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This article offers a brief overview of recent studies on note taking and paperwork in histories of early modern science. Showcasing the wide variety of note‐taking practices performed by a range of historical actors across diverse sites and knowledge practices, it argues that a focus on note taking and “paper technologies” enables us to put in conversation a number of linked epistemic practices from...
This paper discusses the book Géologie élémentaire appliquée à l'agriculture et à l'industrie, by Nerée Boubée (1806–1863), first released in French in 1833, and later translated and published in Brazil in 1846 with the support of lieutenant Frederico Burlamaque (1803–1866), a prominent Brazilian engineer and teacher. There is a particular focus on the appendices, editors inserted works previously...
In this paper, we focus on the launch of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, which was first published in 1925. We present the context of the launch and explain why it was closely connected to the period of the New Economic Policy. In the last section, we examine four articles about randomness and probability included in the first volumes of the encyclopedia in order to illustrate some debates from within...
The Tongwen suanzhi (Arithmetic Guidance in the Common Language, 1613) has always been viewed as the first mathematical book to introduce Western written calculations into China. By analyzing the way in which calculations were written in the Tongwen suanzhi, this paper reveals that a place‐value number system using Chinese characters was used to record operands and results in the calculations; however,...
Photonic technologies are often advertised as capable of revolutionizing our lives in the near future. However, the exact meaning of the word “photonics” as well as the scope of the field remain unclear. The term was born in the 1970s in both France and the Netherlands where various scholarly communities began research into the phenomenon. Some resulting technologies started circulating in industry...
The global phenomenon of maritime expansion and the measures of control imposed by the interventionism of the Iberian crowns generated a context that sheds light on the Zilselian issue: the contact between artisans and university‐trained men in early modern Europe. This is an old and controversial topic. However, this article does not focus solely on the economic and social reasons for this contact,...
Scientific instruments are not neutral artefacts; the perception of their value is greatly determined not only by the objects themselves and the function they perform, but also by the context of their use. In the 16th and 17th centuries, scientific instruments – not only nautical ones – acquired a prominent place in European societies that greatly transcended the specific narrow professional circles...
Edgar Zilsel's famous thesis, which argues that modern experimental science was born from the union of artisans and intellectuals in the 16th century, received little support when Zilsel proposed it in the 1940s. In recent years, however, with the turn toward social and cultural history of science, the “Zilsel Thesis” has undergone something of a revival as historians rethink the relevance of artisanal...
While it is generally accepted that texts concerning navigation written by the Portuguese mathematician and cosmographer Pedro Nunes (1502–1578) were influential in erudite circles of Europe, less is known about the real impact and diffusion of his work among the less educated, such as professionals associated with sea voyages. Did Nunes' theoretical contributions reach the relevant artisans and practitioners?...
For several decades, historians have realized the limitations of analysing the historical past of science as a mere succession of theories. One of the most stimulating messages that the reinvention of the discipline has launched is that although there are obvious intellectual elements that promote the development and progress of science, there are also social, economic, and institutional aspects to...
This article examines the influence of Portuguese artisans on the development of navigation and nautical science in Seville in the 16th century. It argues that their work was important not just for the experience and skills they offered, but also because of their indirect impact on the narrative of knowledge dissemination and control in Spanish navigation.
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