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The Seashell on the Mountaintop: The Story of Science Sainthood, and the Humble Genius Who Discovered a New History of Earth
The story of enigmatic scientist-turned-priest, Nicholas Steno, who first proposed that the shell-shaped rocks commonly found on Italian mountaintops actually were fossils--a notion completely antithetical to the 17th century theological and scientific world view, which maintained that the earth was only 6000 years old. Placing Steno's story in the context of such characters as Darwin, Newton, Thomas Jefferson and Saint Augustine, Alan Cutler illuminates the subject of "deep time" by combining authoritative science with stories of extraordinary people to bring home the philosophical and personal significance of Steno's ideas, offering a fresh, new perspective on the very old planet on which we live.
6 pages, Audio CD
First published January 1, 2003
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July 12, 2016
This book was beautiful and reminded me a bit of Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. Swerve followed Poggio Bracciolini on his quest to recover ancient books. Eventually, he found the only surviving writing of Lucretius, On the Nature of Things and preserved it so that all future generations could know the history of the study of nature (and atoms), learn from it, and enjoy it. Lucretius, who is one of my favorite people to have ever lived, is also covered in this book. However, Seashell on the Mountain top's main focus is not on searching for an finding a book that describes ancient thought about the nature of things. Rather, it brings to life the history of Nicolaus Steno, the father of geology, who learned to piece together Earth's history through reading its rocks.
I often think I am done reading books about the debate between science and religion. However, when the history is written in such an artful way, as it is in this book, I am captivated and transported through the ages as I follow the passionate individuals who *had* to know the truth, who *had* to understand, even if they got in trouble for what they found out.
Alan Cutler is obviously someone who appreciates art and science equally. The way wrote about the history of epistemology was wonderful but not nearly as exquisite as the way he was able to weave science and art into a seamless beautiful tale that took my breath away. No book that I have read has ever done a better job of that. Here is a very brief summary of his beautiful argument: Living organisms die and are fossilized under incredible pressure to make the Carrara Marble that Michelangelo used to carve the Pieta, David, and other works. We appreciate the beauty of the dead fossil as we stare at them in the form of a marble statue. We appreciate the tale the fossils tell about our earthly home as we trace our origins back to tiny organisms, which help us understand our place in the world and maybe even in the cosmos (since the stars provided all the material that turned into organisms that turned into you and me).
What a wonderful and unusual history of geology.
I often think I am done reading books about the debate between science and religion. However, when the history is written in such an artful way, as it is in this book, I am captivated and transported through the ages as I follow the passionate individuals who *had* to know the truth, who *had* to understand, even if they got in trouble for what they found out.
Alan Cutler is obviously someone who appreciates art and science equally. The way wrote about the history of epistemology was wonderful but not nearly as exquisite as the way he was able to weave science and art into a seamless beautiful tale that took my breath away. No book that I have read has ever done a better job of that. Here is a very brief summary of his beautiful argument: Living organisms die and are fossilized under incredible pressure to make the Carrara Marble that Michelangelo used to carve the Pieta, David, and other works. We appreciate the beauty of the dead fossil as we stare at them in the form of a marble statue. We appreciate the tale the fossils tell about our earthly home as we trace our origins back to tiny organisms, which help us understand our place in the world and maybe even in the cosmos (since the stars provided all the material that turned into organisms that turned into you and me).
What a wonderful and unusual history of geology.
May 8, 2018
I'm not really one for books on science because usually they are too abstruse and complicated for me. This was a happy exception. Written in an easily accessible style, this was the biography, discussion of the scientific theories and importance of the self-effacing 17th century Dane, Nicolaus Steno, who can be called the 'father' of geology.
In a student journal he wrote of his thought that: "Snails, shells, oysters, fish, etc. [have been] found petrified on places far remote from the sea. Either they have remained there after an ancient flood or because the bed of the seas has slowly been changed." He also wrote: Sedimentary rocks were "soils from which shells ... were dug." He felt these were indeed "sediments from a turbid sea." From the dissection of 2800 shark's teeth, he was led to the possibility that the so-called glossopetrae [tongue stones] were petrified shark's teeth. Through much research, he theorized about the stratification of rocks, existence of fossils [the seashells on the mountaintops], the glimmerings of what we call crystallography, and other conjectures. He posited the age of the earth as billions of years and changes in the earth's structure. Ancient seas became mountains in later years, and the seashells and creatures once in the sea, then land, ended up as fossils in the mountains. These theories were noted in his "De Solidi" and were not accepted at that time. They met with much opposition. At one point, in the 18th century, the age of the earth was pinpointed as ancient, later on, geological eras were given names. And from then, his theories have been generally accepted and built upon. A small accomplishment in his work as an anatomist were the discoveries of the salivary and lachrymal glands.
After spending so much time in Italy, he became a devout Catholic, later priest and titular bishop in Germany. In recent years, he has been beatified. This book was a fascinating look at a man and his scientific work; the name Steno was new to me and I can hardly believe his theories were not always the explanation for what happens geologically. Today, they seem so logical. I can't imagine people's accepting the fanciful theories floating around before and during his time.
In a student journal he wrote of his thought that: "Snails, shells, oysters, fish, etc. [have been] found petrified on places far remote from the sea. Either they have remained there after an ancient flood or because the bed of the seas has slowly been changed." He also wrote: Sedimentary rocks were "soils from which shells ... were dug." He felt these were indeed "sediments from a turbid sea." From the dissection of 2800 shark's teeth, he was led to the possibility that the so-called glossopetrae [tongue stones] were petrified shark's teeth. Through much research, he theorized about the stratification of rocks, existence of fossils [the seashells on the mountaintops], the glimmerings of what we call crystallography, and other conjectures. He posited the age of the earth as billions of years and changes in the earth's structure. Ancient seas became mountains in later years, and the seashells and creatures once in the sea, then land, ended up as fossils in the mountains. These theories were noted in his "De Solidi" and were not accepted at that time. They met with much opposition. At one point, in the 18th century, the age of the earth was pinpointed as ancient, later on, geological eras were given names. And from then, his theories have been generally accepted and built upon. A small accomplishment in his work as an anatomist were the discoveries of the salivary and lachrymal glands.
After spending so much time in Italy, he became a devout Catholic, later priest and titular bishop in Germany. In recent years, he has been beatified. This book was a fascinating look at a man and his scientific work; the name Steno was new to me and I can hardly believe his theories were not always the explanation for what happens geologically. Today, they seem so logical. I can't imagine people's accepting the fanciful theories floating around before and during his time.
July 29, 2016
I picked up this book by Alan Cutler while browsing through the popular science section in a local bookstore, drawn to it mainly because of its nice cover! It turned out to be quite a gem, unlike anything I have ever read. It’s a short biography on the life of Nicolaus Steno, a 17th century anatomist who is also widely considered to be the pioneer of the geological sciences. The reader is transported into the 17th century; a world in which science and religion went hand in hand, both playing a huge role in any intellectual discourse. The discovery of sea-shells and shark teeth on mountain-sides and some of the most unexpected places would lead Nicolaus Steno on a journey that would change his life, his faith and his world forever. Ultimately, it resulted in the laying down of foundations for paleontology and geology, as well as the beatification of Nicolaus Steno by the Catholic Church in 1987. The Seashell on the Mountaintop shows us how science and faith can rub shoulders with each other without having to part ways after that – using an example from the very pages of our own history.
April 25, 2018
The Seashell on the Mountaintop is a biography of Nicolaus Steno (pronounced STAY-no) a Danish anatomy scholar who lived between 1638-1686 and was an early contributor to the field of geology. Although Steno’s discoveries seem rather obvious today, they can be better appreciated if you have a basic understanding of the prevailing beliefs at the time. These were influenced in large part by the ancient Greeks and the Christian Church.
