Metropolitan Science: London Sites and Cultures of Knowledge and Practice, c. 1600-1800
Resource type
Lecture
Creator (person)
Higgitt, Rebekah
Kilburn-Toppin, Jasmine
Abstract
Join us at The London Archives as Rebekah Higgitt and Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin talk us through their new publication, exploring distinctive practices in the artisanal, mercantile, and governmental sites of London.
Metropolitan Science provides a new perspective on what is often known as the Scientific Revolution, involving significant changes to understanding and exploitation of the natural world in the late 16th to 18th centuries. Rather than focusing on famous philosophers or learned societies, it argues that institutions associated with commerce and trade, as well as city and national government, created unique environments for the production, testing and use of knowledge. In London, a growing centre of industry and empire, such institutional sites brought together a wide and productive range of people, projects and materials that made them both creators and users of new knowledge and practices.
In this talk, co-authors Rebekah Higgitt and Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin will introduce the book and reflect on how they made use of archives at The London Archive and Guildhall alongside other sources to draw out the voices of artisans and reveal the roles of knowledge and skill.
Event title
Metropolitan Science: London Sites and Cultures of Knowledge and Practice, c. 1600-1800
Publisher
The Royal Historical Society
Rights statement
In Copyright