Description
Book SynopsisArchival Afterlives explores the posthumous fortunes of scientific and medical archives in early modern Britain. If early modern natural philosophers claimed all knowledge as their province, theirs was a paper empire. But how and why did naturalists engage with archives, and in particular, with the papers of their dead predecessors? This volume makes a firm case for expanding what counts as scientific labour, integrating scribes, archivist, library keepers, editors, and friends and family of deceased naturalists into the history of science. It shows how early modern natural philosophers pursued new natural knowledge in dialogue with their recent material past. Finally, it demonstrates the sustaining importance of archival institutions in the growth and development of the “New Sciences.” Contributors are: Arnold Hunt, Michael Hunter, Vera Keller, Carol Pal, Anna Marie Roos, Richard Serjeantson, Victoria Sloyan, Alison Walker, and Elizabeth Yale.
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Table Notes on Contributors Introduction Vera Keller, Anna Marie Roos and Elizabeth Yale 1 The Division of a Paper Kingdom: The Tragic Afterlives of Francis Bacon’s Manuscripts Richard Serjeantson 2 Scarlet Letters: Sir Theodore de Mayerne and the Early Stuart Color World in the Royal Society Vera Keller 3 Accidental Archive: Samuel Hartlib and the Afterlife of Female Scholars Carol Pal 4 Fossilized Remains: The Martin Lister and Edward Lhuyd Ephemera Anna Marie Roos 5 Playing Archival Politics with Hans Sloane, Edward Lhuyd, and John Woodward Elizabeth Yale 6 Under Sloane’s Shadow: the Archive of James Petiver Arnold Hunt 7 Collecting Knowledge: Annotated Material in the Library of Sir Hans Sloane Alison Walker 8 Collecting Genomics: Documenting Modern, Collaborative Science Victoria Sloyan Afterword Michael Hunter
