Description
Book SynopsisCabinets of Experimental Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Europe is an ambitious contribution to the growing interest in how science came to engage the attention of a public outside the academic and professional spheres and how collections of instruments played a formative role in this development. Collections of physical instruments for research and demonstration appeared throughout Europe in the eighteenth century and the coverage of the book is correspondingly broad. While collections in different cultural and geographical locations had much in common, there were significant local modifications. The essays in this book illustrate how science, sometimes thought to be monolithic and universal, can maintain core intellectual characteristics and practical techniques while adapting to particular sites and circumstances. Contributors include: Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas, Huib J. Zuidervaart, Hans Hooijmaijers, Ad Maas, Tiemen Cocquyt, Inga Elmqvist Söderlund, Paola Bertucci, Marta C. Lourenço, David Felismino, Ivano Dal Prete, Ewa Wyka, Martin Weiss, and Paolo Brenni.
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas Colour Plates I-XIII Cabinets for Experimental Philosophy in the Netherlands Huib J. Zuidervaart Entrepreneurs in Experiments: The Leiden Cabinet of Physics and the Motives of its Founders (1675-1742) Hans Hooijmaijers, Ad Maas New Light on the Cabinet of Physics of Padua Sofia Talas The Lost Cabinet of Experimental Philosophy of the University of Oxford Jim Bennett Failure, Fraud, and Instrument Cabinets: Academic Involvement in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Water Crisis Tiemen Cocquyt The Cabinet of Physics at Riddarhuset in Stockholm in the Eighteenth Century Inga Elmqvist Söderlund Designing the House of Knowledge in Eighteenth-century Naples: The Ephemeral Museum of Ferdinando Spinelli, Prince of Tarsia Paola Bertucci Between Teaching and Collecting: The lost Cabinet of Physics of Princes José and João of Portugal (1777-1808) Marta C. Lourenço, David Felismino The Gazola Family’s Scientific Cabinet: Politics, Society and Scientific Collecting in the Twilight of the Republic of Venice Ivano Dal Prete Collections of Experimental Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-century Poland Ewa Wyka “Monuments of Science”: How the Teyler Museum’s Instrument Collection Became Historical Martin Weiss The Physics Cabinet of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano Paolo Brenni General Index
