H 113 - Books, Readers, and Science in Early Modern Europe

This course introduces topics and methods in the history of the book and reading. It focuses on the representation of knowledge in early modern printed materials across contemporary disciplines, which include natural history, technical arts, geography, music, and philology. We will examine in detail how scholars, editors, and printers translated new discoveries in sciences and humanities to text and images, thus learning about the communication and reception of knowledge in early modern Europe. We will study books, maps, and broadsheets, asking questions about the advantages and limits of print as a method of knowledge dissemination as well as the objectivity of the representation of research findings. The course focuses on the period between 1500-1800, with a final foray into the nineteenth and twentieth century to investigate the development and characteristics of scientific photography.