| Title: | Aach or Ach |
| Original Title: | Aach ou Ach |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 1 (1751), p. 6 |
| Author: | Denis Diderot (biography) |
| Translator: | Mark K. Jensen [Pacific Lutheran University] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.465 |
| Citation (MLA): | Diderot, Denis. "Aach or Ach." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.465>. Trans. of "Aach ou Ach," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Diderot, Denis. "Aach or Ach." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.465 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Aach ou Ach," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:6 (Paris, 1751). |
Aach or Ach, small German city in the Circle of Swabia, [1] near the source of the Aach. [2] Longitude 26° 57’, latitude 47° 55’. [3]
1. In the 16th century the Holy Roman Empire was divided into Imperial Circles for the purpose of administration, defense, and tax collection. This arrangement remained in effect until it succumbed to the French Revolutionary Wars in the 1790s. The Circle of Swabia (or Swabian Circle) was one of the original six Imperial Circles instituted at the Diet of Augsburg in 1500.
2. The Aach referred to here is now known as the Radolfzeller Aach or Hegauer Aach. Its source is the Aachtopf , Germany’s largest karst spring, which is fed chiefly by the headwaters of the Danube River.
3. Prior to the establishment as the prime meridian (i.e. longitude 0°) in the latter half of the nineteenth century of Greenwich, England, most maritime countries established their own prime meridian. In France, Louis XIII decreed in 1634 that the prime meridian was that of the island of El Hierro ( Île de Fer in French), the southwesternmost of the Canary Islands, 20° west of the Paris meridian. Under this decree every European land had the advantage of having a positive longitude, creating a system that was followed for many years by a number of other countries. Since in today’s terms the longitude of Paris is 2° 21’ E., the longitude 26° 57’ given above corresponds approximately to longitude 9° 18’ E. today. (The actual coordinates of the city of Aach today are 47° 51’ N. latitude, 8° 51’ E. longitude. Thus the figure given for longitude in the Encyclopédie is accurate to within 0.125% , and the figure given for latitude is accurate to within 0.02%.)