A Workshop hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
Notebooks - in Science and Scholarship, 1600-1900
In 2013 the Macquarie Dictionary added an entry for ‘infovore (noun)’, defining it as ‘a person who craves information, especially one who takes advantage of their ready access to it on digital devices.’ During the early modern period (c.1500-1750) in Europe, the counterpart of such a person was likely to be a note-taker whose preferred ‘device’ was a ‘notebook’. According to the OED this word (also ‘note-booke’) was first used in 1568. By the 16th century various kinds of notebook ─ the journal/diary, commonplace book (from loci communes, or common places), merchants’ account book(s), and ships’ log book ─ were in use, governed (in principle) by different methods and protocols. The aim of this workshop is to explore the roles of such notebooks across disciplines, including humanist studies and empirical sciences, roughly from the Renaissance to the late 19th century.
Confirmed Speakers
Sietske Fransen (Cambridge)
Ian Hesketh (UQ)
Anna Johnston (UQ)
Daniel Midena (UQ)
Richard Yeo (Griffith)
Please direct all queries to James Lancaster.
Image: Jan Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (English edition, 1672)