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Darwin Online Has Virtually Reassembled the Naturalist's Personal Library 24

Jennifer Ouellette reports via Ars Technica: Famed naturalist Charles Darwin amassed an impressive personal library over the course of his life, much of which was preserved and cataloged upon his death in 1882. But many other items were lost, including more ephemeral items like unbound volumes, pamphlets, journals, clippings, and so forth, often only vaguely referenced in Darwin's own records. For the last 18 years, the Darwin Online project has painstakingly scoured all manner of archival records to reassemble a complete catalog of Darwin's personal library virtually. The project released its complete 300-page online catalog -- consisting of 7,400 titles across 13,000 volumes, with links to electronic copies of the works -- to mark Darwin's 215th birthday on February 12.

"This unprecedentedly detailed view of Darwin's complete library allows one to appreciate more than ever that he was not an isolated figure working alone but an expert of his time building on the sophisticated science and studies and other knowledge of thousands of people," project leader John van Wyhe of the National University of Singapore said. "Indeed, the size and range of works in the library makes manifest the extraordinary extent of Darwin's research into the work of others."
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Darwin Online Has Virtually Reassembled the Naturalist's Personal Library

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  • The List (Score:5, Informative)

    by YetAnotherDrew ( 664604 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @05:22AM (#64256626)
    Here is the list [darwin-online.org.uk], for some reason not linked from the multi-paragraph synopsis about the list being compiled.
  • by Rei ( 128717 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @06:40AM (#64256696) Homepage

    In fact, I'm personally convinced that had Da Vinci lived longer in good health, he would have ended up also coming to the theory of evolution, due to a convergence of two of his interests:

      * He (unusually for his day) was fond of mountain hikes for non-travel reasons, where he liked to study exposed fossil beds. From them, he concluded that the Earth was actually extremely ancient, and laid down in layers, with different species showing up in different timeperiods (he also argued against the global flood theory)

      * He was extremely interested in comparative anatomy, diagramming for example equivalent anatomy of humans vs. horses or whatnot and how tissues corresponded but differed in size and shape.

    Surely, had he lived long enough, these two pathways would have converged. Of course, due to the lack of a scientific publishing industry in his era, his works didn't have much influence at the time.

    • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @07:08AM (#64256742)

      He was 67 when he died, a decent age for the time. Considering he was already a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect, his plate was pretty full. He might have been able to crib some notes on ideas he had, but I don't think he would have been to come up with a near complete concept like Darwin did. Personal opinion.

    • No, Da Vinci would probably know to STFU to avoid the ire of the Church, comparable to Galileo's problems. Maybe the idea of evolution even did pop into his head, but he kept it quiet, so we don't know about it today. And/or other scholars of that era.

    • I'm not really all that sure that anything resembling Darwin's theory of natural selection could have developed without Linnaean taxonomy, not to mention that unlike much larger biospheres, the Galapagos Islands could be more easily observed, so I think it unlikely that da Vinci would have had the kind of environmental exposure.

      • Yup, one could think of the idea of evolution but they'd be unable to provide good evidence for it at the time. Sort of like the atom, suggested by ancient Greek philosophers who had no evidence for a rudimentary atomic theory nor proposed experimental methods to gain such evidence, it was purely a thought exercise to them.

        • There's also the rather unique aspects of Darwin's theory as opposed to previous theories, such as Lamarck's theory. That organisms seem to fit into hierarchies was in and of itself not a new idea, though I would argue Linnaean taxonomy with its fairly strict methodology was a new innovation. Darwin's key observation wasn't merely that populations evolve, but rather that there is variation exists in all populations, and that some variations will be more favorable than others, and thus more likely to be sele

  • by RussellTheMuscle ( 2783037 ) on Wednesday February 21, 2024 @08:17AM (#64256868)
    how much one guy can read when not interrupted by TV, the internet, or work. Obviously there was some obsessiveness involved, but still--impressive.
    • This is what happens when you go outside and look at your surroundings rather than keeping your fat ass on the couch.

      • by starless ( 60879 )

        But to read that much you do need to keep your ass on the couch rather than going outside...

  • ...the AI uses a Genetic Algorithm to evolve results ;-)

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