CfP: Artisans of the Surface in Early Modern Europe
Taking place over two days (20-21 September 2018), this workshop focuses
on the practices of a range of artisans (tailors, barbers, cooks,
cheesemakers, gardeners, and agronomists) and their relationships with
the fields of meteorology, botany, natural history,
medicine, earth sciences, and veterinary medicine. These artisans and
their practices shared a set of skills related to the observation and
manipulation of human and non-human surfaces. We will explore how, and
if, practical knowledge about the surface of
things and bodies (and their storage and preservation in relation to
specific environmental conditions) led to the concept of nature and
matter as composed of layers, and how such a framework contributed to
the demise of traditional Galenic and Aristotelian
views on nature.
This workshop also aims at getting past the dichotomies between
quantitative and qualitative knowledge and between natural philosophy
and the arts, and so we intend to broaden the focus to include a set of
artisans who have traditionally remained invisible
from accounts of this ‘age of the new’. We will explore the many
different ways in which ‘modern science’ emerged, the relationships
between social and cognitive practices, and the contribution that
non-mathematical sciences gave to the mental habits of observing,
collecting, experimenting with, and manipulating natural matter.
Confirmed speakers are Emanuele Lugli (York) on tailors, Elaine Leong
(MPIWG, Berlin) on domestic health practices, Bradford Bouley (UC Santa
Barbara) on butchers, Maria Conforti (La Sapienza) on the surface of the
earth, and Carolin Schmiz (EUI) on barber-surgeons.
Sandra Cavallo (Royal Holloway) will offer final remarks. We welcome
proposals that complement these topics, in particular those that address
the relationships between gardening, natural history, and medicine;
cooking and knowledge; work on animal skin; leatherwork;
or veterinary medicine. Presentations will be followed by ample time
for discussion and reflection, and so we are happy for works in
progress.
Proposals (up to 250 words) for 20-minute papers should be sent to Paolo Savoia at renaissanceskin@kcl.ac.uk