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Clocks and Culture: 1300-1700

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The history of the clock opens a window on how different cultures have viewed time and on Europe's path to industrialization. How did a time-keeping device affect the growth of crafts guilds and the scientific research that led to the Industrial Revolution? Clocks and Culture is a brief history of the changes wrought by and on Europe over four hundred years due to technological advances in timekeeping and the rise of a time-aware culture. In his introduction, Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, puts this classic book in perspective. 14 b/w illustrations

206 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

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About the author

Carlo M. Cipolla

84 books101 followers
Carlo M. Cipolla (August 15, 1922 – September 5, 2000) was an Italian economic historian. He was born in Pavia, where he got his academic degree in 1944.
As a young man, Cipolla wanted to teach history and philosophy in an Italian high school, and therefore enrolled at the political science faculty at Pavia University. Whilst a student there, thanks to professor Franco Borlandi, a specialist in Medieval economic history, he discovered his passion for economic history. Subsequently he studied at the Sorbonne and the London School of Economics.

Cipolla obtained his first teaching post in economic history in Catania at the age of 27. This was to be the first stop in a long academic career in Italy (Venice, Turin, Pavia, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Fiesole) and abroad. In 1953 Cipolla left for the United States as a Fulbright fellow and in 1957 became a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Two years later he obtained a full professorship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_M....

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5 stars
35 (24%)
4 stars
53 (37%)
3 stars
42 (29%)
2 stars
10 (7%)
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
Profile Image for Tim.
106 reviews
February 10, 2008
Another one I read a long time ago - it was a real surprise - the title doesn't sound very promising, but it was fascinating. The development of reliable time-keeping devices had a revolutionary impact on society, and we’re unlikely to grasp the significance from our perspective on this side of the revolution without a book like this. It was a good read, and an enlightening one.
Profile Image for Leonardo.
723 reviews38 followers
January 26, 2015
Un estudio clásico en más de un sentido, "Las máquinas del tiempo" de Carlo M. Cipolla estudia la relación de la medición del tiempo, la fabricación de relojes y el cambio de las relaciones comerciales y políticas dentro de Europa y entre este continente y Asia. La primera parte estudia la manera en que la fabricación de relojes (y, por tanto, la medición del tiempo) se fue volviendo un arte cada vez más preciso en Europa, como los relojeros dejaron de ser una subsección del gremio de los herreros y como las innovaciones tecnológicas en el campo de la relojería iban de la mano con los cambios en la situación política y económica del continente. En la segunda parte del libro, Cipolla estudia el cambio de las relaciones entre Europa y Asia: como la primera fue ganando la superioridad política, económica y comercial sobre la segunda, gracias a la innovación tecnológica, de la cual los relojes formaron parte importante, aunque de manera más simbólica que directa, ya que su presencia se viera limitada a fungir como regalos y curiosidades para potentados asiáticos y, antes del siglo XX, no se viera reflejada en la vida cotidiana, ni en la concepción del universo, por parte de la población en general. El libro también incluye un apéndice sucinto sobre el funcionamiento básico del mecanismo de un reloj.
Profile Image for Raúl Oyola.
14 reviews1 follower
August 8, 2023
Adoro la claridad —que, por cierto, no sacrifica la extrema rigurosidad— de Cipolla, se le siente muy cercano a pesar del talante de una obra como esta. Sin duda es un libro muy curioso y desde luego imprescindible para abordar el tema del tiempo y los relojes.
Profile Image for Skallagrimsen.
301 reviews81 followers
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March 5, 2020
If you're interested in a deeper understanding of the medieval origins of modernity and European global hegemony, this brief, brilliant book is well worth your time.
Profile Image for Denis Vasilev.
681 reviews97 followers
January 17, 2024
Книга аналогичная его же парусам и пушкам. На примере часов показывается суть и разница технологического развития Запада и Востока
21 reviews5 followers
October 17, 2012
There are better, more comprehensive histories of timekeeping. I prefer Landes' REVOLUTION IN TIME, or Dohrn-van Rossum's HISTORY OF THE HOUR. Although, like those books, Cipolla does not really give a sense of the contentiousness of the emergence of the modern time system, or how slowly clocks were accepted as the arbiters of time.
Profile Image for Gabriela Pirlo.
Author 8 books7 followers
July 25, 2022
I discovered Carlo Cipolla as a teenager (forty years ago) and I became fascinated with his books. He was clear, easy to understand and his knowledge was so huge and eclectic, therefore his books were beautiful and enjoyable reading.
I love this little book, and I do believe it is a must read.
17 reviews
June 13, 2022
Carlo da lecturas cortas pero sumamente profundad, tal es el caso de Las maquinas del tiempo y de la guerra.
7 reviews
July 30, 2011
Have you ever thought about what time really is? Is time rooted in the physical world? Have you ever thought about the history of measuring time? Man has been attempting to master time and cut it up into finer and finer pieces since before recorded history. First there were the calendars agricultural societies used to track the sun, the phases of the moon, and the solstices and equinoxes. Then there were the sun dials, some of which measured hours and attempted to account for longitude. The water clocks and candles allowed men to measure time at night. Then there were the bells of the monasteries and town churches, followed by the fist clocks with only hour hands. And on and on and on . . . Now we measure time by keeping rhythm with the beat of the atom. When will it end?

