An 18th-century astronomical tour

In the latest issue of the British Journal for the History of Science I have a review of Kurt Møller Pedersen and Peter de Clercq’s edition of the journal that the Danish astronomer, surveyor and mathematician Thomas Bugge kept of a fact-finding European tour. It is published as An Observer of Observatories: The Journal of Thomas Bugge’s Tour of Germany, Holland and England in 1777, a handsome volume at the reasonable price of £25. In fact, there are two editions, one a transcription and one a translation of the original manuscript, which raises some intriguing questions, as does the fact that there are digitised images of the whole available online. The print edition includes the many illustrations drawn by Bugge, but not the original text. In addition, it contains notes, appendices and a selection of additional images relating to instruments and places mentioned in the text. You can see an abbreviated and edited version of my review here: [read more]

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