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Sharon Kingsland
Department Chair

History of Science and Technology
3505 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

phone 410-516-7501
danielle@jhu.edu

Maria M. Portuondo, Ph.D.

Early Modern Cosmography, Astronomy and Natural History, Early Modern Natural Philosophy Science and Technology in Spain and Latin America

Contact Information:
Telephone: 410-516-7503
Office: Rm 210, 3505 N Charles St

E-mail: mportuondo@jhu.edu




Undergraduate Course-Fall 2009

140.389 New Lands, New Science: Exploration and Science

Whereas today exploring the frontiers of science takes place for the most part inside the walls of a laboratory or in the darkness of outer space, over the past five hundred years scientific exploration meant setting out on long voyages that took the scientist to the far corners of the earth—to a place where the frontiers of science and the frontiers of the known world often coincided. We will study a number of voyages of scientific exploration in this course and use them as “episodes” to illustrate important themes in the history of science. They will also serve as the source of material to learn the historian’s craft. This course is designed to acquaint you with two important aspects of historical studies: methodology (the problems of research and writing history) and historiography

140.710 Graduate Seminar on the Scientific Revolution

Course concerns developments in early modern Europe known as the Scientific Revolution. Topics include cosmology, astronomy, mechanics, natural history, and chemistry and issues involving magic, technology, humanism, and the social content of early modern science. Emphasis on the study of primary sources and translations. Graduate students new to these topics are invited to attend lectures of 140.321.

Curriculum vitae

Publications: Books

Portuondo, María M. Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (University of Chicago Press, 2009).

Articles and Book Chapters

“Lunar Eclipses, Longitude and the New World.” Journal of the History of Astronomy 40 (2009). (forthcoming August issue)

 “Constructing a Narrative: the History of Science and Technology in Latin America.” History Compass 7 (2009). Published Online: Jan 27 2009 11:26AM, DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2008.00579.x

 “The Seventh Desk: Mathematical Instruments, Philosophical Artifacts and the Secrets of Nature.” In Lastanosa. Art and Science in the Baroque, edited by Mar Rey Bueno and Miguel López Pérez, 101-126. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009.

“Cosmography at the Casa, Consejo and Corte during the Century of Discovery.” In Science in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires, edited by Daniela Bleichmar, Kristin Huffine, and Kevin Sheehan, 57-77. Stanford University Press, 2008.

 “La astrología y los fenómenos naturales.” In, Bibliotheca Mágica. Catálogo de exposición en la Biblioteca Histórica Marqués de Valdecilla, 17-23. Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2007

“Spanish Cosmography and the New World Crisis.” In, Beyond the Black Legend: Spain and the Scientific Revolution / Mas allá de la Leyenda Negra: España y la Revolución Científica, edited by William Eamon and Victor Navarro Brotóns, 383-97. Valencia: Soler, 2007.

Review of Una obra maestra: El acueducto Albear de La Habana, by Rolando García Blanco. Technology and Culture 46, no. 1 (2005): 203-205.

“Plantation Factories: Science and Technology in Late-Eighteenth-Century Cuba.” Technology and Culture 44, no. 2 (2003): 231-257.


Current Research:

Spanish history of science during the 16th century.

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