Ivano Dal Prete’s new book, On the Edge of Eternity, revisits the history of deep geological time

October 4, 2022

Ivano Dal Prete’s new book, On the Edge of Eternity: The Antiquity of the Earth in Medieval and Early Modern Europe (Oxford University Press, 2022), radically revises the commonplace history of deep time in Western culture. He argues that the chronology of the Bible always coexisted with alternative approaches that placed the origin of the Earth into a far, undetermined (or even eternal) past. Based on a wealth of mostly unexplored sources, On the Edge of Eternity offers an original and nuanced account of the history of deep time that illuminates the relationship between the history of science and Christianity in the medieval and early modern periods, with lasting implications for Western society. A Senior Lecturer in History and History of Science and Medicine at Yale University, Dal Prete studies the interaction of science, religion and society between the late Middle Ages and the early 19th century. He will present a book talk at Yale’s Sterling Memorial Library on Wednesday, October 12 at 4pm; click here for more details.

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