Elly Dekker

{{Short description|Dutch astronomer (born 1943)}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name = Elly Dekker

|image = Elly Dekker - Dutch science historian - portrait photo.jpg

|caption =

|birth_name = Elisabeth Dekker

|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1943}}

|birth_place = Haarlem, the Netherlands

|death_date =

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|field = Astrophysics, history of astronomy

|work_institutions = Museum Boerhaave, Royal Museums Greenwich

|alma_mater = University of Utrecht

|doctoral_advisor =

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|influences =

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|prizes = Caird Medal

|religion =

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}}

Elisabeth "Elly" Dekker (born 1943) is a Dutch astronomer and science historian, specialising in the history of astronomy.

Biography

She studied theoretical physics and astronomy at Utrecht University.[https://independent.academia.edu/EllyDekker independent.academia.edu EllyDekker]. Consulted on 12 February 2021. In 1975 she obtained a PhD in astronomy at Leiden University with the thesis Spiral structure and the dynamics of flat stellar systems supervised by Hendrik C. van de Hulst.{{r|phd}}{{MathGenealogy|id=114154}} From 1978-1988 she was a curator of Museum Boerhaave in Leiden and afterwards an independent scholar. From 1993-1995 she was a Sackler fellow of the Royal Museums Greenwich. In 1998 she was awarded the Caird Medal for her work on the globe collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.{{r|caird}}

Dekker was married to the astronomer and physicist Hendrik Gerard (Henk) van Bueren (1925–2012).{{r|henk}}

Publications

Dekker is the author of articles and books including:

=Articles=

  • 'Spiral structure and the dynamics of galaxies', Physics Reports 24 (1976) 315-389{{Cite journal |last=Dekker |first=E |date=1976 |title=Spiral structure and the dynamics of galaxies |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/0370157376900259 |journal=Physics Reports |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=315–389 |doi=10.1016/0370-1573(76)90025-9|bibcode=1976PhR....24..315D |url-access=subscription }}
  • 'Jacobus C. Kapteyn (1852-1922)', in Kox, A.J. and Chamalaun, M. eds: Van Stevin tot Lorentz. Portretten van Nederlandse natuurwetenschappers, Amsterdam 1980, p. 177-191. In Dutch.
  • 'Early Explorations of the Southern Celestial Sky', in Annals of Science 44 (1987) pp. 439-470. [About the mapping of the southern sky by Dutch mariners at the end of the 16th century.]
  • 'Frederik Kaiser en zijn pogingen tot hervorming van ‘het sterrekundig deel van onze zeevaart', Gewina / Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek TGGNWT 13 (1990) 23-41. In Dutch.[http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/retroboeken/gewina resources.huygens.knaw.nl Gewina: Tijdschrift voor de Geschiedenis der Geneeskunde, Natuurwetenschappen, Wiskunde en Techniek (1978-2007)]. Consulted on 12 February 2021.
  • 'An Unrecorded Medieval Astrolabe Quadrant, c. 1300', in Annals of Science 52 (1995), pp. 1-47.
  • 'Carolingian Planetary Observations: The Case of the Leiden Planetary Configuration', Journal for the History of Astronomy 39 (2008) 77-90
  • 'A ‘Watermark’ of Eudoxan Astronomy', Journal for the History of Astronomy 39 (2008) 213-228
  • 'Caspar Vopel's Ventures in Sixteenth-Century Celestial Cartography', Imago Mundi 62:2 (2010) 161-190
  • with Kristen Lippincott: The provenance of the stars in the Leiden Aratea picture book, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes eds. E.H. Gombrich et al. 73 2010 (2011), 1-37
  • 'Construction and copy: aspects of the early history of celestial maps’, Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, Band 13, Acta Historica Astronomiae, Vol. 58 (2016), pp. 47–93.
  • 'The Nuremberg maps: a Pythagorean-Platonic view of the cosmos', Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, Band 13, Acta Historica Astronomiae, 58 (2016), pp. 95–124

=Books=

  • Spiral structure and the dynamics of flat stellar systems, PhD thesis Leiden : Rijksuniversiteit, 1975. 148 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
  • with Peter van der Krogt: Globes from the Western World, London, Zwemmer, 1993{{r|gww}}
  • with Raf Van Laere: De verbeelde wereld. Globes, atlassen, kaarten en meetinstrumenten uit de 16de en 17de eeuw, [Antwerpen] Kredietbank 1997. In Dutch.
  • Globes at Greenwich: a catalogue of the globes and armillary spheres in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Oxford University Press, 1999){{r|gg}}
  • Catalogue of Orbs, Spheres and Globes, Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Cataloghi di raccolte scientifiche, 5. Firenze, Giunti, 2004{{r|imss}} 188 + 16 pp. of colour plates.
  • Illustrating the Phaenomena: Celestial Cartography in Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press, 2013{{r|ip}}, 467 p.