With respect to science, the writings of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks still held considerable influence in the 1600s thanks to the intervening period where little new research was performed that we now call ‘the Dark Ages’. As for religion, most Europeans were biblical literalists. They thought that the Earth and all living things were created by god in their present form. As a result, people believed all sorts of things that seem childishly simplistic today (assuming you live outside of the bible belt). For example, they thought:
- The Earth was 6,000 year old.
- Many creatures were believed to arise through a process of spontaneous generation. For example that flies were created by meat as it decomposed.
- Fossils were thought to be naturally occurring phenomena that were formed in the earth (that just happened to look like such things as seashells, bones or shark teeth).
- The Genesis flood story was thought to be literally true (providing a convenient explanation as to how those titular seashells wound up on the tops of mountains).
With that as a background, let’s return to Steno who was studying anatomy at the time and had become somewhat of a sensation thanks to his dissection skills. One day he came into possession of a shark’s head and noticed that the teeth looked a lot like the things people called glossopetrae or "tongue stones" because they were thought to be petrified tongues of dragons and snakes (which is kind of adorable).
Many were convinced that these tongue stones formed naturally within the rocks in which they were found (or fell from the sky). Steno was convinced that the stones were actual teeth, but noticed that the composition of his fresh teeth differed from those found in rock. Steno argued that the corpuscles in the teeth were replaced bit by bit, by corpuscles of minerals (corpuscles being minute particles akin to molecules – though molecules hadn’t yet been discovered). In this gradual process, the teeth were able to retain their shape as they turned from tissue to stone (which is a pretty decent explanation as to how fossilization works).
If fossil shells and teeth were the remnants of actual animals then this gives rise to additional questions:
- How did fossilized shells get to locations far from the sea, such as the tops of mountains?
- Why were some of these shells entirely different from those that existed in the present?
To answer these questions Steno began a broader investigation of geology and this is where he made his greatest scientific contribution. Noticing that rocks were arranged in layers, he came up with what would become known as ‘Steno's law of superposition’, which stated that layers of rock are arranged in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top (unless later processes disturb this arrangement).
This seems obvious today, but was an entirely novel idea at the time ... an idea with dangerous implications. Recall that biblical literalists were convinced of the Earth’s six day creation as depicted in Genesis. How could rocks be older the deeper they are found if the universe was created in 6 days? Steno solved this riddle using his powerful intellect in combination with what psychologists refer to today as ‘motivated reasoning’. Referring to Genesis:
- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
So, the waters were there first. In the next few verses God creates light, then separates the sky from the water. Then:
- And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”
Steno figured that when solid land was created the heavier particles settled out of the water first creating the older, bottom layers of the earth. Subsequent, younger layers, then precipitated out of solution in turn and Voila!! … science and religion are made compatible (in Steno’s mind at any rate).
After this landmark discovery Steno decided to give up science and became a bishop in the Catholic church. To show his devotion he chose a life of voluntary poverty and personal deprivation. Living on a bread and beer diet he became emaciated and died at the age of 48. The Catholic Church has proceeded down the path to canonize Steno as a saint (if only ‘evidence’ of a miracle could be found).
So – what did we learn from Steno’s story? I’d boil it down to two key points.
1. The human struggle towards understanding: It’s always interesting to see how people grappled with scientific issues that have since been solved. With 20/20 hindsight you can see how they were on the right track here, were sidetracked there and instances where they were tantalizingly close, but the answer remained just beyond their grasp. Steno’s tale contains all of these elements.
2. Where Steno went furthest afield from reality, he did so for religious reasons, just as many today deny objective reality because it conflicts with their faith (should you have any doubts feel free to perform a web search for the phrase ‘ark park’).
This story has a hopeful ending. Thanks to science we now understand with a high degree of certainty all of the questions with which Steno was struggling so desperately. We know, for example that: the Earth is 4.543 billion years old, that continents move on plates (plate tectonics), about the processes of uplift and subduction, that species evolve and sometimes go extinct, and how mountains and landscapes form and change with time. The scientific method has provided the human species the means to tell true hypotheses from false ones. It is, in a nutshell, a window on the truth. Religion, being unable to test factual claims, is often just the opposite.
We’ll end with the following quote:
In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind old men as guides.
- Heinrich Heine, Gedanken Und Einfalle
With respect to science, the writings of Aristotle and the ancient Greeks still held considerable influence in the 1600s thanks to the intervening period where little new research was performed that we now call ‘the Dark Ages’. As for religion, most Europeans were biblical literalists. They thought that the Earth and all living things were created by god in their present form. As a result, people believed all sorts of things that seem childishly simplistic today (assuming you live outside of the bible belt). For example, they thought:
- The Earth was 6,000 year old.
- Many creatures were believed to arise through a process of spontaneous generation. For example that flies were created by meat as it decomposed.
- Fossils were thought to be naturally occurring phenomena that were formed in the earth (that just happened to look like such things as seashells, bones or shark teeth).
- The Genesis flood story was thought to be literally true (providing a convenient explanation as to how those titular seashells wound up on the tops of mountains).
With that as a background, let’s return to Steno who was studying anatomy at the time and had become somewhat of a sensation thanks to his dissection skills. One day he came into possession of a shark’s head and noticed that the teeth looked a lot like the things people called glossopetrae or "tongue stones" because they were thought to be petrified tongues of dragons and snakes (which is kind of adorable).
Many were convinced that these tongue stones formed naturally within the rocks in which they were found (or fell from the sky). Steno was convinced that the stones were actual teeth, but noticed that the composition of his fresh teeth differed from those found in rock. Steno argued that the corpuscles in the teeth were replaced bit by bit, by corpuscles of minerals (corpuscles being minute particles akin to molecules – though molecules hadn’t yet been discovered). In this gradual process, the teeth were able to retain their shape as they turned from tissue to stone (which is a pretty decent explanation as to how fossilization works).
If fossil shells and teeth were the remnants of actual animals then this gives rise to additional questions:
- How did fossilized shells get to locations far from the sea, such as the tops of mountains?
- Why were some of these shells entirely different from those that existed in the present?
To answer these questions Steno began a broader investigation of geology and this is where he made his greatest scientific contribution. Noticing that rocks were arranged in layers, he came up with what would become known as ‘Steno's law of superposition’, which stated that layers of rock are arranged in a time sequence, with the oldest on the bottom and the youngest on the top (unless later processes disturb this arrangement).
This seems obvious today, but was an entirely novel idea at the time ... an idea with dangerous implications. Recall that biblical literalists were convinced of the Earth’s six day creation as depicted in Genesis. How could rocks be older the deeper they are found if the universe was created in 6 days? Steno solved this riddle using his powerful intellect in combination with what psychologists refer to today as ‘motivated reasoning’. Referring to Genesis:
- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
So, the waters were there first. In the next few verses God creates light, then separates the sky from the water. Then:
- And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.”
Steno figured that when solid land was created the heavier particles settled out of the water first creating the older, bottom layers of the earth. Subsequent, younger layers, then precipitated out of solution in turn and Voila!! … science and religion are made compatible (in Steno’s mind at any rate).
After this landmark discovery Steno decided to give up science and became a bishop in the Catholic church. To show his devotion he chose a life of voluntary poverty and personal deprivation. Living on a bread and beer diet he became emaciated and died at the age of 48. The Catholic Church has proceeded down the path to canonize Steno as a saint (if only ‘evidence’ of a miracle could be found).
So – what did we learn from Steno’s story? I’d boil it down to two key points.
