Intellectual and Technological Change
| Discussion topics | Documents | Reading | Audio
Discussion topics and Essay Questions
- Was there a 'Scientific Revolution' in early modern Europe?
- How far did perceptions of the physical and natural world change in this period?
- How difficult was it to change traditional perceptions of the shape and working of the physical world in this period?
- To what extent was intellectual change dependent on social and economic developments in the period?
Documents
**NOTE: Some eresources are accessible only on-campus or via off-campus proxies or the athens service**
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Audio links
- BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' programme on 'Scientific Method'
Secondary Reading
Selected Key Texts
- L. Daston, and K. Park (eds),The Cambridge History of Science. Vol. 3 Early Modern Science (2006) (ebook)
- R. Evans, and A. Marr (eds), Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment (2006)
- P. Dear, Revolutionizing the Sciences : European Knowledge and Its Ambitions, 1500-1700 (2001) (ebook)
- J. Henry, The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (2002) (ebook)
- M. Oster, Science in Europe, 1500-1800 : A Secondary Sources Reader (2001)
- M. Oster, Science in Europe, 1500-1800 : A Primary Sources Reader (2002)
- L. Schiebinger, Has Mind No Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science (2005)
- S. Shapin, The Scientific Revolution (1996) (ebook)
- H. Butterfield, The Origins of Modern Science, 1300-1800 (1957)
Further reading
a) Scientific change, natural history and intellectual culture
- A. Barrera-Osorio, Experiencing Nature : The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (2006), esp. chs 1, 2, 5 and appendices
- R. Briggs, The Scientific Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1969)
- L. Daston, and F. Vidal, The Moral Authority of Nature (2004)
- P. Dear, 'Totius in Verba : Rhetoric and Authority in the Early Royal Society', Isis 76 no. 2 (1985), pp. 144-161
- J. Delbourgo and N. Dew (eds), Science and Empire in the Atlantic World (2008)
- W. Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (1994)
- W. Eamon, The Professor of Secrets: Mystery, Medicine and Alchemy in Renaissance Italy (Washington, 2010)
- C. Ginzburg, “High and Low: The Theme of Forbidden Knowledge in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Past and Present 73 (1976): 28-41
- J. Golinski, Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science (2005)
- A. Grafton, Defenders of the Text : The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age of Science, 1450-1800 (1991) (ebook)
- S. Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions : The Wonder of the New World (1991).
- M. B. Hall, The Scientific Renaissance, 1450-1630 (1962)
- D. Harkness, The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (2007) (ebook)
- J. Henry, Knowledge Is Power : Francis Bacon and the Method of Science (2002)
- Michael Hunter, Science and Religion in Restoration England (1992)
- L. Jardine, Ingenious Pursuits : Building the Scientific Revolution (1999)
- R.Jones, Ancients and Moderns: a study of the rise of the scientific movement in seventeenth-century England (1961)
- H. F. Kearney, Science and Change : 1500-1700 (1971/1976)
- S. Kusukawa, "Illustrating Nature", in Marina Frasca-Spada and Nick Jardine (eds), Books and the Sciences in History (Cambridge, 2000), 90-113.
- T. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962)
- D. C. Lindberg, and R. S. Westman (eds), Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (1990).
- D. S. Lux, and H. J. Cook, 'Closed Circles or Open Networks?: Communicating at a Distance During the Scientific Revolution', History of Science 36 v. 112 (1998), pp. 179-211
- C. Merchant, '"The Violence of Impediments": Francis Bacon and the Origins of Experimentation', Isis 99 no. 4 (2008), pp. 731-760
- B. T. Moran, Distilling Knowledge : Alchemy, Chemistry, and the Scientific Revolution (2005)
- B. T. Moran (ed.), Patronage and Institutions: Science, Technology, and Medicine at the European Court, 1500 - 1750 (1991)
- B. W. Ogilvie, The Science of Describing : Natural History in Renaissance Europe (2006).
- M. Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (1998).
- J. A. Secord, 'Knowledge in Transit', Isis 95 no. 4 (2004), pp. 654-672.
- Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (1971), esp. chs 1, 7, 10, 11, 13, 22
- Charles Webster, The Intellectual Revolution of the Seventeenth Century (1974)
b) Science, medicine and daily life in early modern Europe
- R. M. Bell, How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians (Chicago, 1999) (ebook)
- B. Capp, Astrology and the Popular Press: English Almanacs, 1500-1800 (London, 2008)
- H. J. Cook, Matters of Exchange : Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age (2007) (ebook)
- W. Eamon, "How to read a book of secrets", in Elaine Leong and Alisha Rankin (eds), Secrets and knowledge in medicine and science, 1500-1800 (2011), pp. 23-46.
- P. Findlen, Possessing Nature: Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture (1994) (ebook)
- D. Gentilcore, Medical Charlatanism in Early Modern Italy (Oxford, 2006) (ebook)
- A. Johns, The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making (Chicago, 1998) (ebook)
- A. Kavey, Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England. 1550-1600· (Urbana, IL, 2007) (ebook), esp. Introduction, chs. 1, 2, 4
- E. Leong and S. Pennell, 'Recipe Collections and the Currency of Medical Knowledge in the Early Modem "Medical Marketplace''', in Mark S.R. Jenner and Patrick Wells (eds), Medicine and the Market in England and its Colonies, c. 1450-c. 1850 (London, 2007)
- M. Lindemann, Medicine and Society in Early Modern Europe (1999/2010)
- L. Schiebinger, and C. Swan (eds), Colonial Botany : Science, Commerce, and Politics in the Early Modern World (2007)
- P. H. Smith, and P. Findlen (eds.), Merchants & Marvels : Commerce, Science and Art in Early Modern Europe. (2002)
- A. Wear, Knowledge and Practice in English Medicine, 1550-1680 (2000) (ebook)
Module Forum
Module Homepage
E-Resources
Chronology
External Links
Renaissance, Reformation and Early Modern Germany: collection of documents relating to early modern Germany, including scientific texts
The Galileo Project: website documenting life and work of Galileo
Images of Copernicus: portraits and engravings of Nicholas Copernicus
Descartes' Theory of Vision: Woodcut from Descarte's 1644 publication
William Harvey 1578-1657: information about English physician William Harvey
Newton Papers: Collection of digitised papers written by Isaac Newton, held at Cambridge University Library