References

{{Reflist|refs=

{{citation|last=Campbell|first=Tony|date=January 1999|doi=10.1080/03085699908592910|issue=1|journal=Imago Mundi|pages=178–190|title=Chronicle for 1998|volume=51}}

See the acknowledgements of {{citation|last=Dekker|first=Elly|journal=Globe Studies|jstor=23993546|pages=25–44|title=The doctrine of the sphere: A forgotten chapter in the history of globes|volume=49/50|year=2002|issue=49/50}}

{{citation|last=van der Kruit|first=Pieter C.|contribution=Appendix A.4: Oort and His Students: a List of Ph.D. Theses|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-17801-7|pages=633–635|publisher=Springer International Publishing|title=Jan Hendrik Oort|series=Astrophysics and Space Science Library|year=2019|volume=459|isbn=978-3-030-17800-0|s2cid=199240526 }}

Reviews of Globes at Greenwich:

  • {{citation|last=Gingerich|first=Owen|date=August 2003|doi=10.1177/002182860303400313|issue=3|journal=Journal for the History of Astronomy|pages=339–340|title=Greenwich globes and armillary spheres|volume=34|s2cid=220915007}}
  • {{citation|last=Heilbron|first=J. L.|date=March 2000|doi=10.1038/35003630|issue=6773|journal=Nature|pages=16–17|title=Around the world via Greenwich|volume=404|s2cid=3606118}}
  • {{citation|last=Milanesi|first=Marica|date=January 2002|issue=1|journal=Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London|jstor=532129|pages=108–110|title=none|volume=56}}
  • {{citation|last=Mokre|first=Jan|journal=Globe Studies|jstor=23993555|title=none|volume=154–156|year=2002}}; also in German in Der Globusfreund, {{JSTOR|41628645}}
  • {{citation|last=Savage-Smith|first=Emilie|author-link=Emilie Savage-Smith|date=April 2002|issue=2|journal=Technology and Culture|jstor=25147920|pages=413–414|title=none|volume=43|doi=10.1353/tech.2002.0089|s2cid=110642479}}
  • {{citation|last=Warner|first=Deborah Jean|journal=Imago Mundi|jstor=1151589|pages=160–161|title=none|volume=53|year=2001}}

Reviews of Globes from the Western World:

  • {{citation|last=Allmayer-Beck|first=Peter E.|date=December 1995|journal=Der Globusfreund|jstor=41622094|pages=343–344|title=none|volume=43/44}}
  • {{citation|last=Baldwin|first=Robert|date=March 1996|doi=10.2307/3060220|issue=1|journal=The Geographical Journal|jstor=3060220|page=83|title=none|volume=162}}

Reviews of Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza:

  • {{citation|last=Milanesi|first=Marica|journal=Globe Studies|jstor=23993604|pages=145–147|title=none|volume=51/52|year=2005}}; also in German in Der Globusfreund, {{JSTOR|41628661}}

Reviews of Illustrating the Phaenomena:

  • {{citation|last=Anderson|first=Benjamin|date=January 2014|issue=1|journal=Speculum|jstor=43576978|pages=188–189|title=none|volume=89|doi=10.1017/S0038713413004326}}
  • {{citation|last=Evans|first=James|date=March 2015|doi=10.1086/681833|issue=1|journal=Isis|jstor=10.1086/681833|pages=166–167|title=none|volume=106}}
  • {{citation|last=Ishak|first=B.|date=April 2013|doi=10.1080/00107514.2013.800159|issue=2|journal=Contemporary Physics|pages=129–130|title=none|volume=54|s2cid=119057697}}
  • {{citation|last=Mokre|first=Jan|journal=Globe Studies|jstor=44755486|pages=230–231|title=none|volume=59/60|year=2014}}; also in German in Der Globusfreund, {{JSTOR|44753622}}
  • {{citation|last=Strano|first=Giorgio|doi=10.1163/18253911-03003008|issue=3|journal=Nuncius|pages=715–717|title=none|volume=30|year=2015}}
  • {{citation|last=Warner|first=Deborah Jean|date=November 2013|doi=10.1080/03085694.2014.846011|issue=1|journal=Imago Mundi|pages=131–132|title=none|volume=66|s2cid=128508667}}

}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dekker, Elly}}

Category:Living people

Category:1943 births

Category:Writers from Haarlem

Category:20th-century Dutch astronomers

Category:20th-century Dutch historians

Category:Dutch women historians

Category:Utrecht University alumni

Category:Leiden University alumni

Category:Historians of science

Category:21st-century Dutch historians

Category:Dutch women curators