Biographical Introduction, Summary of Contents and Appendix with bibliography of references

Abstract

The fourteenth volume in the series presents a dissertation by Conradus (Conrad) Quensel (1676–1732), professor at Lund University in Sweden, and his student, Johannes (Hans) Eurodius (1703–1756). In the text, detailed descriptions of two northern lights seen in Lund in the autumn of 1726 are accompanied by ample discussion of observations made ten years earlier in both Sweden and on the Continent, where an exceptionally strong auroral outbreak was seen in March 1716. The theoretical deliberations of Quensel/Eurodius largely follow theories presented by Friedrich Wolff and Johann Friedrich Weidler in the aftermath of the 1716 event. As praeses, Quensel was responsible for the contents, whereas Eurodius acted as respondens, meaning that it was his task to defend the dissertation orally in a public defence. It is unclear who actually wrote the dissertation text. The introduction, written by neo-Latinist and historian of science Per Pippin Aspaas, contains biographical information about the authors as well as a summary with ample extracts of the Latin text in English translation. A list explaining the references in Quensel/Eurodius’ text rounds off the introduction.