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Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 32, No. 619. Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London Hosted by King's Digital Lab www.dhhumanist.org Submit to: humanist@dhhumanist.org Date: 2019-04-18 05:25:04+00:00 From: Willard McCartySubject: understanding by analogy The fire that has severely damaged Notre Dame Cathedral led one friend of mine to search out John Evelyn's diary entry for 7 September 1666 on the fate of the medieval St Paul's after the Great Fire: > September 7th – I went this morning on foote from White-hall as far > as London Bridge, thro' the late Fleete-streete, Ludgate Hill, by St. > Paules ... At my returne I was infinitely concern'd to find that > goodly Church St. Paules now a sad ruine, and that beautifull portico > ... now rent in pieces, flakes of vast stone split asunder, and > nothing now remaining intire but the inscription in the architrave, > shewing by whom it was built, which had not one letter of it defac'd. > It was astonishing to see what immense stones the heate had in a > manner calcin'd, so that all the ornaments, columns, freezes, > capitals, and projectures of massie Portland-stone flew off, even to > the very roofe, where a sheet of lead covering a great space (no less > than six akers by measure) was totally mealted; the ruines of the > vaulted roofe falling broke into St. Faith's, which being fill'd with > the magazines of bookes belonging to the Stationers, and carried > thither for safety, they were all consum'd, burning for a weeke > following. It is also observable that the lead over the altar at the > East end was untouch'd, and among the divers monuments, the body of > one Bishop remain'd intire. Thus lay in ashes that most venerable > Church, one of the most antient pieces of early piety in the > Christian world. Some here will know about John Wall's Virtual St Paul's Cathedral Project at North Carolina State University (https://vpcp.chass.ncsu.edu/), now working toward a simulation or "visual model of St Paul’s Cathedral and the surrounding churchyard, together with a recreation of worship for Easter Sunday 1624, with all the liturgical events of the day, including choir and organ music plus a sermon in the morning by Bishop Lancelot Andrewes and a sermon in the afternoon by John Donne, Dean of the cathedral." The Virtual St Paul's is a hugely impressive project that has already finished simulation of the Paul's Cross preaching station, which stood outside the medieval cathedral, together with an audio simulation of John Donne preaching on Gunpowder Day 1622. I suggest there is much in considering the analogical relation between the Virtual St Paul's Cathedral and its vanished original better to understand what it is that we are doing with our machine. Comments? Yours, WM -- Willard McCarty (www.mccarty.org.uk/), Professor emeritus, Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London; Adjunct Professor, Western Sydney University; Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews (www.tandfonline.com/loi/yisr20) and Humanist (www.dhhumanist.org) _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted List posts to: humanist@dhhumanist.org List info and archives at at: http://dhhumanist.org Listmember interface at: http://dhhumanist.org/Restricted/ Subscribe at: http://dhhumanist.org/membership_form.php
Editor: Willard McCarty (King's College London, U.K.; Western Sydney University, Australia)
Software designer: Malgosia Askanas (Mind-Crafts)
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