Edited by
Pierre Savaton, Université de Caen Normandie, France.
ISBN : 9781789452310
Publication Date : July 2026
Hardcover 314 pp
170 USD
Co-publisher
The creation of the Comité français d’histoire de la géologie (COFRHIGEO) in 1976 aimed to convene geologists, philosophers and historians interested in contributing to a written history of geology, which was at that time still in its infancy.
Fifty years later, History of Earth Sciences seeks both to present the research that has illuminated the evolution of ideas about the Earth - from Antiquity to the very beginning of the twentieth century ? and to offer students, as well as anyone interested in the development of the Earth sciences, a general, focused and precise text designed as both an introduction and an invitation to pursue the study of this history. In this book, the history concludes with Alfred Wegener’s mobilist theory.
1. What Earth Sciences Existed in Greco-Roman Antiquity? Frédéric Le Blay.
2. Studying and Knowing the Earth in the Middle Ages, Joëlle Ducos and Fleur Vigneron.
3. Geology from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, Gaston Godard.
4. Crystallography: 17th–19th Centuries, Bernard Maitte.
5. Geology and Visual Discourse: The Birth of the Geological Map, Pierre Savaton.
6. Birth and Development of Stratigraphy, Philippe Grandchamp.
7. History of Mobilist Ideas: Wegener’s Model, Philippe Le Vigouroux.
Pierre Savaton is an associate professor (HDR) in epistemology and the history of science at the Université de Caen Normandie, France. He is also a member of COFRHIGEO.
