebi viewed his inheritance as enabling his focus on the madrasa-taught sciences, which he held in the highest esteem. Eventually, Katib Çelebi conceived his magnum opus, what Hagen calls the "Encyclopedia Project." Hagen draws attention to Katib Çelebi's lack of a formal madrasa education, which foreclosed a traditional scholarly career early on. [Extracted from the article]

The rise of Cahokia, the largest precontact Native American city north of Mexico, was precipitated by centripetal and centrifugal mobilizations of peoples, ideas, objects, and practices. To interrogate outward Cahokian movements as diasporic, I reassess relationships between Cahokia and the Angel polity on the northeastern Mississippian frontier. I approach Mississippian communities through a relational framework as ever-emerging assemblages constituted by both human and non-human actors. This framework emphasizes ethnogenesis as a process of diaspora whereby dispersed groups are in a perpetual state of community-making outside of, but in reference to, a homeland. I focus on an analysis of the Angel assemblage of Ramey Incised pottery, a power-laden Cahokian object, and determine that Angel Ramey exhibits local paste signatures in what are otherwise primarily Cahokian-style pots. Further, I contextualize artifactual connections with socio-spatial practices of Angel communities and demonstrate that aligning residential structures and communal features to a Cahokian cosmography was a principal part of community-identity-making throughout the Angel polity. Ultimately, I argue that relationships with Cahokia motivated ethnogenesis in Angel communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel, purely geometric probe of cosmology based on measurements of differential time delays between images of strongly lensed quasars due to finite source effects. Our approach is solely dependent on cosmology via a ratio of angular diameter distances, the image separation, and the source size. It thereby entirely avoids the challenges of lens modelling that conventionally limit time delay cosmography, and instead entails the lensed reverberation mapping of the quasar broad-line region. We demonstrate that differential time delays are measurable with short-cadence spectroscopic monitoring of lensed quasars, through the timing of kinematically identified features within the broad emission lines. This provides a geometric determination of an angular diameter distance ratio complementary to standard probes, and as a result is a potentially powerful new method of constraining cosmology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the mathematical definitions of deceleration and jerk parameters we obtain a general differential equation for squared Hubble parameter. For a constant jerk, this differential equation leads to an exact function for Hubble parameter. By the aid of this exact Hubble function we can exactly reconstruct any other cosmographic parameters. We also obtained a general function for transition redshift as well as spacetime curvature. Our derived functions clearly impose a lower limit on the jerk parameter which is j min ≥ - 0.125 . Moreover, we found that the jerk parameter indicates the geometry of the spacetime i.e any deviation from j = 1 imply to a non-flat spacetime. In other word j ≠ 1 refers to a dynamical, time varying, dark energy. From obtained Hubble function we recover the analogue of Λ CDM model. To constrain cosmographic parameters as well as transition redshift and spacetime curvature of the recovered Λ CDM model, we used Metropolis–Hasting algorithm to perform Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis by using observational Hubble data obtained from cosmic chronometric technique, BAO data, Pantheon compilation of Supernovae type Ia, and their joint combination. The only free parameters are H, A (Ω m) and j. From joint analysis we obtained H 0 = 69.9 ± 1.7 , A (∼ Ω 0 m) = 0. 279 - 0.017 + 0.013 , B (∼ Ω 0 X) = 0. 721 - 0.013 + 0.017 , j 0 = 1. 038 - 0.023 + 0.061 and z t = 0. 706 - 0.034 + 0.031 . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have only recently started to study ilanot (lit., "trees"), the cosmographic genre constituted by the wedding of kabbalistic diagrams—the trees of the metonymic name—and large parchment sheets. Differences of kabbalistic opinion naturally found expression in these "maps of God." The Sabbatean messianic movement of the 1660s and its prolonged and impactful afterlife produced, among other things, a number of distinctive kabbalistic opinions. For the most part, these innovations were tightly integrated with the speculations associated with "Lurianic" Kabbalah based on the teachings of R. Isaac Luria (1534–1572). The great Lurianic ilanot were designed and circulated in the second third of the seventeenth century, not long before the emergence of Sabbateanism, but their golden age was "the long eighteenth century"—a British coinage for roughly 1660–1830—and thus coincided with the profound and pervasive absorption of Sabbatean elements in precisely those sectors that produced and consumed these artifacts, including nascent Hasidism. The deceptively simple question at the heart of this article is this: What would it mean to diagram Sabbateanism? Or to put it another way, what would constitute a Sabbatean ilan? How might distinctive Sabbatean ideas have found diagrammatic expression in this genre? Once identified as such, what do Sabbatean ilanot tell us about the meanings of Sabbateanism in the contexts within which they were produced? