x

Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

Menu

Dissection in Classical Antiquity

Do you think with your heart or with your head? Far from a metaphorical question, this debate roiled ancient medicine at a very literal level. The topic of where, precisely, the soul interfaced with the...

Claire Bubb | 2 Feb 2023

Shakespeare and Beckett

“The fact is that we create our own precursors“, writes Jorge Luis Borges in „Kafka and his Precursors“ where he reflects on the anachronistic dynamics which results from the interaction of...

Claudia Olk | 1 Feb 2023

When Minoritized Languages Change Linguistic Theory

Q: Let’s start with the title of your book. Why use the term minoritized languages? A: It’s a question of emphasis: there is nothing intrinsically “minor” about the languages (or even...

Andrew Nevins | 1 Feb 2023

When was an embryo considered a person in the Middle Ages?

The present position of the Roman Catholic Church is that an immortal soul is infused into the fetus at the moment of conception, but this has not always been its position. The dogma that “ensoulment”...

Olivia Holmes | 31 Jan 2023

Actors in the lobby: How an artists’ association influenced imperial decision-making

This narrative is based on inscriptions dealing with the so-called thymelic synod, the ‘international’ artists’ association of the Roman empire. This association defended the professional interests...

Bram Fauconnier | 30 Jan 2023

Linguistics meets Philosophy

All scientific fields were born from philosophy. And most were born a long time ago. So long ago that conversations between the philosophic ‘parent’ and the scientific ‘child’...

Daniel Altshuler | 30 Jan 2023

How is a new state built?

This question lingered in my head ever since I started being interested in the history of the long nineteenth century. Gradually my curiosity was growing: how do authorities produce a legal and political...

Michalis Sotiropoulos | 27 Jan 2023

More Than A Narrative Of Science And Medicine

In 1959, CP Snow could claim that the average intellectual knew about as much about science as his neolithic ancestors. Overstated perhaps, but he had a good point. Science, through its technologies,...

Simon D. Shorvon | 27 Jan 2023

What Does Epilepsy Mean, Does It Really Exist ?

In relating the story of epilepsy in its modern era. I have used the analogy of the boat journeying through rough seas, buffeted by diverse and independent currents, some medical some scientific, some...

Simon D. Shorvon | 27 Jan 2023

Look out! Here comes the Catastrophocene…

The good news is that the Anthropocene is almost over. It may have been the shortest geological epoch in all of Earth history. The bad news is that the Catastrophocene is just beginning. The good news...

Julian Cribb | 25 Jan 2023

Computational Design of Engineering Materials

A revolution has been underway for several decades, transforming materials engineering from costly and time-consuming process of trial-and-error experimental “materials by discovery” to “intelligent...

Yong Du, Rainer Schmid-Fetzer | 24 Jan 2023

Rotation Sensing with Large Ring Lasers – Applications in Geophysics and Geodesy

The Earth system is marked by a complex interaction of a lot of different processes, many of which are very involved and we can only explore them indirectly. Take the water cycle as an example. Water...

Ulrich Schreiber | 20 Jan 2023