Historical study flourished in early modern Europe, as scholars and counselors adapted venerable ... more Historical study flourished in early modern Europe, as scholars and counselors adapted venerable genres and modes of analysis and devised new methods and techniques. Their works intended to advance political ends by augmenting their readers’ strategic acumen, familiarizing them with recent events, or deciphering broad providential patterns at work. Early modern England witnessed the importation of every significant form of historical work produced in this period, and these methods came to occupy a central, if variegated, place in its political culture. Above all, the interpretive model of ‘politic history’ and the techniques of continental antiquarianism became powerful ways to intervene in English politics, and editions, translations, and adaptations were disseminated by those both endorsing and challenging royal policy. At the same time, other readers plumbed their histories for empirical information, hoping that their mastery of foreign lands would earn them advancement within th...
... It came from another individual of immaculate humanist pedigree and possessed of a firm respe... more ... It came from another individual of immaculate humanist pedigree and possessed of a firm respect for and constant attention to Josephus. However, the Domini-can Giovanni Nanni, otherwise known as Annius of Viterbo, was not pos? sessed of a scrupulous moral fiber. ...
Abstract: This contribution argues that the study of early modern archives suggests a new agenda ... more Abstract: This contribution argues that the study of early modern archives suggests a new agenda for historians of early modern science. While in recent years historians of science have begun to direct increased attention toward the collections amassed by figures and institutions traditionally portrayed as proto-scientific, archives proliferated across early modern Europe, emerging as powerful tools for creating knowledge in politics, history, and law as well as natural philosophy, botany, and more. The essay investigates the methods of production, collection, organization, and manipulation used by English statesmen and Crown officers such as Keeper of the State Papers Thomas Wilson and Secretary of State Joseph Williamson to govern their disorderly collections. Their methods, it is shown, were shared with contemporaries seeking to generate and manage other troves of evidence and in fact reflect a complex ecosystem of imitation and exchange across fields of inquiry. These commonalities suggest that historians of science should look beyond the ancestors of modern scientific disciplines to examine how practices of producing knowledge emerged and migrated throughout cultures of learning in Europe and beyond. Creating such a map of knowledge production and exchange, the essay concludes, would provide a renewed and expansive ambition for the field.
This article investigates the long-term transformations in England’s documentary storage regime w... more This article investigates the long-term transformations in England’s documentary storage regime wrought by the Reformation. Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries famously resulted in the dispersal and destruction of many medieval texts and records, but he and his successors sponsored efforts to retrieve lost materials, which they then used in the formation of ecclesiastical policy. Elizabethan counselors expanded the scope of this project, applying their expertise in gathering records to secular issues and assiduously preserving their own documents. During James I’s reign, the Earl of Salisbury’s patronage gave new authority to the State Paper Office, encouraging the consolidation of a centralizing archive that integrated earlier methods of collection, preservation, and indexing in its operation and construction. The article thus offers an analytic trajectory tying the practices of Reformation to the development of expanding national archives in the seventeenth century.
"All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none o... more "All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112."
Historical study flourished in early modern Europe, as scholars and counselors adapted venerable ... more Historical study flourished in early modern Europe, as scholars and counselors adapted venerable genres and modes of analysis and devised new methods and techniques. Their works intended to advance political ends by augmenting their readers’ strategic acumen, familiarizing them with recent events, or deciphering broad providential patterns at work. Early modern England witnessed the importation of every significant form of historical work produced in this period, and these methods came to occupy a central, if variegated, place in its political culture. Above all, the interpretive model of ‘politic history’ and the techniques of continental antiquarianism became powerful ways to intervene in English politics, and editions, translations, and adaptations were disseminated by those both endorsing and challenging royal policy. At the same time, other readers plumbed their histories for empirical information, hoping that their mastery of foreign lands would earn them advancement within th...
... It came from another individual of immaculate humanist pedigree and possessed of a firm respe... more ... It came from another individual of immaculate humanist pedigree and possessed of a firm respect for and constant attention to Josephus. However, the Domini-can Giovanni Nanni, otherwise known as Annius of Viterbo, was not pos? sessed of a scrupulous moral fiber. ...
Abstract: This contribution argues that the study of early modern archives suggests a new agenda ... more Abstract: This contribution argues that the study of early modern archives suggests a new agenda for historians of early modern science. While in recent years historians of science have begun to direct increased attention toward the collections amassed by figures and institutions traditionally portrayed as proto-scientific, archives proliferated across early modern Europe, emerging as powerful tools for creating knowledge in politics, history, and law as well as natural philosophy, botany, and more. The essay investigates the methods of production, collection, organization, and manipulation used by English statesmen and Crown officers such as Keeper of the State Papers Thomas Wilson and Secretary of State Joseph Williamson to govern their disorderly collections. Their methods, it is shown, were shared with contemporaries seeking to generate and manage other troves of evidence and in fact reflect a complex ecosystem of imitation and exchange across fields of inquiry. These commonalities suggest that historians of science should look beyond the ancestors of modern scientific disciplines to examine how practices of producing knowledge emerged and migrated throughout cultures of learning in Europe and beyond. Creating such a map of knowledge production and exchange, the essay concludes, would provide a renewed and expansive ambition for the field.
This article investigates the long-term transformations in England’s documentary storage regime w... more This article investigates the long-term transformations in England’s documentary storage regime wrought by the Reformation. Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries famously resulted in the dispersal and destruction of many medieval texts and records, but he and his successors sponsored efforts to retrieve lost materials, which they then used in the formation of ecclesiastical policy. Elizabethan counselors expanded the scope of this project, applying their expertise in gathering records to secular issues and assiduously preserving their own documents. During James I’s reign, the Earl of Salisbury’s patronage gave new authority to the State Paper Office, encouraging the consolidation of a centralizing archive that integrated earlier methods of collection, preservation, and indexing in its operation and construction. The article thus offers an analytic trajectory tying the practices of Reformation to the development of expanding national archives in the seventeenth century.
"All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none o... more "All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations used for purposes of scholarly citation, none of this work may be reproduced in any form by any means without written permission from the publisher. For information address the University of Pennsylvania Press, 3905 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4112."
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and exchange, the essay concludes, would provide a renewed and expansive
ambition for the field.
and exchange, the essay concludes, would provide a renewed and expansive
ambition for the field.