1. The human struggle towards understanding: It’s always interesting to see how people grappled with scientific issues that have since been solved. With 20/20 hindsight you can see how they were on the right track here, were sidetracked there and instances where they were tantalizingly close, but the answer remained just beyond their grasp. Steno’s tale contains all of these elements.
2. Where Steno went furthest afield from reality, he did so for religious reasons, just as many today deny objective reality because it conflicts with their faith (should you have any doubts feel free to perform a web search for the phrase ‘ark park’).
This story has a hopeful ending. Thanks to science we now understand with a high degree of certainty all of the questions with which Steno was struggling so desperately. We know, for example that: the Earth is 4.543 billion years old, that continents move on plates (plate tectonics), about the processes of uplift and subduction, that species evolve and sometimes go extinct, and how mountains and landscapes form and change with time. The scientific method has provided the human species the means to tell true hypotheses from false ones. It is, in a nutshell, a window on the truth. Religion, being unable to test factual claims, is often just the opposite.
We’ll end with the following quote:
In dark ages people are best guided by religion, as in a pitch-black night a blind man is the best guide; he knows the roads and paths better than a man who can see. When daylight comes, however, it is foolish to use blind old men as guides.
- Heinrich Heine, Gedanken Und Einfalle
May 25, 2022
“When the climbers in 1953 planted their flags on the highest mountain, they set them in snow over the skeletons of creatures that had lived in the warm clear ocean that India, moving north, blanked out. Possibly as much as twenty thousand feet below the seafloor, the skeletal remains had turned into rock. This one fact is a treatise in itself on the movements of the surface of the earth. If by some fiat I had to restrict all this writing to one sentence, this is the one I would choose: The summit of Mt. Everest is marine limestone.”
- John McPhee, Annals of the Former World
This book recounts the life and times of Nicholas Steno, who is often considered the father of modern geology. The age he lived in was one of great scientific progress constrained by strong religious boundaries. This was long before anyone could claim to pursue science for science’s stake; discoveries in Catholic countries had to be submitted to Church censors before they could be published, and the church backed up its position with the threat of the Inquisition.
The situation was made more complicated by the dual nature of scientific understanding. For example, already in Galileo’s time many educated people inside and outside the Church understood Copernican theory and knew that the earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa, but because the Bible implied that the earth was fixed (Joshua made the sun stand still, not the earth), this was the official position. As Galileo learned to his cost, saying otherwise could get a person in serious trouble (E pur si muove!). A modern example of this way of thinking can be found in China. It is perhaps the most rapaciously capitalist country in the world, but it suits the ideology of the leadership to maintain the fiction that it is communist and not just a totalitarian government with a fancy ideology. Anyone who says otherwise will regret it.
Steno was one of the most brilliant scholars of his time. He began as an anatomist, and astonished his peers with this skills at dissection. He was the first to locate and identify the salivary and lachrymal glands, and he examined a cow’s heart and determined that it was a pump, not a furnace to warm the blood as had previously been believed. His skills were so advanced that he raised the jealousy of teachers and fellow anatomists, and he frequently had to move. He would eventually go to Italy, convert to Catholicism, and become a priest, then finally a bishop, and was famous for his piety and charity, even selling his bishop’s ring and crosier to help the poor.
He was a close observer of nature, with an ability to develop theories to connect multiple observations into a single overarching view. Among other things, he founded the science of crystallography, and his key discovery is still known as Steno’s Law, which says that the angles between corresponding faces of crystals are always the same. If you shatter a quartz crystal, for example, all of the fragments have faces at the same angles as the original.
Steno made a number of keen observations of fossils that helped pave the way for modern paleontology, and wrote a book theorizing how one thing (a fossil, crystal, or different type of rock) could be completely enclosed in another, and though he was not the first to say that fossils had once been living creatures, his position was nevertheless at odds with most of his peers. He had observed that marine fossils could be found far from the ocean, and even on mountain tops. At the time it was assumed that this was the result of the Noachian flood, and indeed, a great many people today still believe that. Steno argued that the evidence showed that land masses rose and fell, though he, perhaps deliberately, did not extend this idea to its logical conclusion that the earth must be vastly older than the 6000 years a literal reading of the Bible would suggest.
He is best known today for his work in geology. His 1669 book Dissertationis prodromus laid down the principles of stratigraphy, which examined the conditions under which layers form in rocks, and how to determine which layers are part of the same strata, even if they are physically discontinuous. He had to couch his words carefully to avoid antagonizing the Church, saying that "sediment could have formed rocks in such a way, though everyone knew the creation story to be true." That one sentence encapsulates the dangers of allowing religion to override science: it forces the scientists to dissimulate, and it helps keep the anti-intellectual darkness of religious thinking in place.
Steno would eventually abandon science to devote himself full time to his religious studies, another loss for science and progress. He has, however, been placed on the path to sainthood, and is currently beatified, step three of four in the process. He was a complicated man, brilliant and possessed of acute powers of observation. His piety was genuine and set a standard which few others in the Church hierarchy even attempted to follow, so it was religion’s gain but science’s loss when he decided to follow his heart rather than his head.
- John McPhee, Annals of the Former World
This book recounts the life and times of Nicholas Steno, who is often considered the father of modern geology. The age he lived in was one of great scientific progress constrained by strong religious boundaries. This was long before anyone could claim to pursue science for science’s stake; discoveries in Catholic countries had to be submitted to Church censors before they could be published, and the church backed up its position with the threat of the Inquisition.
The situation was made more complicated by the dual nature of scientific understanding. For example, already in Galileo’s time many educated people inside and outside the Church understood Copernican theory and knew that the earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa, but because the Bible implied that the earth was fixed (Joshua made the sun stand still, not the earth), this was the official position. As Galileo learned to his cost, saying otherwise could get a person in serious trouble (E pur si muove!). A modern example of this way of thinking can be found in China. It is perhaps the most rapaciously capitalist country in the world, but it suits the ideology of the leadership to maintain the fiction that it is communist and not just a totalitarian government with a fancy ideology. Anyone who says otherwise will regret it.
Steno was one of the most brilliant scholars of his time. He began as an anatomist, and astonished his peers with this skills at dissection. He was the first to locate and identify the salivary and lachrymal glands, and he examined a cow’s heart and determined that it was a pump, not a furnace to warm the blood as had previously been believed. His skills were so advanced that he raised the jealousy of teachers and fellow anatomists, and he frequently had to move. He would eventually go to Italy, convert to Catholicism, and become a priest, then finally a bishop, and was famous for his piety and charity, even selling his bishop’s ring and crosier to help the poor.
He was a close observer of nature, with an ability to develop theories to connect multiple observations into a single overarching view. Among other things, he founded the science of crystallography, and his key discovery is still known as Steno’s Law, which says that the angles between corresponding faces of crystals are always the same. If you shatter a quartz crystal, for example, all of the fragments have faces at the same angles as the original.
Steno made a number of keen observations of fossils that helped pave the way for modern paleontology, and wrote a book theorizing how one thing (a fossil, crystal, or different type of rock) could be completely enclosed in another, and though he was not the first to say that fossils had once been living creatures, his position was nevertheless at odds with most of his peers. He had observed that marine fossils could be found far from the ocean, and even on mountain tops. At the time it was assumed that this was the result of the Noachian flood, and indeed, a great many people today still believe that. Steno argued that the evidence showed that land masses rose and fell, though he, perhaps deliberately, did not extend this idea to its logical conclusion that the earth must be vastly older than the 6000 years a literal reading of the Bible would suggest.
He is best known today for his work in geology. His 1669 book Dissertationis prodromus laid down the principles of stratigraphy, which examined the conditions under which layers form in rocks, and how to determine which layers are part of the same strata, even if they are physically discontinuous. He had to couch his words carefully to avoid antagonizing the Church, saying that "sediment could have formed rocks in such a way, though everyone knew the creation story to be true." That one sentence encapsulates the dangers of allowing religion to override science: it forces the scientists to dissimulate, and it helps keep the anti-intellectual darkness of religious thinking in place.
