All Outputs (9)

A Marvellous Sign and A Fiery Globe: A Medieval English Report of Ball Lightning (2022)
Journal Article
Gasper, G. E., & Tanner, B. K. (2022). A Marvellous Sign and A Fiery Globe: A Medieval English Report of Ball Lightning. Weather, 77(7), 232-234. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.4144

We describe an entry in a twelfth century monastic chronicle, compiled and composed by Gervase of Canterbury (c. 1145–c. 1210), which gives a credible description of ball lightning. It predates the earliest known report of the phenomenon from England... Read More about A Marvellous Sign and A Fiery Globe: A Medieval English Report of Ball Lightning.

‘Travelling Optics: Robert Grosseteste and the Optics behind the Rainbow’ (2021)
Book Chapter
Gasper, G. E., Tanner, B. K., Sønnesyn, S. O., & El-Bizri, N. (2021). ‘Travelling Optics: Robert Grosseteste and the Optics behind the Rainbow’. In C. Etheridge, & M. Campopiano (Eds.), Medieval Science in the North: Travelling Wisdom, 1000-1500 (45-75). Brepols Publishers

Magnifying Grains of Sand, Seeds, and Blades of Grass: Optical Effects in Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (On the Rainbow) (circa 1228–1230) (2021)
Journal Article
White, R. C., Gasper, G. E., McLeish, T. C., Tanner, B. K., Harvey, J. S., Sønnesyn, S. O., …Smithson, H. E. (2021). Magnifying Grains of Sand, Seeds, and Blades of Grass: Optical Effects in Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (On the Rainbow) (circa 1228–1230). Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, 112(1), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.1086/713724

In his treatise On the Rainbow (De iride), composed nearly four hundred years before the first known telescope, the English polymath Robert Grosseteste identified three striking optical effects: distant objects can be rendered close by; close-by larg... Read More about Magnifying Grains of Sand, Seeds, and Blades of Grass: Optical Effects in Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (On the Rainbow) (circa 1228–1230).

‘The Moon Quivered Like a Snake’: A Medieval Chronicler, Lunar Explosions, and a Puzzle for Modern Interpretation (2020)
Journal Article
Gasper, G. E., & Tanner, B. K. (2020). ‘The Moon Quivered Like a Snake’: A Medieval Chronicler, Lunar Explosions, and a Puzzle for Modern Interpretation. Endeavour, 44(4), Article 100750. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2021.100750

Despite some scepticism, the suggestion by Hartung in 1976 that the report in the chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury corresponded to a meteorite impact with the moon in 1178, creating the Giordano Bruno crater, retains considerable support, particula... Read More about ‘The Moon Quivered Like a Snake’: A Medieval Chronicler, Lunar Explosions, and a Puzzle for Modern Interpretation.

Bow-shaped Caustics from Conical Prisms: a 13th Century Account of Rainbow Formation from Robert Grosseteste’s De iride (2017)
Journal Article
Harvey, J., Smithson, H., Siviour, C., Gasper, G. E., Sonnesyn, S. O., Tanner, B. K., & McLeish, T. (2017). Bow-shaped Caustics from Conical Prisms: a 13th Century Account of Rainbow Formation from Robert Grosseteste’s De iride. Applied Optics, 56(19), G197-G204. https://doi.org/10.1364/ao.56.00g197

The rainbow has been the subject of discussion across a variety of historical periods and cultures, and numerous optical explanations have been suggested. Here, we further explore the scientific treatise De iride [On the Rainbow] written by Robert Gr... Read More about Bow-shaped Caustics from Conical Prisms: a 13th Century Account of Rainbow Formation from Robert Grosseteste’s De iride.

Unity and Symmetry in the De Luce of Robert Grosseteste (2016)
Book Chapter
Tanner, B., Bower, R., McLeish, T., & Gasper, G. E. (2016). Unity and Symmetry in the De Luce of Robert Grosseteste. In J. P. Cunningham, & M. Hocknull (Eds.), Robert Grosseteste and the Pursuit of Religious and Scientific learning in the Middle-Ages (3-20). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33468-4_1

A medieval multiverse?: Mathematical modelling of the thirteenth century universe of Robert Grosseteste (2014)
Journal Article
Bower, R., McLeish, T., Tanner, B., Smithson, H., Panti, C., Lewis, N., & Gasper, G. (2014). A medieval multiverse?: Mathematical modelling of the thirteenth century universe of Robert Grosseteste. Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 470(2167), Article 40025. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2014.0025

In his treatise on light, written about 1225, Robert Grosseteste describes a cosmological model in which the universe is created in a big-bang-like explosion and subsequent condensation. He postulates that the fundamental coupling of light and matter... Read More about A medieval multiverse?: Mathematical modelling of the thirteenth century universe of Robert Grosseteste.

Color-coordinate system from a 13th-century account of rainbows (2014)
Journal Article
Smithson, H., Anderson, P., Dinkova-Bruun, G., Gasper, G., Laven, P., McLeish, T., …Tanner, B. (2014). Color-coordinate system from a 13th-century account of rainbows. Journal of the Optical Society of America A, 31(4), A341-A349. https://doi.org/10.1364/josaa.31.00a341

We present a new analysis of Robert Grosseteste’s account of color in his treatise De iride (On the Rainbow), dating from the early 13th century. The work explores color within the 3D framework set out in Grosseteste’s De colore [see J. Opt. Soc. Am.... Read More about Color-coordinate system from a 13th-century account of rainbows.

History: A medieval multiverse (2014)
Journal Article
McLeish, T. C., Bower, R. G., Tanner, B. K., Smithson, H. E., Panti, C., Lewis, N., & Gasper, G. E. (2014). History: A medieval multiverse. Nature, 507(7491), 161-163. https://doi.org/10.1038/507161a