Shadows

In this original, wide-ranging, and endlessly thought-provoking work of popular nonfiction, a leading science writer uncovers the pervasive presence of shadows in our world.

For Plato, shadows were the symbol of our limitations. For Galileo, they knocked the Earth from the center of the cosmos. They are a source of fear and a symbol of ignorance, and they loom large in art and design, mythology and folklore, physics and metaphysics, and architecture and urban planning. From shadows puppets and the psychology of shadows to the role of shadows in astronomy and the influence of shadows on the architectural profiles of our cities, Roberto Casati awakens our fascination in this tour-de-force of investigation and imagination. ^[1] 

In the Beginning There Was Shadow

PartOne THE HEART OF SHADOW

Ancient and Modern Shadows

Shadow Merchants

Shadows on the Mind

Shadow of a Doubt

Part Two SHADOWS IN THE SKY

Special Effects

Eclipses, Shadow Cones, and Pyramids

The Stolen Sundial

In the Shadow of the Minaret

Time Flies Out Through the Hole in a Shadow

Part Three THE CENTURY OF SHADOW

Shadow Wars

Venus Imitates the Shadow of Diana

Maybe Saturn Devoured His Own Children?.

The Speed of Shadow

PartFour SHADOW VISIONS

The Shadow Line and the Shadowy Rays

Shadow Webs

……

Roberto Casati was born in Milan in 1961. A research director at the Centre National de la Réchérche Scientifique, he lives in Paris and works at the Institut Nicod, a laboratory of the ?cole des Hautes ?tudes en Sciences Sociales and of the ?cole Normale. He studies the cognition of strange things—images, colors, sounds, places, holes—and shadows. With Achille Varzi he is the author of Holes and Other Superficialities and Parts and Places.

Abigail Asher (translator) is an editor of art history and other nonfiction books. She has lived and worked in publishing in Italy; she now lives and works in New York City. This is her first book-length translation.