Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the Early Modern Academy (Techne: Knowledge, Technique, and Material Culture, 10) 9782503588063, 2503588069

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Collective Wisdom

Techne Knowledge, Technique, and Material Culture

10 Series Editors Dániel Margócsy, University of Cambridge Koen Vermeir, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / Université de Paris Editorial Board Paola Bertucci, Yale University Lino Camprubí, Universidad de Sevilla Ludovic Coupaye, UCL London Sven Dupré, Utrecht University Ariane Fennetaux, Université de Paris Anne Gerritsen, University of Warwick Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Université de Paris — EHESS Stéphane Lembré, Université Lille Nord de France Pamela H. Smith, Columbia University Viktoria Tkaczyk, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Simona Valeriani, Victoria and Albert Museum Annabel Vallard, CNRS Bing Zhao, CNRS

Collective Wisdom Collecting in the Early Modern Academy

Anna Marie Roos and Vera Keller

F

© 2022, Brepols Publishers n. v., Turnhout, Belgium. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. D/2022/0095/59 ISBN 978-2-503-58806-3 eISBN 978-2-503-58807-0 DOI 10.1484/M.TECHNE-EB.5.119385 ISSN 2736-7452 eISSN 2736-7460 Printed in the EU on acid-free paper.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7 List of Illustrations

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Introduction 13 Vera Keller and Anna Marie Roos Putting Play to Work 39 Collections of Realia and Useful Play in Early Modern Educational Reform Efforts Kelly J. Whitmer Tito Livio Burattini, a Seventeenth-Century Engineer and Egyptologist Chantal Grell University Reform and Medical Alchemy in Ole Worm’s Museum Wormianum (1655) Georgiana D. Hedesan

69

85

The Curiosi as Collectores: The Publications of the Academia Naturae Curiosorum, c. 1652–1706 107 Fabian Kraemer Vernacular Knowledge, Learned Medicine, and Social Technologies in the Leopoldina, 1670–1700, or, How to Publish on Sirens, Dragons, and Basilisks 127 Vera Keller ‘The Antiquity, Excellence, and use of Musick’ 155 Wallis, Wanley, and the Reception of Ancient Greek Music in Late SeventeenthCentury Oxford Philip Beeley Urban Fabric and Knowledge of Nature Physicians as Naturalists in Early Modern Commercial Towns Julia A. Schmidt-Funke

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Sloane’s Antiquities Providing a ‘Body of History’ Through Beads, Bottles, Brasses and Busts Kim Sloan

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ta b l e of con ten ts

Antiquarian Science and Scientific Antiquarianism at the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society Dustin M. Frazier Wood The First Egyptian Society Anna Marie Roos Collective Wisdom in the Digital Age: Digitizing Early Modern Collections at the Royal Society Louisiane Ferlier

235 261

289

Index 309 List of Contributors

321

Acknowledgements

Philip Beeley should like to thank participants of the second Cultures of Knowledge conference, held at the Society of Antiquaries, London, for their feedback on this contribution. For permission to reproduce images he should like to thank the Society of Antiquaries of London and the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Vera Keller thanks Catherine Abou-Nemeh, Margaret Schotte, and Elizabeth Yale for comments. Fabian Kraemer: Heartfelt thanks to Anna Marie Roos and Vera Keller for organizing the events that led up to this volume and for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this chapter. Louisiane Ferlier: The digital collections of the Royal Society and their analysis are the results of the expert work from the many invisible hands at the Society. Thanks go in particular to Sarai Vardi for her wonderful work conserving MS/416 and Micrographia. To Richard Keenan of Bespoke Archive Digitisation Ltd for producing the images. To Jagjit Rooprai and Steve Kennett of Armadillo System for customizing the Turning the Pages software and putting together the visual reconstruction. To the team at AEL Data for transcribing and encoding MS/416 and MS/575–79. Last but not least, thanks to all my colleagues and former colleagues of the Royal Society Library team who advised on and devised various aspects of the projects, in particular to Rupert Baker for his contribution to reconstructing Nehemiah Grew’s catalogue, Anna Henry for initiating the rough minutes pilot, and Keith Moore for the curatorial input throughout all projects. Anna Marie Roos and Vera Keller would like to thank Rainer Godel and Ronja Steffensky at the Leopoldina; Rupert Baker, Louisiane Ferlier, and Keith Moore at the Royal Society, and Heather Rowland and the events team at the Society of Antiquaries of London. This work was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/ R01289X/1), Collective Wisdom: Collecting in the Early Modern Academy . Kim Sloan: The research that underpins this article was undertaken as part of the project Enlightenment Architectures: Sir Hans Sloane’s Catalogues of His Collections, based at the British Museum, in collaboration with the UCL Centre for Digital Humanities. The project was funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant (2016–19). For the project website see . I would like to thank Heather Rowland and Magdalena Kowalczuk for their help with the Society of Antiquaries records, Morwenna Chaffe for her insights on the first draft of the paper, and Anna Marie Roos and Vera Keller for inviting me to contribute to their workshop and their helpful comments on the text.

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ac k n ow l edgemen ts

Kelly Whitmer: This chapter is part of a larger research project that has benefited from the support of the Marburg Weimar Wolfenbüttel (MWW) Research Association and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. I would also like to thank Vera Keller and Anna Marie Roos for inviting me to participate in the first ‘Collecting Wisdom’ workshop in Halle and in the production of this edited volume.

List of Illustrations

Figure 1.1.

Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.4.

Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.6.

Figure 1.7.

Figure 1.8.