Steno would eventually abandon science to devote himself full time to his religious studies, another loss for science and progress. He has, however, been placed on the path to sainthood, and is currently beatified, step three of four in the process. He was a complicated man, brilliant and possessed of acute powers of observation. His piety was genuine and set a standard which few others in the Church hierarchy even attempted to follow, so it was religion’s gain but science’s loss when he decided to follow his heart rather than his head.
May 10, 2016
The story of the first man to study the geology of the ages, and write a scientific treatise on how seashells and fossil sharks' teeth got embedded in rocks, is an interesting read.
Nicholaus Steno (he spelt it several ways depending on which language, as he learnt about ten) was a Danish man in the seventeenth century. Denmark actually produced many science students from a small, related cadre, including Tycho Brahe who mapped the stars more precisely than had been done before, at a time when astronomy was tied up with astrology and chemistry with alchemy. Studying any branch of natural philosophy required money, and many men needed a wealthy patron such as a king, Medici lord or Pope. Steno met all these patrons and got through many interests.
One of his early loves was anatomy and he was first to discover tear ducts and saliva ducts and the glands responsible. Much later in life he disproved the leading expert of the day who thought that the heart was a furnace which heated blood; Steno dissected an ox heart and found that it was made of the same muscle as a rabbit's leg and must contract to push blood like a pump. This told him that he had to question all assumed knowledge unless he could see it himself. In between, he dissected the head of a great white shark which was caught in the Mediterranean. Animals were easier to dissect than people. The shark's head contained many teeth which reminded Steno of the glossoptera or tongue stones found in rocks; thought to be petrified tongues of creatures and ground up for cures, they were often found along with stone seashells. Steno went to Malta where many of these discoveries were made.
The creation myth and Noah's flood story were believed to be true and literal, and the earth only a few thousand years old, so how did seashells get into rocks? More, how did they get into rocks on top of mountains? Denmark was flat and sandy but the Alps and Appennines were high, ridged and contained marble and other calcium stone. The more Steno looked - and he travelled and looked - the more puzzled he got, so having to work carefully because of religious pressure he formulated the theory of layers of sediments.
The repetitive, stultifying, dumbing-down influence of the religions of the day is hard to read. Steno was a religious man but he changed from Protestant where everything was dogma to Catholic where there was room for flexibility and interpretation at the time. This meant that he could not go home. Galileo had been forced to recant over his Sun-centred vision of the Solar System. Steno had to write carefully, saying that "sediment could have formed rocks in such a way, though everyone knew the creation story to be true."
Not only that, but women do not appear in this book as religions determinedly kept them powerless and pregnant while ensuring that the brightest men did not breed. (And that Steno died young from starving and whipping himself.) The sole mention of anything to do with women - apart from a woman calling directions which Steno took as a sign - is that women's ovaries were considered to be 'degenerate testes' until they were proven to contain eggs. Intelligence had to be devoted to wondering how many angels could dance on the head of a pin rather than any actual enlightenment. Just think of how much earlier the human race could have achieved penicillin and electricity if the churches had not actively prevented it.
This book is aimed at general readers, but is often a compilation of all the wrong reasons people believed some fact, odd suggestions to account for the fact, and explanations of why the true facts were not established. After so many repetitions that Genesis said this or that, the reader's eyes gloss over (as they must have done at the time too) which is why I am not giving this book more stars, though it is hardly the author's fault.
There is an excellent summing up sentence quote from John McPhee in 1998: The summit of Mount Everest is marine limestone.
Nicholaus Steno (he spelt it several ways depending on which language, as he learnt about ten) was a Danish man in the seventeenth century. Denmark actually produced many science students from a small, related cadre, including Tycho Brahe who mapped the stars more precisely than had been done before, at a time when astronomy was tied up with astrology and chemistry with alchemy. Studying any branch of natural philosophy required money, and many men needed a wealthy patron such as a king, Medici lord or Pope. Steno met all these patrons and got through many interests.
One of his early loves was anatomy and he was first to discover tear ducts and saliva ducts and the glands responsible. Much later in life he disproved the leading expert of the day who thought that the heart was a furnace which heated blood; Steno dissected an ox heart and found that it was made of the same muscle as a rabbit's leg and must contract to push blood like a pump. This told him that he had to question all assumed knowledge unless he could see it himself. In between, he dissected the head of a great white shark which was caught in the Mediterranean. Animals were easier to dissect than people. The shark's head contained many teeth which reminded Steno of the glossoptera or tongue stones found in rocks; thought to be petrified tongues of creatures and ground up for cures, they were often found along with stone seashells. Steno went to Malta where many of these discoveries were made.
The creation myth and Noah's flood story were believed to be true and literal, and the earth only a few thousand years old, so how did seashells get into rocks? More, how did they get into rocks on top of mountains? Denmark was flat and sandy but the Alps and Appennines were high, ridged and contained marble and other calcium stone. The more Steno looked - and he travelled and looked - the more puzzled he got, so having to work carefully because of religious pressure he formulated the theory of layers of sediments.
The repetitive, stultifying, dumbing-down influence of the religions of the day is hard to read. Steno was a religious man but he changed from Protestant where everything was dogma to Catholic where there was room for flexibility and interpretation at the time. This meant that he could not go home. Galileo had been forced to recant over his Sun-centred vision of the Solar System. Steno had to write carefully, saying that "sediment could have formed rocks in such a way, though everyone knew the creation story to be true."
Not only that, but women do not appear in this book as religions determinedly kept them powerless and pregnant while ensuring that the brightest men did not breed. (And that Steno died young from starving and whipping himself.) The sole mention of anything to do with women - apart from a woman calling directions which Steno took as a sign - is that women's ovaries were considered to be 'degenerate testes' until they were proven to contain eggs. Intelligence had to be devoted to wondering how many angels could dance on the head of a pin rather than any actual enlightenment. Just think of how much earlier the human race could have achieved penicillin and electricity if the churches had not actively prevented it.
This book is aimed at general readers, but is often a compilation of all the wrong reasons people believed some fact, odd suggestions to account for the fact, and explanations of why the true facts were not established. After so many repetitions that Genesis said this or that, the reader's eyes gloss over (as they must have done at the time too) which is why I am not giving this book more stars, though it is hardly the author's fault.
There is an excellent summing up sentence quote from John McPhee in 1998: The summit of Mount Everest is marine limestone.
November 28, 2010
Alan Cutler does a fine job of providing us with an introduction to Father Niels Stensen's achivements, and he left my interest piqued. Cutler writes from the perspective of a paleontologist, and so the aspects of Stensen's life of most interest to me personally were not treated in much detail--though I might almost be grateful for this, given the way religious themes are often handled by those not familiar with them! Cutler is quite respectful, however, and manages to offer some rough sketchwork on what Stensen was struggling to reconcile in his own life, and what led him to abandon what had every appearance of being a tremendous scientific career for a thankless life as a Catholic bishop in Protestant territory. Perhaps "thankless" is not the right word--being beatified by John Paul II in 1988 is certainly meaningful in some sense! (Non-catholic readers should be informed of of the difference between beatification and canonization--having received only the former and not the later, Catholics do not consider Stensen a "saint" but prefix his name with the term "blessed".)
