Uta Lindgren
German historian of science
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Uta Lindgren (1941–2017) was a German historian of science and historian of technology, an expert on the medieval quadrivium and geodesy, and a pioneer of the history of cartography.[1]
Life and work
Lindgren is originally from Chemnitz, where she was born on 2 March 1941. Chemnitz is in East Germany, and Lindgren became a student at the University of Freiburg, also in East Germany. She completed a doctorate there in 1969, on topics including the quadrivium and the early life of Pope Sylvester II. At some point after this, she emigrated to West Germany, and completed a habilitation in 1978 at the University of Cologne, on the medieval history of Barcelona. She then became a researcher at the University of Munich.[1][2]
Her work on the history of cartography began in the early 1980s. She had her first publication on this topic in 1985, on the geography of Ptolemy, and a year later organized a conference on historic maps of the Alps.[1] She took up a professorial chair at the University of Bayreuth in 1987, and returned in 2006.[1][2] Her publications from this period include works on medieval knowledge of the figure of the Earth, on the biographies and discoveries of medieval and Renaissance cartographers, and a translation of a Spanish-language travelogue of central Asia.[1]
Recognition
Lindgren was elected to the International Academy of the History of Science, first as a corresponding member in 1993, and as a full member in 2005.[3]
Books
Lindgren's books included:
- Gerbert von Aurillac und das Quadrivium, Untersuchungen zur Bildung im Zeitalter der Ottonen (Franz Steiner Verlag, 1976)[4]
- Bedürftigkeit — Armut — Not, Studien zur spätmittelalterlichen Sozialgeschichte Barcelonas (Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft, Aschendorff, 1980)[5]
- Mathemata: Festschrift fur Helmuth Gericke (edited with Menso Folkerts, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985)[6]
- Alpenübergänge vor 1850, Landkarten — Straßen — Verkehr (edited, Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987)[7]
- Alexander von Humboldt, Weltbild und Wirkung auf die Wissenschaften (edited, Böhlau, 1990)[8]
- Europäische Technik im Mittelalter, 800 bis 1400, Tradition und Innovation, ein Handbuch (edited, Gebr. Mann, 1996)[9]
- Naturwissenschaft und Technik im Barock. Innovation, Repräsentation, Diffusion (edited, Böhlau, 1997)[10]