Vol. 42, No. 1, January 2013
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F for Fakes: Hoaxes, Counterfeits and Deception in Early Modern Science
Second Watson Seminar in the History of Material and
Visual Science (Museo Galileo—Florence)
Organized by Marco Beretta and Maria Conforti
7 June 2013
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From the HSS President: Making A Difference
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Article: The "Dinosaurs" Guide to Technology in the History Classroom
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Article: That Was Then. This Is Now
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Article: Reaching Beyond the Discipline
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Article: A Conversation with the American Historical Association's Jim Grossman, 4 October 2012
The forgery or falsification of objects, as well as the creation or invention of artifacts consciously—if deceitfully—attributed to the remote or recent past, has long been an object of enquiry for historians, and especially for philologists and art historians. Images and texts are in fact among the most common hoaxes.
On the contrary, the role of "falses" in the history of science, while anecdotically known for specific cases, has hardly been addressed as a general question, especially as regards the early modern age. Fakes and forgeries, as well as the alteration of data, has probably been perceived, especially by Whiggish narratives of science, as a shattering infringement of the tacit assumption that science is in constant pursue of truth. While sciences dealing with mathematical methods, such as astronomy or physics, are seemingly more easily protected from the dangers and incursions of conscious or interested producers of false instruments or results, hoaxes have been frequent, even common, in fields such as zoology, botany, earth sciences, anatomy—and obviously in the disciplines broadly or loosely connected with antiquarianism. "False" artifacts have been bought, collected, displayed and have often contributed to myths and legends, as well as to scientific "mistakes."
The production of false objects (including texts) represents an answer to different needs, and their quality and number arguably may tell us many things about social contexts, artisanal practices, the construction and sharing of knowledge and the notion of creativity in different periods and places. The notion of expertise has recently become a focus for science historians, especially as concerns the medical and pharmaceutical disciplines, but it is still to be addressed as a central notion even for sciences and knowledge where expert learning and experience is seemingly subject to normative and more stringent laws, such as mechanics, engineering, chemistry. Special attention will be given to both to the use of fakes for ideological or religious purposes as well as for the building and enforcing of "scientific" theories. Questions of trust and of the social value of science and learning are obviously crucial for the evaluation, acceptance, and exposing of hoaxes, fakes and false results. However, far from endorsing a simplistic "constructivist" notion of the sciences in the early modern age, the workshop (following Nuncius' line of enquiry) will specifically address questions such as the conditions and techniques of production, in general the "material" history of false objects. One of the questions to be addressed will be the role played by "fakes" in shaping learning and knowledge.
The topics will be chosen so as to cover a chronology spanning from the Renaissance to the early modern age and the scientific revolution, and a broad range of scientific fields and disciplines, with a special attention to specific case-histories.
Preliminary Program
- Owen Gingerich (Harvard University): The Greatest Myth in the History of Astronomy. Respondent Giorgio Strano (Museo Galileo)
- Didier Kahn (Université Paris-Sorbonne): A Tale of a Nail. Leonhardt Thurneisser's Transmutation in Rome (1586?). Respondent Antonio Clericuzio (University of Cassino).
- Valentina Pugliano (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science–Berlin): Leone Tartaglini's Basilisks: Fake Specimens and Explorations in the Boundaries of Scientific Connoisseurship. Respondent Alessandro Tosi (University of Pisa)
- Marjolijn Bol (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science–Berlin): Factitious gemstones. Respondent Maria Conforti (La Sapienza–Rome)
- Daniel Margocsy (Hunter College): "Of Outlandish Creatures of a Doubtfull Kind": Imagination and Forgery in John Jonston. Respondent Alexander Marr (University of Cambridge)
- Ingrid Rowland (University of Notre Dame): Athanasius Kircher's Palingenetic Plant. Respondent Sven Dupré (Max Planck Institute for the History of Science–Berlin)
NDXI: ELEVENTH BIENNIAL HISTORY of ASTRONOMY WORKSHOP
University of Notre Dame
Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum
June 12–16, 2013
CONFERENCE THEME: Diffusion of Astronomical Knowledge across and within Cultures
INVITED SPEAKER: F. Jamil Ragep, Canada Research Chair in the History of Science in Islamic Societies and Director of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada
CALL FOR PAPERS: Open through March 1, 2013. Please contact Stephen Case at scase1@nd.edu or visit the NDXI web page for details. Proposals that address the theme receive preference, but all proposals will be considered.
History of Pre-Modern Medicine Seminar Series, 2012–13
A new academic seminar series organized by a group of historians of medicine based at London universities and hosted by the Wellcome Library began in 2012. The series focuses on pre-modern medicine, which we take to cover European and non-European history before the 20th century (antiquity, medieval and early modern history, some elements of 19th-century medicine). The seminars are open to all.
2013 Events
22 January 2013
Lisa Smith (University of Saskatchewan)
Fertility Troubles and Domestic Medical Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century France and England
5 February 2013
Alun Withey (University of Exeter)
Politeness and Pogonotomy: Shaving and Masculinity in Georgian Britain
19 February 2013
Helen King (Open University)
Agnodice's First Patient: Gendering Childbirth in Antiquity and Early Modern Europe
5 March 2013
Silvia de Renzi (Open University)
Hippocrates on the Tiber: Airs and Diseases in the Making of Baroque Rome
All seminars will take place in the Wellcome Library, 2nd floor, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BE. Please deposit bags and coats in the ground floor cloakroom and meet in the 2nd floor foyer. Doors open at 6pm prompt, seminars will start at 6:15.
Enquiries to Ross Macfarlane (Wellcome Library: R.MacFarlane@wellcome.ac.uk or Prof. Colin Jones (Queen Mary University of London: c.d.h.jones@qmul.ac.uk)
CFP, the 9th International Conference in the History of Chemistry (9ICHC)
Uppsala University, 21–23 August 2013
Registration has now opened for CHEMISTRY IN MATERIAL CULTURE
Keynote speakers:
Mary Jo Nye, Oregon State University, USA
Marta Lourenço, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Lawrence Principe, Johns Hopkins University, USA
Please check in on the website http://www.9ichc.se to register online and to obtain information about the preliminary scientific program, special exhibitions, social program and venue. This interdisciplinary conference welcomes participants from a range of academic disciplines, including history of science and technology, economic history, cultural heritage research and the STS-field, as well as participants from chemistry, material science and related disciplines who have an interest in contributing to the writing of the history of their fields. Chemistry is the premier science dealing with the material world. From early modern times to the present, chemists have been involved in the analysis and synthesis of materials, in manufacture and industrial production. Engaging in diverse fields such as medicine, metallurgy, dyeing, agriculture, et cetera the science has had an important part in the shaping of the modern world, and was in turn shaped through its interactions with technology and industry. Simultaneously, the chemical laboratory is a site where our concepts of reality may be redefined. Historically, chemists have had an important role in defining the relationship of modern culture with the material world.
The conference will investigate all aspects of the history of alchemy and chemistry in its engagement with material culture, including the chemistry of materials and the philosophy of matter. Papers might address:
- Chemical sites, objects and practices as cultural heritage.
- The philosophical meaning of chemical "materiality"
- Chemical industry and the commodification of chemicals
- The cultural and economic significance of elements and other chemical "objects"
- Museum collections of chemical instruments and other chemistry-related objects
- Laboratories and experiments.
Proposals for sessions, papers and posters are invited on any of these, or related topics. All submissions should be posted through the form on the conference website http://www.9ichc.se. The submission deadline is 31 March 2013.