The most interesting parts of this book pertained to the discoveries and theories Stensen advanced before taking his leave of the scientific community. Cutler does a fine job of portraying the voraciousness and wide-ranging scope of his subject's mind. He also includes an excellent bibliography at the end with many suggestions for further reading--almost a requirement for anyone more interested in a more substantial look at other areas of Stensen's life and interests, especially his theological ones. No finer summary could be offered than the words of the man himself, spoken at the dedication of Copenhagen's newest anatomical theater in 1673:
Beautiful is what we see.
More beautiful is what we understand.
Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.
The most interesting parts of this book pertained to the discoveries and theories Stensen advanced before taking his leave of the scientific community. Cutler does a fine job of portraying the voraciousness and wide-ranging scope of his subject's mind. He also includes an excellent bibliography at the end with many suggestions for further reading--almost a requirement for anyone more interested in a more substantial look at other areas of Stensen's life and interests, especially his theological ones. No finer summary could be offered than the words of the man himself, spoken at the dedication of Copenhagen's newest anatomical theater in 1673:
Beautiful is what we see.
More beautiful is what we understand.
Most beautiful is what we do not comprehend.
February 7, 2015
Fascinating story of one of the pioneers of modern geology.
June 10, 2025
Le iba a dar 4* pero la verdad me gustó mucho!! Es la biografía de Steno, el padre de la geología. Le pregunté a Gabriela si era vd q él era muy relevante y me dijo que en la facultad de geología lo alaban mucho y es muy mencionado. Me gustó mucho pq es muy beginners friendly para las personas que no saben de geología
November 28, 2010
The Seashell on the Mountaintop is on the one hand, a biography of the scientist known in English as Nicolaus Steno, a fascinating man in his own right. But it's also a history of the foundation of the science of geology, and it's a window into the early days of scientific exploration.
Steno, a Dane, started as a brilliant anatomist, wandering Europe dissecting and teaching. He was the fist to propose the idea that muscular action comes from the contraction of muscle fibers not the ballooning of the muscle mass, the accuracy of which was not recognized for a hundred years. It was the dissection of a great white shark's head that lead to Steno to recognize that its teeth were identical to "tongue stones" found high up on the mountaintops all throughout Italy. That, along with other marine fossils that had been found in the Alps and the Alpines in Italy, led him to conclude that much of Europe had been covered by water and not just once simply to launch Noah, but again and again. Contrary to both the literal interpretation of the bible and the popular theory that the earth had some sort of "plastic power" that produced stones in the shapes of sea creatures, or anything else. He later publishes a short but more formal thesis of ideas entitled Concerning Solids naturally contained within solids. In which he lays down his four fundamental principles of stratigraphy: law of superposition, principle of original horizontality, principle of lateral continuity, and the principle of cross-cutting discontinuities (oddly omitted from the book). Ideas that for the most part were soundly rejected by his contemporaries for several decades after is death.
Steno later abandons his life as a renown scientist to live the life of an improvised priest after converting from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Steno dies rather sadly before he can complete more through treatment of his ideas. Leaving it up to his contemporaries: Hooke, Ray, and Leibniz to convince the scientific community that he was right.
Aside from a straight forward biography of Steno a defacto history of the early years of the science of geology right up to Hutton, Cutler also takes the time to explain a brief history of science from the ideas of the pre-Socrates (thinking) to the ideas that emerged during the enlightenment and scientific revolution (doing). I'm glad I've been reading Sophie's World to come to grasps with all the philosophical ideas and methods mentioned throughout the book.
Steno, a Dane, started as a brilliant anatomist, wandering Europe dissecting and teaching. He was the fist to propose the idea that muscular action comes from the contraction of muscle fibers not the ballooning of the muscle mass, the accuracy of which was not recognized for a hundred years. It was the dissection of a great white shark's head that lead to Steno to recognize that its teeth were identical to "tongue stones" found high up on the mountaintops all throughout Italy. That, along with other marine fossils that had been found in the Alps and the Alpines in Italy, led him to conclude that much of Europe had been covered by water and not just once simply to launch Noah, but again and again. Contrary to both the literal interpretation of the bible and the popular theory that the earth had some sort of "plastic power" that produced stones in the shapes of sea creatures, or anything else. He later publishes a short but more formal thesis of ideas entitled Concerning Solids naturally contained within solids. In which he lays down his four fundamental principles of stratigraphy: law of superposition, principle of original horizontality, principle of lateral continuity, and the principle of cross-cutting discontinuities (oddly omitted from the book). Ideas that for the most part were soundly rejected by his contemporaries for several decades after is death.
Steno later abandons his life as a renown scientist to live the life of an improvised priest after converting from Lutheranism to Catholicism. Steno dies rather sadly before he can complete more through treatment of his ideas. Leaving it up to his contemporaries: Hooke, Ray, and Leibniz to convince the scientific community that he was right.
Aside from a straight forward biography of Steno a defacto history of the early years of the science of geology right up to Hutton, Cutler also takes the time to explain a brief history of science from the ideas of the pre-Socrates (thinking) to the ideas that emerged during the enlightenment and scientific revolution (doing). I'm glad I've been reading Sophie's World to come to grasps with all the philosophical ideas and methods mentioned throughout the book.
August 5, 2020
Who of us today isn’t rooting for the scientists? I’ve always found it fascinating how knowledge evolves, however imperfectly we begin to feel a sense of certainty about the universe we live in. How a question about anything comes about, progresses, matures and arrives at a degree of acceptance is why the history of science is so appealing. The earth is a flat disk in the center of the known galaxy with concentric rings of crystalize substance that holds stars and planets in place and was, and ever will be unchanging. Or not. Things that today seem so simple and so obvious were for thousands of years mysterious and maybe unknowable
Alan Cutler takes on a journey from the mysterious to the obvious with a simple item – a seashell. His narrative contains all the things that make the history of science intriguing; a question (why are they on the top of mountains?), seemingly harebrained ideas (they fall from the sky in the deep of night), otherwise brilliant people in fierce debate and most of them wrong ( Hooke, Leibnitz, Ray, clergy and eccentric amateurs), Scheming and intrigue (established religion versus free-thinkers), a courageous but tragic hero (Steno) and that hero’s eventual triumph after death (100+ years).
I certainly overstate the power of Cutler’s narrative and the appeal of rocks to most readers, but the book is small, concise and easily understood. It’s worth the time of most inquisitive readers. Most importantly, it reminds us that the discipline of science isn’t to be discounted, underfunded and ignored. Misinformation (fossil seashells ground to cure disease) benefits no one
Alan Cutler takes on a journey from the mysterious to the obvious with a simple item – a seashell. His narrative contains all the things that make the history of science intriguing; a question (why are they on the top of mountains?), seemingly harebrained ideas (they fall from the sky in the deep of night), otherwise brilliant people in fierce debate and most of them wrong ( Hooke, Leibnitz, Ray, clergy and eccentric amateurs), Scheming and intrigue (established religion versus free-thinkers), a courageous but tragic hero (Steno) and that hero’s eventual triumph after death (100+ years).
I certainly overstate the power of Cutler’s narrative and the appeal of rocks to most readers, but the book is small, concise and easily understood. It’s worth the time of most inquisitive readers. Most importantly, it reminds us that the discipline of science isn’t to be discounted, underfunded and ignored. Misinformation (fossil seashells ground to cure disease) benefits no one
November 17, 2008
The story of how Nicolas Steno, a 17th century Danish scientist, discovered fundamental principles of geology through his interest in fossilized shark teeth and seashells. To my thinking, the most important of his contributions is the idea that there is a chronology written in the strata of rocks and that it is possible to read that record of past events. This book, is less about how he came to make these discoveries, and more about the environment in which he made them and the reactions of his peers and subsequent generations of naturalists across Europe.
