eclipse and revelation: total solar eclipses in science, history, literature, and the arts

Two questions guide this seven-year project: First, how can we approach the phenomenon, representation, and interpretation of total solar eclipses? Second, how can we heal the historical divide separating the natural sciences from the humanities, arts, history, and theology?

The result of this interdisciplinary investigation into eclipses is an exciting look behind the scenes - into labs, archives, and museums, as well as around fieldwork in astronomy, meteorology, animal behaviour, and ecophysiology.

Carefully prepared for readers from all backgrounds, these voices invite us to imagine a liberated mode of discovery, perception, creativity, and knowledge-production across the traditional academic divisions. A uniquely prismatic representation of total solar eclipses emerges, itself rising to a model of communal thinking, together, across disciplinary borders.

This book is Tom McLeish’s final project and scholarly testament. Dedicated to him and to astrophysicist Jay M. Pasachoff (contributing author of a chapter about the solar corona, also Pasachoff’s final piece of writing), the volume is a friendly companion to the chase of knowledge, encouraging its readers to embark upon their own interdisciplinary journey of discovery.

Henrike Lange, Associate Professor of Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture, University of California at Berkeley, Tom McLeish, Professor Emeritus of Natural Philosophy, University of York

Henrike Lange is Associate Professor of Italian Renaissance Art and Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Historian of art, architecture, and literature, Lange is best known for her work on Italian medieval and Renaissance art and literature, including her publications on artists such as Giotto, Donatello, Mantegna, and research on writers such as Augustine, Dante, and Petrarch.

Tom McLeish FRS was Professor Emeritus of Natural Philosophy at the University of York. Theoretical physicist and ＂penseur anglais＂ (Emmanuel Macron), McLeish is best known for his groundbreaking work in soft matter physics and polymers, rheology, history of science, and theology of science, and as a Reader in the Anglican Church. He was awarded the 2018 Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lanfranc Award for Education and Scholarship and his scientific-theological legacy includes the Christian leadership in the sciences initiative, ECLAS (Equipping Christian Leadership in an Age of Science). Eclipse & Revelation is Tom McLeish’s final project and scholarly testament.