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Unknow Ravennese (Anonymous of Ravenna) wrote the Cosmography around 700. His work contains the description of the Earth in five books. The depiction of east Europe is in the fourth book. Anonymous of Ravenna listed the countries (patria) of the Caucasus (Lazia/Lazike, Abasgia/Abkhazia, Absilisa, Zichia) and the names of the cities in this region. The Cosmography includes the names of the countries (patria) in the northern foreground of the Caucasus (Alania, Khazaria, Onogoria). The countries lying in the territory of the Crimea appears in the Cosmography. Bosphorania, Sugdabon, Fanaguron and the country of the Goths (Getho Githorum) were little countries in the Crimea and Kerch Strait. This paper focuses on the description of Onogoria because this region was a dwelling place of the Hungarian tribes in the period of their wandering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Samuel Szádeczky-Kardoss and his co-authors spent many years on the written sources on the Avars. Translations and commentaries were published in Hungarian in two volumes. In the published material are mostly narrative sources on the political events. Short geographical reports were omitted. In this paper I focus on three medieval geographical works mentioned the Avars: Anonymous of Ravenna, the Frankish Cosmography and the Ebstorf map. The first and second are contemporary sources (7-8th c.), but the map was constructed in the 13th century. These short sources help to complete and specify our knowledge on the history and medieval historiography of the Avars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Trans/Form/Ação is the property of Trans/Form/Acao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article provides information on the cosmographical projects in Spain including documents common to the legal bureaucratic system of the hispanic monarchy, legitimacy from legalistic underpinnings and traditional of humanist learning and administrative state culture. Topics include monarchical government, probanzas and legal instruments.

Haitian sea migration and US maritime policing have emerged in tandem since the 1980s. During this time, many Haitians have begun to assume that migration voyages succeed only because of ritual exchanges—in particular, transactions between migrants and sea‐traversing, other‐than‐human beings. These ritual payments, along with other activities of border crossing and control, have placed ships, routes, and offshore detention centers in an interconnected constellation that spans the northern Caribbean. These cosmographically deep spatial configurations exceed concepts like "region" or "sociocultural area." Cosmographic depth, while not unique to these spaces, is made visible in the array of entities, forces, and moral sensibilities that compose them. Seeing cosmographically highlights this depth, which is often rendered inconsequential by dominant bureaucratic registers of border securitization. [oceans, migration, space, ritual economies, cosmology, Guantánamo Bay, Haiti, Caribbean] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The time-delay between the arrival of photons of multiple images of time-variable sources can be used to constrain absolute distances in the Universe, and in turn obtain a direct estimate of the Hubble constant and other cosmological parameters. To convert the time-delay into distances, it is well known that the gravitational potential of the main deflector and the contribution of the matter along the line of sight need to be known to a sufficient level of precision. In this paper, we discuss a new astrometric requirement that is becoming important, as time-delay cosmography improves in precision and accuracy with larger samples, and better data and modelling techniques. We derive an analytic expression for the propagation of astrometric uncertainties on the multiple image positions into the inference of the Hubble constant and derive requirements depending on image separation and relative time-delay. We note that this requirement applies equally to the image position measurements and to the accuracy of the model in reproducing them. To illustrate the requirement, we discuss some example lensing configurations and highlight that, especially for time-delays of order 10 d or shorter, the relative astrometric requirement is of order milliarcseconds, setting a tight requirement on both measurements and models. With current optical infrared technology, astrometric uncertainties may be the dominant limitation for strong lensing cosmography in the small image-separation regime when high-precision time-delays become accessible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A hierarchical Bayesian model is applied to the Cosmicflows-3 catalogue of galaxy distances in order to derive the peculiar velocity field and distribution of matter within z  ∼ 0.054. The model assumes the ΛCDM model within the linear regime and includes the fit of the galaxy distances together with the underlying density field. By forward modelling the data, the method is able to mitigate biases inherent to peculiar velocity analyses, such as the Homogeneous Malmquist bias or the lognormal distribution of peculiar velocities. The statistical uncertainty on the recovered velocity field is about 150 km s−1 depending on the location, and we study systematics coming from the selection function and calibration of distance indicators. The resulting velocity field and related density fields recover the cosmography of the Local Universe which is presented in an unprecedented volume of our Universe 10 times larger than previously reached. This methodology opens the doors to reconstruction of initial conditions for larger and more accurate constrained cosmological simulations. This work is also preparatory to larger peculiar velocity data sets coming from Wallaby, TAIPAN, or LSST. