This volume shows how manuals and handbooks have contributed to the standardization, codification, transmission and revision of knowledge in diverse times and places, such as ancient Greece, China and early modern Europe, as well as modern contexts worldwide. Touching upon problems of innovation, authorship and publishing, this collection offers a new perspective on how the history of science, medicine and technology relates to that of books and media. The contributors not only show how practitioners learn new methods, from alchemical recipes to gene cloning, but also how knowledge can become old in different ways, such as by becoming generally accepted, revised, or antiquated.
Authors: Karine Chemla (Paris), Angela N.H. Creager (Princeton), Stephanie A. Dick (University of Pennsylvania), Boris Jardine (Cambridge), Mathias Grote (HU Berlin), Marta Hanson (Johns Hopkins), Elaine Leong (UCL), Federico Marcon (Princeton), Matteo Martelli (Bologna), Anna-Maria Meister (TU Darmstadt), Staffan Müller-Wille (Cambridge) and Giuditta Parolini (TU Berlin), Jennifer Rampling (Princeton)
Table of Contents
Introduction
Learning by the book: manuals and handbooks in the history of science Angela N.H. Creager, Mathias Grote, Elaine Leong BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 1–13 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.1 Published Online on 2 December 2020
Research Articles
Reading instructions of the past, classifying them, and reclassifying them: commentaries on the canon The Nine Chapters on Mathematical Procedures from the third to the thirteenth centuries Karine Chemla BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 15–37 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.2 Published Online on 8 December 2020
Ancient handbooks and Graeco-Egyptian collections of alchemical recipes Matteo Martelli BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 39–55 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.4 Published Online on 8 December 2020
Reading alchemically: guides to 'philosophical' practice in early modern England Jennifer M. Rampling BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 57–74 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.3 Published Online on 8 December 2020
From under the elbow to pointing to the palm: Chinese metaphors for learning medicine by the book (fourth–fourteenth centuries) Marta Hanson BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 75–92 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.6 Published Online on 8 December 2020
Learning medicine by the book: reading and writing surgical manuals in early modern London Elaine Leong BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 93–110 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.7 Published Online on 17 December 2020
The book as instrument: craft and technique in early modern practical mathematics Boris Jardine BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 111–129 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.8 Published Online on 8 December 2020
The 'book' as fieldwork: 'textual institutions' and nature knowledge in early modern Japan Federico Marcon BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 131–148 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.9 Published Online on 9 December 2020
Punnett squares and hybrid crosses: how Mendelians learned their trade by the book Staffan Müller-Wille, Giuditta Parolini BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 149–165 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.12 Published Online on 9 December 2020
Ernst Neufert's 'Lebensgestaltungslehre': formatting life beyond the built Anna-Maria Meister BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 167–185 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.13 Published Online on 9 December 2020
Total knowledge? Encyclopedic handbooks in the twentieth-century chemical and life sciences Mathias Grote BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 187–203 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.11 Published Online on 4 December 2020
Coded conduct: making MACSYMA users and the automation of mathematics Stephanie A. Dick BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 205–224 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.10 Published Online on 22 December 2020
Recipes for recombining DNA: A history of Molecular Cloning: A Laboratory Manual Angela N.H. Creager BJHS Themes, Volume 5, 2020, pp 225–243 doi: 10.1017/bjt.2020.5 Published Online on 8 December 2020