Alla ricerca dei confine del mondo
Since the very first time man began measuring the space around him, wonder never ceased. The question "Where are we?" looks like an easy one and yet the answer is anything but simple. The question is still open. Conclusions are always provisional, always questioned by new findings.The space gets bigger and bigger, the notion of "where" becomes broader. It is not just the Big Bang or the universe expanding: it is our perception of the space that broadened over time,becoming more and more complex and making us smaller and smaller, lost in a "where" now limitless.In this short but dense and enjoyable book, Maccacaro and Tartari bring us from the fuzzy space of the valleys inhabited by Homo Erectus to the cosmogonic myths of ancient cultures, introducing us to the first representations of the world. Leafing through their book we will learn that the great Empires of the Bronze Age already created sophisticated conceptual maps, while the stars already helped travellers to find their way. Heavenly space constantly intersectedwith the space on earth, and in classical antiquity the space began to dilate. During the Middle Ages calculation and navigation tools became more refined. Eventually, the discovery of a new continent radically changed our notion of "where", and subsequent exploration rapidly filled with names the spaces previously left blank on ancient parchment maps. In the Modern Age, lenses made the sky bigger, leading to the discovery of new planets. Stars quickly turned intogalaxies, while new theories literally reshaped the world. "Where" is now an elastic, time-related, limitless and ever changing concept.