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes how the astronomy of Islamic societies in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries can be understood as cosmological. By studying the Arabic translations of the relevant Greek terms and then the definitions of the medieval Arabic dictionaries, the article finds that Arabic terms did not communicate order in the way implied by the Greek ho kósmos (ὁ κόσμος; the cosmos). Yet, astronomers of the period sometimes discussed cosmic order in addition to describing the cosmos. This article finds, too, that a new technical term, nafs al-amr (the fact of the matter) became part of later discussions of cosmic order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraining the dark energy equation of state, w x (z) , is one of the main issues of current and future cosmological surveys. In practice, this requires making assumptions about the evolution of w x with redshift z , which can be manifested in a choice of a specific parametric form where the number of cosmological parameters play an important role in the observed cosmic acceleration. Since any attempt to constrain the EoS requires some prior fixing in one form or the other, settling a method to constrain cosmological parameters is of great importance. In this paper, we provide a straightforward approach to show how cosmological tests can be improved via a parametric methodology based on cosmography. Using Supernovae Type IA samplers, we show how by performing a statistical analysis of a specific dark energy parametrization can give directly the cosmographic parameters values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Alta rock art area in northern Norway has more than 6000 carvings made between about 5200–1BC. The focus for this paper is the Bergbukten 4B panel in Alta. With more than 200 figures this is one of the largest panels with Stone Age rock art in northern Europe. The panel holds several scenes, compositions and narratives. Studying relations between the figures and the interaction with the natural features of the rock canvas show some of the rock art refers to activities and places of activities mirroring real places. Moreover, the figures are also placed in relation to a three-tiered cosmological framework. This intertwined 'world as we know it' can be interpreted as a cosmographical knowledge of the hunter-fisher-gatherers making the rock art in the Stone Age about 6000–7000 years ago where real and imaginary landscapes were part of a cosmographical representation visualizing their 'memoryscapes' stored in the rocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the genre of shamanic incantation (bi'id ɨd) among the Hup people of the northwest Amazon. We consider the artistic features that characterize bi'id ɨd as both verbal art and powerful shamanic action – most notably the intersecting layers of parallelism, the leveraging of metaphor from both literal and figurative perspectives, and the strategic use of evidentials. We also consider the astonishingly complex taxonomy and cosmography the genre embodies, with its ontological classification of the plants, animals, and other beings within the diverse environments of the Hup world (rivercourse, forest, sky, water, etc.). As we lay out here, Hup bi'id ɨd provides an example par excellence of Sherzer's conception of discourse as the nexus of language and culture, and an illustration of the fact that a rich understanding of language and culture must make reference to both together. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2051Cosmography can be considered as a sort of a model-independent approach to tackle the dark energy/modified gravity problem. In this review, the success and the shortcomings of the Λ CDM model, based on General Relativity (GR) and standard model of particles, are discussed in view of the most recent observational constraints. The motivations for considering extensions and modifications of GR are taken into account, with particular attention to f (R) and f (T) theories of gravity where dynamics is represented by curvature or torsion field, respectively. The features of f (R) models are explored in metric and Palatini formalisms. We discuss the connection between f (R) gravity and scalar–tensor theories highlighting the role of conformal transformations in the Einstein and Jordan frames. Cosmological dynamics of f (R) models is investigated through the corresponding viability criteria. Afterwards, the equivalent formulation of GR (Teleparallel Equivalent General Relativity (TEGR)) in terms of torsion and its extension to f (T) gravity is considered. Finally, the cosmographic method is adopted to break the degeneracy among dark energy models. A