One of the central themes running through this book is the tortuous convolutions of logic that these men had to go through in order to fit the physical evidence at hand to their world view. Every discovery had to be viewed through the lens of facts they knew to be true as described in the book of Genesis. It makes one wonder what things we know to be true today are obscuring our ability to understand things which are plain to see.
Despite such an interesting sounding topic, Mr. Cutler manages to make his book quite dull and it is rescued only by the fact that it is so short.
One of the central themes running through this book is the tortuous convolutions of logic that these men had to go through in order to fit the physical evidence at hand to their world view. Every discovery had to be viewed through the lens of facts they knew to be true as described in the book of Genesis. It makes one wonder what things we know to be true today are obscuring our ability to understand things which are plain to see.
Despite such an interesting sounding topic, Mr. Cutler manages to make his book quite dull and it is rescued only by the fact that it is so short.
February 3, 2015
The story of Nicolai Stenonis (Steno) told in this book is one that, though a short read, was filled with fabulous information about the life story of someone I had never heard of before. Although I have been to the basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, I didn't even know that he was buried there nor would I have guessed that I would have wanted to visit his shrine as other pilgrims do. He was a Dane, converted to Catholicism, worked for the Medici's in Florence and was WAY ahead of his time in understanding the earth's strata and the reasons for our ability to find a seashell on top of a mountain. He was brilliant, he was caught in between trying to find scientific explanation of a phenomenon that conflicted with current religious beliefs of the time and he was a Christian who devoted his life to the church. What a wonderful story of someone who is largely forgotten and ignored in our educational institutions.
September 8, 2008
Wow! This is the coolest overview of early geologic discovery and methodology. The realization that rocks are very ancient and the fossils embedded in those rocks are just as ancient as the rocks was unheard of until Nicolas Steno. Nicolas Steno was the first man in recorded history to link geologic layers with the time line of geologic history. Before he added his ideas to the pantheon of science, there were some pretty wacky ideas about how sea life fossils were embedded in the rock high on mountain tops hundreds of miles form the nearest ocean. No one thought of the meaning of the striped sediment exposed on cliff faces and mountain sides until Mr. Steno. Very interesting in terms of modern geology/paleontology and science history.
February 23, 2009
More than one man may lay claim to the title as the father of modern geology, and Nicholas Stano is one of the earliest. His work with fossils from the late 17th Century did not make a significant contribution to the understanding of the world around us during his time, but his work as later re-discovered was revolutionary. Anyone who read Simon Winchester's book "The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology" should like this book as much if not more. An interesting element of the book is the description of how influential the church was in the late 16th and 17th Century regarding scientific understanding, and how so many things we take for granted today were impossible to believe given the biblical interpretations so strong during those times.
February 6, 2009
I was a little disappointed, this is a biography of a man who started asking the first questions about how seashells got on the top of the Alps, which to me is pretty miraculous and I know how they got there. Imagine being in the time where no one knew! But the tone wasn't very engaging or interesting. I still can't believe that people in that day and age (1600's) thought mountains were hideous and offended God... but they did. I did like that Steno started as an anatomist so there are parallels to exploring the human body and exploring the earth that were cool.
June 18, 2017
So cool to hear a story with temporary suspension of earth's gravity, spontaneously generating seashells and shark teeth, seas looming above the earth, impending apocalypse of the 6000 year lifespan of the planet while telling how the dirt held millions of years of history.
Excellently paired with Radiolab's, A Coral Moon from The Time' s They Are a-Changing, December 30, 2013.
Special guest stars The Brethren of Purity, Leonardo da Vinci, Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, Ferdinando and Leopoldo de ' Medici's del Cimento; an all star cast.
Excellently paired with Radiolab's, A Coral Moon from The Time' s They Are a-Changing, December 30, 2013.
Special guest stars The Brethren of Purity, Leonardo da Vinci, Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, Ferdinando and Leopoldo de ' Medici's del Cimento; an all star cast.
June 15, 2012
At the end of the book, Cutler wrote, "A full-blown biography of Steno in English has yet to be written. This book is no more than a start. Because I was mainly interested in his contribution to science as a geologist, I had to leave out many details of his careers as an anatomist and a priest."
It's a short book, but surprisingly fleshed out, given that Steno lived in the late 1600s. Well worth a read for geonerds.
It's a short book, but surprisingly fleshed out, given that Steno lived in the late 1600s. Well worth a read for geonerds.
May 30, 2015
Most books looking back on the genesis of geology as a field of study cite men of the past and mention one or another way each pushed forward the study of the earth. In Alan Cutler's short volume centered on the life and work of Nikolas Steno he neatly depicts the interplay of 17th century church and science with human wit and frailty. If you're looking for the science keep looking but if the roots of the modern study of the earth are your interest this is a wonderful entry.
July 8, 2015
I have used this book in two different courses (an introductory history of science course, and an intermediate survey course on the history of the physical sciences). Students find it very readable, which is a major plus. I cannot say that the narrative argument is all that profound; we follow Steno through his life, and we are left with this unanswered question: how was his scientific curiosity for a time an essential expression of his faith, but ultimately a dispensible one?
January 13, 2011
One of the loveliest science history books I have ever read.
Gives a great account of the life and times of the 17th C Danish scientist Nicolaus Steno who should (if he is not) be hailed as one of the founders of the science of geology.
Loved it!
Gives a great account of the life and times of the 17th C Danish scientist Nicolaus Steno who should (if he is not) be hailed as one of the founders of the science of geology.
Loved it!
February 13, 2012
This is an interesting subject but I found this particular discussion to be somewhat tedious. (I, like many others I'm sure, became curious about Steno after Google did a logo commemorating him a few weeks ago.)
June 21, 2013
Just found this too boring and dry to keep going with it. Life is too short to be burdened by boring books... :)
June 3, 2025
On the surface, The Seashell on the Mountaintop is a biographic look at Nicolaus Steno, one of the fathers of modern geology who established many of the basic principles of stratigraphy and paleontology that we are familiar with today. But it is also the story of seventeenth century science and the development of scientific thinking and reasoning. In this, Cutler’s book is as much about the age as it is about the man.
These pages bring to light the progression of scientific study through time and truly makes one realize how the road of science has been a much more winding one than the straight forward line we tend to picture. It also shows that that road can even reverse back on itself or shoot off in strange directions as it inches along towards the future.
The author, Alan Cutler, has a Ph.D. in geology so it is understandable that his primary focus here is on Steno’s geological research. But Mr. Cutler is also a self-described “curious person” and that curiosity is certainly reflected in his writing and the many interesting quotes and scientific tidbits scattered throughout these pages. His writing style is engaging with a touch of wit that brings out the humanity in what could easily have been a dry and overly scientific topic.
The author states himself that this is not and was not intended to be an academic work. This is accessible science for the average reader and, in my opinion, more than hits that mark. Enjoyable to me, someone with a general interest in geology and history, I could also see this book being a great additional reading choice for an introductory college or even high school geology course. Within its approachable two hundred pages, it touches on some of the most important basic principles of the topic in an entertaining manner.
Another area of study that would fit this book well is most certainly a history of science course. Some of the most interesting information covered by Cutler relates to the particular type of scientific thought in the 1600s. It was fascinating to me how much early science was truly the study of “everything”. Steno himself was also immersed in anatomy, medicine, and crystallography, and all of this was explored along with the almost mandatory need to connect and reconcile each theory with the faith and religion that was the center of European life at the time.
And Steno, a skilled scientist turned Catholic bishop, is the perfect example of the interesting and complicated relationship between faith and science that we still struggle with today. Despite the modern viewpoint that these two things must be and have always been in conflict, history shows us that they didn’t always compete. Reading this made me wonder if modern society could actually learn a lesson in reconciliation from this earlier perspective. Steno’s story certainly had an impact on the views of the book’s author. When asked about how this project affected his own thoughts on the relationship between science and religion, Cutler interestingly says, “I now take religion a lot more seriously than I used to… I am impressed by the richness of religious thinking through the ages. If I can't abide the cheap shots uninformed fundamentalists often take at science, I can also no longer abide the cheap shots uninformed scientists sometimes take at religion, either."