Cipolla tells the interesting history of clockmaking from the middle ages through the renaissance. Some very interesting anecdotal stories here, as well as stuff for the history buff. But I also think Cipolla understates the importance of clockmaking and timekeeping. At some point, we as a people wrested control of time from nature and conceptualized it. This abstracting of time permitted us to put time to our own uses, define it for our own purposes -- an important moment in the history of man. Unfortunatey Cipolla does not spend the time on this that it really requires. Still, the book is a short read and enlightening.
Profile Image for Andrey Babitskiy.
2 reviews8 followers
January 7, 2017
A short book about the clock- and watchmaking up to the year 1700. An eclectic essay rather than a book, I'd even say, but still a good read. According to Cippola, migration was the single most important factor behind progress in watchmaking in the XVI and XVII centuries. Many craftsmen either moved to more prosperous places, like England, or fled religious prosecution, being protestants. "In 1515, when the clock of the church of Saint-Pierre [in Geneva] got out of order, there was no craftsman in town who could repair it... by the 1680s there were more than one hundred masters and about three hundred workers who produced more than 5000 timepieces a year".
23 reviews56 followers
November 4, 2009
Companion to Cannons and Sails, short and very legible essay. Great mix of social history, economic history, curiosities, and deep insights into the development of technology in different social, economic and cultural conditions. Interesting that as he makes a very anti-technological determinism argument, he cites Lynn White a lot. It's probably time to go to the source and read what was White argument exactly. Anyway, proof that academic writing doesn't have to be an endless punishment to read.
224 reviews2 followers
January 17, 2015
A fun little history essay about the development of mechanical clocks in Europe, and how they were perceived in Asia. It's not a comprehensive sociocultural history, nor is it meant to be, but rather an overview of clock development between the Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and resulting effects in Asia. If you're interested in clocks, time, and the history of science, I recommend it.

Here's an animation of the earliest type of clock gear, called a verge escapement with foliot: http://www.victoriaclocks.com/verge_a...
Profile Image for Les Dangerfield.
224 reviews
January 31, 2017
A brief description of the development of clocks in Western Europe and their export to East Asia between 1300 and 1700. I was disappointed that the book doesn't have more about the impact of clocks on life and culture, as the title suggests there should be.
Profile Image for Makomai.
241 reviews9 followers
March 31, 2015
per quanto apprezzi Cipolla, questo suo libro e` troppo nozionistico. Solo per gli appassionati di storia degli orologi (cui consiglio peraltro "longitudine" di Dava Sobel, ben piu' intrigante)
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews

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