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In a lively investigation into the boundaries between popular culture and early-modern science, Sara Schechner presents a case study that challenges the view that rationalism was at odds with popular belief in the development of scientific theories. Schechner Genuth delineates the evolution of people's understanding of comets, showing that until the seventeenth century, all members of society dreaded comets as heaven-sent portents of plague, flood, civil disorder, and other calamities. Although these beliefs became spurned as "vulgar superstitions" by the elite before the end of the century, she shows that they were nonetheless absorbed into the science of Newton and Halley, contributing to their theories in subtle yet profound ways. Schechner weaves together many strands of thought: views of comets as signs and causes of social and physical changes; vigilance toward monsters and prodigies as indicators of God's will; Christian eschatology; scientific interpretations of Scripture; astrological prognostication and political propaganda; and celestial mechanics and astrophysics. This exploration of the interplay between high and low beliefs about nature leads to the conclusion that popular and long-held views of comets as divine signs were not overturned by astronomical discoveries. Indeed, they became part of the foundation on which modern cosmology was built.

Comets. --- Cosmology. --- Religion and science --- History. --- Act of Uniformity (1662). --- Adelard of Bath. --- Aegospotami in Thrace. --- Albertus Magnus. --- Apocalypse. --- Bayeux Tapestry. --- Calendrier des bergers. --- Castiglione, Baldassare. --- Chaldaean astronomy. --- Corporation Act (1661). --- Day of Judgment. --- Democritus. --- English Civil War. --- Exclusion Crisis. --- Gaffarel, Jacques. --- Giotto di Bondone. --- Greek mythology. --- Hanoverian succession. --- Hipparchus. --- Isidore of Seville. --- Ivan the Terrible. --- Jacobus Angelus. --- John of Salisbury. --- Julius Caesar. --- Kepler, Johannes. --- Knox, John. --- Low Churchmen. --- Manilius Marcus. --- Milky Way. --- Millenarian prophecies. --- Neoplatonist beliefs. --- New Testament. --- Nicephorus Gregoras. --- Octavius (Augustus). --- Oldenburg, Henry. --- Origen. --- aurora borealis. --- balladeers. --- broadsides. --- celestial phenomena. --- cherubim flaming swords. --- civil disorders. --- color of comets. --- comet collisions. --- cometarium. --- dinosaur extinction. --- drought. --- earthquakes. --- electric fluid. --- error books. --- heliocentric theory. --- lamentation metaphor. --- low culture. --- monsters metaphor. --- nebulous matter. --- oral culture.