I wonder what Nicolaus Steno would have thought of that.
These pages bring to light the progression of scientific study through time and truly makes one realize how the road of science has been a much more winding one than the straight forward line we tend to picture. It also shows that that road can even reverse back on itself or shoot off in strange directions as it inches along towards the future.
The author, Alan Cutler, has a Ph.D. in geology so it is understandable that his primary focus here is on Steno’s geological research. But Mr. Cutler is also a self-described “curious person” and that curiosity is certainly reflected in his writing and the many interesting quotes and scientific tidbits scattered throughout these pages. His writing style is engaging with a touch of wit that brings out the humanity in what could easily have been a dry and overly scientific topic.
The author states himself that this is not and was not intended to be an academic work. This is accessible science for the average reader and, in my opinion, more than hits that mark. Enjoyable to me, someone with a general interest in geology and history, I could also see this book being a great additional reading choice for an introductory college or even high school geology course. Within its approachable two hundred pages, it touches on some of the most important basic principles of the topic in an entertaining manner.
Another area of study that would fit this book well is most certainly a history of science course. Some of the most interesting information covered by Cutler relates to the particular type of scientific thought in the 1600s. It was fascinating to me how much early science was truly the study of “everything”. Steno himself was also immersed in anatomy, medicine, and crystallography, and all of this was explored along with the almost mandatory need to connect and reconcile each theory with the faith and religion that was the center of European life at the time.
And Steno, a skilled scientist turned Catholic bishop, is the perfect example of the interesting and complicated relationship between faith and science that we still struggle with today. Despite the modern viewpoint that these two things must be and have always been in conflict, history shows us that they didn’t always compete. Reading this made me wonder if modern society could actually learn a lesson in reconciliation from this earlier perspective. Steno’s story certainly had an impact on the views of the book’s author. When asked about how this project affected his own thoughts on the relationship between science and religion, Cutler interestingly says, “I now take religion a lot more seriously than I used to… I am impressed by the richness of religious thinking through the ages. If I can't abide the cheap shots uninformed fundamentalists often take at science, I can also no longer abide the cheap shots uninformed scientists sometimes take at religion, either."
I wonder what Nicolaus Steno would have thought of that.
August 13, 2024
This is a book about the Father of Geology, Niels Stensen aka Nicolai Stenonius. However, the author properly went far beyond a biography and provided a birds eye of that age.
He lived at a time before the split of Science and Religion. In fact, it was customary to seek approval of the local regional Religious authority to publish. A book would not be approved unless it clearly
tied any major scientific conclusions to Biblical principles.
Steno was a polymath so he was not only expert at Geology but also was revered as one of the
pre-eminent Anatomist/Surgeon in Europe. Also, he was so knowledgeable of religion that after leaving science behind, he became an Archbishop over Denmark, Norway, parts of Germany. He was titular Archbishop meaning without a Cathedral since his mission was to re-convert Protestants to Catholicism in those areas(pretty much non-Catholic) after the disastrous Thirty-Year War. On paper his diocese was in Muslim Turkey but actually it just allowed the Pope to give him the title of Archbishop per ecclesiastic rules, but he never set foot in Turkey.
His scientific passion was to solve the mystery of why fossils shaped like seashells are found in mountains and other places so remote from oceans. It was thought before his time that the current version of the World had come into existence in 4004BC. This was calculated by a
high-ranking Catholic Priest and generally was accepted. Secondly, it was believed in those times that the environment had not changed dramatically by Natural Forces other than what was recorded in the Bible e.g. Noah's Flood.
So, the debate on the Seashells misplacement was deciding whether Noah's Flood had previously carried all of them onto what later became dryland or alternately it was proposed that the dry Earth 'spontaneously generated' the seashells in the mountains i.e. perhaps it was Mother nature's jesting with us humans.
Well, as far as Steno was concerned it would be a simpler explanation to conclude that the oceans had receded, and some geologic force had created the mountains. Basically, he was in-effect questioning the 4004 BC timeline and also intimating that not all events are recorded in the Bible.
Well, this caused tremendous debate and being disparaged weighed upon his psyche. He was extremely orthodox Catholic in most respects so this was very grating to him.
Eventually, he left his beloved scientific work behind and became a Archbishop as I wrote. However, after he passed away, others took up the kernel of his ideas, repackaged them a bit to make it more palatable to the religious palate and bastardized his scientific thoughts. However, in the end he was recognized as the Father of Geology and those later scientific interlopers fell by the scientific wayside.
Surprisingly, one of the nicer plagiarizers was none other than the famous Gottfrid Leibniz who became very familiar with Archbishop Steno's geological ideas through personal discussion in Germany where they resided in same town for a while. Of course, later as Steno's evangelical mission drew to a close, he returned to Florence where he had lived once.
It is not surprising that Leibniz would be plagiarizing Steno's ideas because he had similarly plagiarized Isaac Newton's Calculus years earlier.
Loved the book and his story was fresh to me.
He lived at a time before the split of Science and Religion. In fact, it was customary to seek approval of the local regional Religious authority to publish. A book would not be approved unless it clearly
tied any major scientific conclusions to Biblical principles.
Steno was a polymath so he was not only expert at Geology but also was revered as one of the
pre-eminent Anatomist/Surgeon in Europe. Also, he was so knowledgeable of religion that after leaving science behind, he became an Archbishop over Denmark, Norway, parts of Germany. He was titular Archbishop meaning without a Cathedral since his mission was to re-convert Protestants to Catholicism in those areas(pretty much non-Catholic) after the disastrous Thirty-Year War. On paper his diocese was in Muslim Turkey but actually it just allowed the Pope to give him the title of Archbishop per ecclesiastic rules, but he never set foot in Turkey.
His scientific passion was to solve the mystery of why fossils shaped like seashells are found in mountains and other places so remote from oceans. It was thought before his time that the current version of the World had come into existence in 4004BC. This was calculated by a
high-ranking Catholic Priest and generally was accepted. Secondly, it was believed in those times that the environment had not changed dramatically by Natural Forces other than what was recorded in the Bible e.g. Noah's Flood.
So, the debate on the Seashells misplacement was deciding whether Noah's Flood had previously carried all of them onto what later became dryland or alternately it was proposed that the dry Earth 'spontaneously generated' the seashells in the mountains i.e. perhaps it was Mother nature's jesting with us humans.
Well, as far as Steno was concerned it would be a simpler explanation to conclude that the oceans had receded, and some geologic force had created the mountains. Basically, he was in-effect questioning the 4004 BC timeline and also intimating that not all events are recorded in the Bible.
Well, this caused tremendous debate and being disparaged weighed upon his psyche. He was extremely orthodox Catholic in most respects so this was very grating to him.
Eventually, he left his beloved scientific work behind and became a Archbishop as I wrote. However, after he passed away, others took up the kernel of his ideas, repackaged them a bit to make it more palatable to the religious palate and bastardized his scientific thoughts. However, in the end he was recognized as the Father of Geology and those later scientific interlopers fell by the scientific wayside.
Surprisingly, one of the nicer plagiarizers was none other than the famous Gottfrid Leibniz who became very familiar with Archbishop Steno's geological ideas through personal discussion in Germany where they resided in same town for a while. Of course, later as Steno's evangelical mission drew to a close, he returned to Florence where he had lived once.
It is not surprising that Leibniz would be plagiarizing Steno's ideas because he had similarly plagiarized Isaac Newton's Calculus years earlier.
