Artists and Artisans in Natural History. Cooperative Practices of Draughtsmen, Engravers, Printers and Naturalists in the Eighteenth Century

本项目分析了参与18世纪自然历史插图制作的艺术家和工匠的职业和工作模式。它以假设这些人的技术技能是决定插图潜力的关键因素作为起点。它们可能比观察的艺术或基础理论更重要。因此，这些艺术家和工匠在塑造经典自然史的核心部分方面具有很大的影响力。然而，它们很少成为科学史研究的焦点。该项目有助于缩小这一差距。它围绕着纽伦堡的医生和博物学家克里斯托夫·雅各布·特鲁（1695-1769）周围的绘图员、雕刻工、印刷工，可能还有照明工展开，他是许多插图自然历史书籍的作者和创始人。Trew丰富的信件保存下来，为这个项目提供了大量的资料来源。根据这些通信，该项目将根据需要进行补充，重建这群自然史艺术家和工匠的培训，专业化和社会结构。哪些是他们在培训期间获得的技能和能力以及沉默的惯例（如果他们接受过培训）？哪些是自然史插图所需要的额外技能和知识体系，艺术家和工匠是如何学习的？他们是如何在最终的插图制作中使用这些专业知识的？在这方面，重建科学艺术家和工匠的家庭传统和家谱是非常重要的，因为家庭往往是重要的培训场所。在此分析的基础上，该项目转向艺术家和工匠的合作实践，既与自然主义者合作，也与彼此合作。自然历史插图的制作是如何组织的？它需要复杂的劳动分工，但与此同时，关键依赖于密切的合作。如何选择合作伙伴，如何塑造工作流程？留给每个合作伙伴的空间有多大？如何加以利用？该项目最终将导致一个专著，试图提供这些问题的答案，鉴于纽伦堡的例子。

This project analyses the careers and modes of working of artists and artisans who were involved in the production of eighteenth-century natural history illustrations. It takes as a starting point the assumption that these persons' technical skills were crucial factors in determining the illustration's potential. They were perhaps even more important than the art of observation or the underlying theory. These artists and artisans, therefore, were highly influential in shaping a central part of classic natural history. Nevertheless, they have rarely been made the focus of studies in the history of science. This project contributes to closing this gap. It centres on the circle of draughtsmen, engravers, printers and, possibly, illuminators around the Nuremberg-based physician and naturalist Christoph Jacob Trew (1695-1769), who was the author and the initiator of many illustrated natural historical books. Trew's rich correspondence has survived and provides a magnificant body of sources for the project. Based on this correspondence, which will be complemented as necessary, the project reconstructs the training, the specialisation and the social structure of this group of natural history artists and artisans. Which were the skills and competencies as well as the silent conventions that they acquired during their training (if they were trained at all)? Which were the additional skills and bodies of knowledge that were needed for illustrations in natural history, and how did the artists and artisans learn them? How did they use all this expertise in the eventual production of the illustrations? It is highly relevant in this context to reconstruct family traditions and genealogies of scientific artists and artisans, as families often were important sites of training. Building on this analysis, the project then turns to the cooperative practices of artists and artisans, both with naturalists and with each other. How was the production of natural history illustrations organised? It required a complex division of labour, but, at the same time, crucially depended on close collaboration. How were partners chosen, how was the workflow moulded? How much scope was left for each of the partners and how was it made use of? The project eventually will lead to a monograph that tries to provide answers to these questions in view of the Nuremberg example.