ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Making Communication Common: Information Architecture, Classificatory Schemes and Reference Aids in the Repositories of Early Scientific Societies

• In Event: Divining Heaven and Earth

English Abstract

In this presentation, I describe processes of designing shared information environments in European academic societies between 1600 and 1750, as illustrated by their repository projects and designs of research infrastructure. Specifically, I'll be bringing material evidence of methods of referencing, categorising and browsing in early scientific archives into the spotlight to ask whether it can illuminate 17th-century concerns about commitment to theory and communication strategies in the face of natural-philosophical divides. How does one break free of the constraints imposed by 'complete schemes of opinion' (scholastic taxonomies and over-theorised explanations), while preserving a pragmatic order in a gathered body of experiments, observations, and records? In a time of debates over the possibility of adopting a universal framework of meaning and translating it into infrastructural tools aiding communication, undermined by divides and nuances in natural-philosophical schools, how does one make repositories an effective working tool? By posing these questions and presenting preliminary archival findings, I consider strategies of enabling open-ended, indeterminate search in the age of classificatory controversies in natural philosophy, and ensuring purposeful communication across different schools of thought in science and natural philosophy as evidenced by the material shape of repositories.

Author

• Ewa Zakrzewska, European University Institute