Loved the book and his story was fresh to me.
September 9, 2023
3.5 stars
The only reason for this relatively low rating is that I’m apparently not as interested in fossils and strata in particular and geology in general as I thought I was.
The battle of opinions on those topics, however, made fascinating reading. Through the ages scientists and aficionados have tried to ascertain the history of the earth.
There was/is the eternal struggle between theology and science, the literal truth of the Bible which did/does not admit any changes to God’s perfect plan versus all the evidence to the contrary, proving a history of great upheavals; everything there is to know can be found in the Bible versus how could seashells be found in the earth when the land was made by God on the third day but marine life on the fifth; the earth was created on 6 pm on 23 October 4004 BC versus the earth is immeasurably old.
The seashells were left by Noah’s flood, they grew like plants, they fell down with the rain, there were plastic forces at work, generative principles, lapidifying juices, spontaneous generation, wet exhalations, etc.; they were organic, they were inorganic; they could breed and multiply; they were real seashells, they were not real seashells. No theory was far-fetched enough not to have followers.
In the book we meet a great number of well-known scientists, philosophers and patrons like Aristotle and Platon, Galileo, Leopoldo and Ferdinando Medici, Duke Ernst August of Hanover, Descartes, Pascal, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, etc. but the protagonist is Nicolaus Steno, a successful Danish Lutheran anatomist turned inventor of geology turned ascetic Catholic monk who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988 on October 23, the same date that Bishop Ussher of Armagh had worked out as the date God had created the world.
The only reason for this relatively low rating is that I’m apparently not as interested in fossils and strata in particular and geology in general as I thought I was.
The battle of opinions on those topics, however, made fascinating reading. Through the ages scientists and aficionados have tried to ascertain the history of the earth.
There was/is the eternal struggle between theology and science, the literal truth of the Bible which did/does not admit any changes to God’s perfect plan versus all the evidence to the contrary, proving a history of great upheavals; everything there is to know can be found in the Bible versus how could seashells be found in the earth when the land was made by God on the third day but marine life on the fifth; the earth was created on 6 pm on 23 October 4004 BC versus the earth is immeasurably old.
The seashells were left by Noah’s flood, they grew like plants, they fell down with the rain, there were plastic forces at work, generative principles, lapidifying juices, spontaneous generation, wet exhalations, etc.; they were organic, they were inorganic; they could breed and multiply; they were real seashells, they were not real seashells. No theory was far-fetched enough not to have followers.
In the book we meet a great number of well-known scientists, philosophers and patrons like Aristotle and Platon, Galileo, Leopoldo and Ferdinando Medici, Duke Ernst August of Hanover, Descartes, Pascal, Voltaire, Isaac Newton, etc. but the protagonist is Nicolaus Steno, a successful Danish Lutheran anatomist turned inventor of geology turned ascetic Catholic monk who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988 on October 23, the same date that Bishop Ussher of Armagh had worked out as the date God had created the world.
January 26, 2022
Oddly, this book slipped by me nearly two decades ago when it was written, but a good friend and former student mentioned it on Facebook, and I immediately acquired a copy. The book tells and old story, one that repeats itself over and over--a new scientific discovery is made, and it is either unacceptable on the grounds of religion and/or the established "science" of the time, or it goes virtually unnoticed for numerous decades. For Nicolaus Steno, it was a bit of both. For Steno, it was clear that the seashells found in rocks were once real shells and that they were likely quite old, buried in sediment strata over several inundations of the seas. Ancients and contemporaries had debated the shells as real or divine or spontaneous products of the earth, but Steno wrote a brief paper that more of less clearly settled the issue with acute observation that established tenets still used in geology today. The paper, and the promise of a never-delivered expansion, was widely read in the 1600s and had both adherents and detractors, but it also was largely forgotten. Steno, too, was almost forgotten as the father of geology, and part of that was due to his own submergence into the Church to which he converted in the last phase of his short life. The book does justice to Steno and establishes his rightful place in the history of geology though Cutler admits in the end that a complete biography of Steno is yet to be undertaken.
November 2, 2019
Called ''the founder of Geology'' by Stephen Jay Gould, the Dane Nicolaus Steno is the brilliant scientist whose work is the object of this short but very interesting book. Born into a solidly Lutheran family in Copenhagen, in 1638, he died as a catholic bishop in Hamburg in 1686, and was beatified by the Catholic Church 302 years later. But his fame does not arise from his religious endeavors: he was a renowned and precocious anatomist, traveling to Amsterdam, Paris, and then Florence, where he was part of the Medicis' court. However, the main thrust of the book is his contributions to geology (actually his very invention of Geology as the science of earth's history) at a time when Bible based narratives were universally accepted (in Europe) as the history of the earth, reaching the extreme of fixing the date of earth's creation as October 23, 4004 BC (due to James Ussher, the Anglican archbishop of Armagh, Ireland). Steno's creation of Geology as a science steamed from his studies of fossils, mainly seashells, his keen observations of Tuscany's geological landscape, and, curiously enough, from his skills as an anatomist in dissecting a white shark's head for the grand duke Ferdinando de Medicis... A delightful book!
August 23, 2018
Definitely readable. A fairly quick, non-scholarly but serious biography of Steno, someone obviously I've wanted to learn more about for a long time.
The last few chapters, where we pass from Steno's short and fraught life into a consideration of his work's effect on the following generation and century, are among the most engrossing. I'm not sure whether that despite, or because of, the amount of gossip about catty and hilariously eccentric proto-scientists of the late 17th century (all the way up to Newton and Leibniz)... spending a lot of time showing us how our recollection of the time is distorted by survivorship bias, and that people whose views we now find hilarious, like Kircher and Woodward, were loud and influential then.
I noted that Cutler was spouting some Whig history party line material early in the book. He gets more careful and oriented in the actual intellectual milieu of the century as the book goes on...however, that means he left that language in the beginning for whatever reason, whether oversight during revisions, or a desire to ease the average left-of-political-center reader into the book by telling him what he expects to hear, or something else.
The last few chapters, where we pass from Steno's short and fraught life into a consideration of his work's effect on the following generation and century, are among the most engrossing. I'm not sure whether that despite, or because of, the amount of gossip about catty and hilariously eccentric proto-scientists of the late 17th century (all the way up to Newton and Leibniz)... spending a lot of time showing us how our recollection of the time is distorted by survivorship bias, and that people whose views we now find hilarious, like Kircher and Woodward, were loud and influential then.
I noted that Cutler was spouting some Whig history party line material early in the book. He gets more careful and oriented in the actual intellectual milieu of the century as the book goes on...however, that means he left that language in the beginning for whatever reason, whether oversight during revisions, or a desire to ease the average left-of-political-center reader into the book by telling him what he expects to hear, or something else.
March 8, 2020
Cutler tells a remarkable story of scientific inquiry. The protagonist, Steno, is a Danish doctor, who moves to Florence in the mid-1600s and joins a group of scientists sponsored by the Medici family. He turns his mind to the question of fossils, and particularly their unexpected locations. The result is a theory that helps found the field of geology. This work navigates three orthodoxies - that the world was perfectly formed by God in seven days, that the earth is about 6000 years old and that the only major intervening event with a major influence on geology is the Biblical flood of Noah. In this context, Steno's accomplishment is all the more astonishing, and was so advanced that it took more than a hundred years to gain wide acceptance. By then, parts were being significantly redrafted to reflect other advances in science and new evidence, but that subtracts little from the brilliance of the original insight. This book's strength is to place one tale of exploration within the broader context of science and intellectual inquiry. The simple idea of comparing observation with theory is not so simple after all. This book makes it an easy story to read.
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