Portrayals of games and playing children, specifically a ball game, a board game, a running game, and different kinds of children’s games. From J. A. Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus, illustrated by Paul Creutzberger (fl. 1650) (Nürnberg: Wolffgang Endtern, 1658). Reproduced with permission of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel [public domain].40 Frontispiece from H. Jacob Catsen, Kinder-Lustspiele: durch Sinn und Lehrbilder geleitet; zur unterweisung in guten Sitten, illustrated by Conrad Meyer (Zürich: Meyer, 1657). Reproduced with permission of the Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. [Public domain]45 Examples of specularia in use. From Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus. Reproduced with permission of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel. [Public domain]50 Realia from a mill and a bakery. From Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus. Reproduced with permission of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel. [Public domain]53 Frontispiece to Harsdörffer’s Continuation of the Deliciae physico-mathematicae (1651), with putti/children playing with a measuring stick, compass, mirror, and telescope. Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Deliciae physico-mathematicae oder mathematische und philosophische Erquickstunden. Fortsetzung (Zweiter Teil) (Nürnberg: Jeremiae Dümlers, 1651). Reproduced with permission of the Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. [Public domain]56 Readers of the Continuation were invited to make this solar clock using a mussel shell, a small sphere of glass or crystal, bells, and gunpowder. From Georg Philipp Harsdörffer, Deliciae physico-mathematicae oder mathematische und philosophische Erquickstunden. Fortsetzung (Dritter Teil) (Nürnberg: Jeremiae Dümlers, 1653), p. 328 (part four, question XLI), and Athanasius Kircher, Ars magna lucis et umbrae (Roma: Hermanni Scheus, 1646), p. 793. Reproduced with permission of the Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. [Public domain]58 Harsdörffer’s Continuation included this discussion of Borametz. From Harsdörffer, Delitiæ physico-mathematicae (Dritter Theil), p. 583. Reproduced with permission of the Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek. [Public domain]59 The exemplary virtues of Philomathia and Considerantia with their tools: number and several mathematical instruments. Philomathia hovers above the vices of pedantry, soothsaying, and excessive curiosity. Considerantia hovers over the vices of excessive scrupulousness and a lack of careful consideration.

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l i s t of i l lustr ation s

Figure 2.1. Figure 2.2. Figure 2.3. Figure 2.4. Figure 2.5. Figure 3.1. Figure 3.2. Figure 3.3. Figure 4.1.

Figure 4.2.

Figure 5.1.

Figure 5.2. Figure 5.3. Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.2.

Figure 7.1.

From Erhard Weigel, Wienerischer Tugendspiegel (Nürnberg: Wolffgang Moritz Endtern, 1687), p. 44. Reproduced with permission of the Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel. [Public domain]61 ‘Frontispiece’, in Athanasius Kircher, Œdipus Ægyptiacus (Rome: V. Mascardi, 1652–1654). [Open access]78 ‘Buratini: Obeliscus Alexandrinus’, in Kircher, Œdipus Ægyptiacus, iii, p. 333. [Open access]78 ‘Buratini: Obeliscus Alexandrinus’, in Kircher, Œdipus Ægyptiacus, iii, p. 341. [Open access]78 ‘Buratini: Obeliscus Alexandrinus’, in Kircher, Œdipus Ægyptiacus, iii, p. 342. [Open access]78 ‘Buratini: The Mummies Crypt’, in Kircher, Œdipus Ægyptiacus, iii, pp. 400–01. [Open access]79 Image of Worm’s Museum in Museum Wormianum (1655). Wellcome Library CC BY 4.0.88 Ferrante Imperato’s museum, from Dell’historia naturale (1599). Wellcome Library CC BY 4.0.89 Detail from image of Worm’s Museum in Museum Wormianum (1655). Wellcome Library CC BY 4.0.96 Frontispiece, Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica Academiae Naturae Curiosorum sive Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum Germanicarum Curiosarum etc., Annus Primus (1670). Gotha Research Library, University of Erfurt, Med 4° 00145 (01.2).119 Frontispiece, Miscellanea Curiosa, Sive Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum Germanicarum Academiae Naturae Curiosorum etc., Annus Octavus (1678). Gotha Research Library, University of Erfurt, Med 4° 00147/01 (08).121 ‘Manus Sirenes’ in Georg Hieronymus Welsch, Hecatosteae II. Observationum physico-medicarum ad illustrem Societatem Naturae Curiosorum in Germania (Ausgburg: Goebel, 1675), p. 91, engraved by Melchior Haffner. [Public domain]139 Basilisk from Georg Wolfgang Wedel, ‘Observatio CXXVIII: de Basilisco’, Miscellanea Curiosa, 3 (1672), 202–05. [Public domain]143 Eberhard Werner Happel, ‘Die Gestalt eines Basilisken’, Relationes Curiosae, 1 (1683), 228. [Public domain]144 Beginning of Byzantine treatise on neumatic notation with ownership mark of Edward Umfreville. London, Society of Antiquaries, MS 48, fol. 4r. © Society of Antiquaries of London159 Part of Humfrey Wanley’s letter to Samuel Pepys, dated 25 June 1699, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ballard 1, p. 177. Copyright the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford168 Salomon Kleiner, ‘Prospectus fori Francofurti ad Moenum’, in Das florirende Franckfurt am Mayn oder Wahrhaffte und eigendliche Abbildung dieser Berühmten Freyen Reichs- Wahl- und Handel Statt (Augsburg: Pfeffel, 1738), pl. 8. Göttingen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, GR 2 BIBL UFF 440, [accessed 16 May 2022]. [Public domain]191

list of illustrations Figure 7.2. James Petiver, Gazophylacii naturae et artes (decas prima–quinta) (London: Bateman, 1702–1706), pl. xlvii. Göttingen, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 4 H NAT I, 5830,