Event Host: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Pamela Smith, professor at Columbus University, specializes in early modern European history and the history of science. Her current research focuses on attitudes to nature in early modern Europe and the Scientific Revolution, with particular attention to craft knowledge and historical techniques.
In this lecture, she will discuss how an anonymous late 16th century French technical manuscript, "Ms. Fr. 640," (now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France), has been the subject of research by the Making and Knowing Project since 2014. This intriguing manuscript provides important insights into the material, technical and intellectual world of late 16th century Europe, and it sheds light on how and why nature was investigated, used in art and collected and appreciated in early modern Europe. The laboratory reconstruction by the Making and Knowing Project of the technical and artistic “recipes” contained in Ms. Fr. 640 provides further knowledge about the manuscript, as well as of materials and processes, but it also raises a host of questions.
Captioning will be provided for this event. If you require other accommodation to participate, please contact cmrs@osu.edu. Requests made by about 10 days before the event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
