The Weight of Things. Quantification of Matter and the Exchange of Technical and Learned Knowledge in Early Modern Europe.

事物的重量。

• 批准号: 339935097
• 负责人: Dr. Cesare Pastorino, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Philosophie, Literatur-, Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2022-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/339935097?language=en
• 关键词: Weight; Things.; Quantification; Matter; Exchange

This project investigates the quantification of matter in the Early Modern period, focusing on the notion of specific gravity. At a given volume, different substances can be identified by their particular weight, or specific gravity. Numerous early modern experimentalists, including Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon and Johannes Kepler, viewed this seemingly humble principle as a fundamental key to the understanding of nature in general. Specific gravities were sought for a bewildering variety of materials, ranging from ivory, loadstone, and gold to ox horn, sheep blood or calves' brains. However, during the sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century, this notion came to be crucial not only for natural philosophers and mathematicians. In fact, a heterogeneous group of early modern experts became interested in it, including instrument makers, antiquarians, humanists, alchemists, Jesuits and military engineers. This study will provide the first full investigation of this rich cultural and technical environment. It will analyze the contexts in which these experts used specific gravities and the knowledge transfer among them. It will provide new insight into how these groups of practitioners and scholars were connected.The project will focus on both discussions of specific gravities in learned works, and numerical determinations of specific gravities derived from texts, tables, and mathematical instruments. These data will be employed to study the determination, use, diffusion and transfer of knowledge on specific gravities across geographical areas, time periods and subject domains. In particular, this research will analyze mathematical instruments used in fields like the art of warfare and the goldsmith trade. These sources will permit the study of time periods and contexts for which textual sources are not available. This part of the project will be developed in collaboration with major European museums holding rich collections of historical instruments. The project will especially explore the relationship between applied and learned forms of knowledge, a crucial issue in the new historiography of early modern science. By redefining our understanding of the quantification of matter in the early modern period, this project will shed new light on the origins and development of experimental science in general, and open new perspectives for the discussion of the historical relation between humanities and sciences.

本项目研究近代早期物质的量化，重点是比重的概念。在给定的体积下，不同的物质可以通过它们的特定重量或比重来识别。包括伽利略、弗朗西斯·培根和约翰内斯·开普勒在内的许多早期现代实验主义者，都将这个看似不起眼的原理视为理解大自然的基本钥匙。比重的研究涉及到各种各样令人困惑的材料，从象牙、磁石、黄金到牛角、羊血或小牛脑。然而，在16世纪和17世纪初，这一概念不仅对自然哲学家和数学家至关重要。事实上，早期现代的一群不同的专家对它产生了兴趣，包括仪器制造商，古物学家，人文主义者，考古学家，耶稣会士和军事工程师。这项研究将首次对这一丰富的文化和技术环境进行全面调查。它将分析这些专家使用比重的背景以及他们之间的知识转移。它将为这些从业者和学者群体之间的联系提供新的见解。该项目将集中在学术著作中对比重的讨论，以及从文本、表格和数学工具中得出的比重的数值测定。这些数据将用于研究不同地理区域、不同时期和不同学科领域的比重知识的确定、使用、传播和转让。特别是，这项研究将分析数学工具，如战争艺术和金匠贸易领域使用。这些来源将允许研究的时间段和上下文的文本来源不可用。该项目的这一部分将与拥有丰富历史乐器收藏的欧洲主要博物馆合作开发。该项目将特别探讨知识的应用和学习形式之间的关系，这是早期现代科学新史学中的一个关键问题。通过重新定义我们对近代早期物质的量化的理解，该项目将对实验科学的起源和发展提供新的认识，并为讨论人文科学与科学之间的历史关系开辟新的视角。