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Science and the techniques of navigation in the renaissance
300
REVIEWS
due to material differences but the similarity, the underlying continental unity, is spiritual, for man in Africa is at one with nature. There is also a lesson to be learned from African tradition, or tribality, in that by relinquishing certain freedoms, anarchy -which can occur if Western ideas of freedom and liberty are taken too far-may be avoided. D. W. WATERS, Science and the Techniques of Navigation in the Renaissance (London: National Maritime Museum, Maritime Monographs and Reports, 1976. Pp. vi +39) If leads and lines, almanacs, nocturnals, portable sundials, magnetic sea compasses, portolan charts, astrolabes, rhumblines and sixteenth-century pilot training excite, then this monograph is for you. If not then interest might well be raised by reasons given for the study: “civilisation and science are products basically of shipborne trade, which is made practicable by the art and science of navigation”-one wonders how the Incas, Australian Aborigines or Zulu would have viewed that statement; or “up to a century ago, civilisation was centred virtually exclusively upon the sea”-what of Chinese dynasties, Monomotapa or ancient Mali ? IAN WHYTE, Scottish Historical Geography: Survey and Prospect
(Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Dept. of Geography, Research Discussion Papers, 1976. Pp. 48. EO.50) “Any aspect of historical geography before the mid-eighteenth century could be studied with profit, so scanty is the state of our knowledge at present.” This is the judgement which the author supports in his review and which the accompanying bibliography, an important feature of the paper, further sustains. The smaller size, until recently, of geography departments in Scottish Universities (which meant less specialism), the existence of different legal, settlement and agrarian systems which made difficult the adoption of approaches developed elsewhere, and a paucity of sources are all seen as reasons (and convenient excuses?) for the retarded state of the Scottish effort. St Andrew
University
G. WHITTINGTON
REVIEWS
due to material differences but the similarity, the underlying continental unity, is spiritual, for man in Africa is at one with nature. There is also a lesson to be learned from African tradition, or tribality, in that by relinquishing certain freedoms, anarchy -which can occur if Western ideas of freedom and liberty are taken too far-may be avoided. D. W. WATERS, Science and the Techniques of Navigation in the Renaissance (London: National Maritime Museum, Maritime Monographs and Reports, 1976. Pp. vi +39) If leads and lines, almanacs, nocturnals, portable sundials, magnetic sea compasses, portolan charts, astrolabes, rhumblines and sixteenth-century pilot training excite, then this monograph is for you. If not then interest might well be raised by reasons given for the study: “civilisation and science are products basically of shipborne trade, which is made practicable by the art and science of navigation”-one wonders how the Incas, Australian Aborigines or Zulu would have viewed that statement; or “up to a century ago, civilisation was centred virtually exclusively upon the sea”-what of Chinese dynasties, Monomotapa or ancient Mali ? IAN WHYTE, Scottish Historical Geography: Survey and Prospect
(Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh Dept. of Geography, Research Discussion Papers, 1976. Pp. 48. EO.50) “Any aspect of historical geography before the mid-eighteenth century could be studied with profit, so scanty is the state of our knowledge at present.” This is the judgement which the author supports in his review and which the accompanying bibliography, an important feature of the paper, further sustains. The smaller size, until recently, of geography departments in Scottish Universities (which meant less specialism), the existence of different legal, settlement and agrarian systems which made difficult the adoption of approaches developed elsewhere, and a paucity of sources are all seen as reasons (and convenient excuses?) for the retarded state of the Scottish effort. St Andrew
University
G. WHITTINGTON