novel approach, built upon rational Padé and Chebyshev polynomials, is proposed to overcome limits of standard cosmography based on Taylor expansion. The approach provides accurate model-independent approximations of the Hubble flow. Numerical analyses, based on Monte Carlo Markov Chain integration of cosmic data, are presented to bound coefficients of the cosmographic series. These techniques are thus applied to reconstruct f (R) and f (T) functions and to frame the late-time expansion history of the universe with no a priori assumptions on its equation-of-state. A comparison between the Λ CDM cosmological model with f (R) and f (T) models is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of the New Philosophy was to 'improve the lives of people and nations in part by improving medical practice'. To this end, Oliva Sabuco sought to improve humankind's knowledge of the philosophical underpinnings of medicine while taking experiential practices into account. She suggested that a variety of procedures (pharmaceutical, emotional and therapeutic) should be adopted to maintain and restore harmony between the mind and body. Oliva Sabuco sought to promote health and prevent disease by expanding our knowledge of the interrelationship between mind and body; the ultimate goal was to understand the body's function and form in order to promote inner harmony and thus health. The influence of classical traditions in moral and natural philosophy, medicine, and cosmography is unmistakable in Oliva Sabuco's text, yet she synthesized these traditions, disagreed with fundamental aspects of them, and transformed them in a holistic philosophy of human nature that is part of a larger view of the cosmos and mankind's place in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of Arabic translation, there are two periods in which translation, which is seen as an individual scientific activity, is accepted as a state policy, encouraged and supported by the state, and beyond that, translators are guided by political authority. The first is the translation period, which was initiated during the reign of the Abbasid caliph 2nd Mansur and reached its peak during the caliph al-Ma'mun. The translations of this period were mainly related to medicine, cosmography, engineering and logic, and were mostly translated into Arabic through Persian and Sanskrit. Therefore, we can name the period as the period of philosophical-medical translation. The second period began in 1773 when Catholic Christian groups emigrated from France to Lebanon and established many schools there, reaching the peak during the reign of Egypt Governor of Kavalali Mehmet Ali Pasha (1805-1848). This period, which focuses on the translation of textbooks and engineering sciences of European universities into Arabic, can be named as the period of scientific translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a re-examination of the first complete printed edition of Ptolemy's Cosmographia (Bologna, de Lapis, 1477), hitherto considered flawed and defective. An investigation of the status and priorities of the team of court astrologers responsible for this edition, and an examination of the alterations they made to Ptolemy's maps, suggests that their aim was a redaction intentionally different from existing versions of the Geography. It is suggested that the editors sought to adjust the arrangement of provinces from that recommended in Ptolemy's Geography (book VIII) to the astrological arrangement detailed in his Tetrabiblos (book II) and that they modified the content of the key regional maps accordingly. In this light, the Bologna 1477 edition underlines the importance of assessing the reception of Ptolemy's geographical work against a cultural background in which astrology prevailed as an integrated system of knowledge, practices and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qur'an 67, Surat al-Mulk ('Surat of the Kingdom'), describes the seven heavens in a sharply contoured image. This cosmographic image is one of the few textual icons forming the 'Quranic literary iconography'. The divine light contained in a lamp within a niche in Surat al-Nur ('Surat of the Light', 24), or the glass sarh of Solomon's palace, in Surat al-Naml ('Surat of the Ants', 27), constitute other examples among these icons. This essay argues that, by means of the heavenly description, Surat al-Mulk conveys an aesthetic meaning that is pivotal to its religious rhetoric. As a complement, this study includes an examination of the surat's phraseology by the linguist Muhammad Husain Kazi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to construction of generalized ghost dark energy f(G) model by using correspondence scheme for both interacting and noninteracting scenarios with pressureless matter and power-law scale factor. We study the cosmological implications of the resulting model through equation of state parameter and ωDE – as well as r – s plane. We also discuss stability of the resulting model through squared speed of sound parameter. The equation of state parameter represents phantom phase of the Universe for both cases while the squared speed of sound indicates stability of this model. The ωDE – plane represents thawing region whereas r – s plane corresponds to phantom and quintessence DE regimes for both interacting and noninteracting cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]