Esprits de papier. Une histoire matérielle du travail savant à travers les brouillons de Viviani et Leibniz (ca 1650-1700)
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- Wed 28 Nov 2018 10.00 - 12.30
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2018-11-28 10:00
2018-11-28 12:30
Europe/Paris
Esprits de papier. Une histoire matérielle du travail savant à travers les brouillons de Viviani et Leibniz (ca 1650-1700)
In November 1689, a brief Tuscan encounter between Leibniz and Galileo’s last disciple
Vincenzio Viviani set the stage for the epistemological confrontation of a symbolic ‘blind
thought’ and the Florentine visual culture. Arguing about many problems of mechanics,
hydraulics, and geometry stemming from Galileo’s intellectual as well as material heritage,
the scholars shared two very different perspectives on the intricacies of a nascent physicomathematics
at the crossroad of natural philosophy, mixed mathematics, and mechanical
arts.
In order to better understand the cultural peculiarities at the root of such a conflict
of sensibilities, the present dissertation proposes to unveil the many networks of writings
– scrips and drafts, scribbles and working papers, correspondences, and reading notes –
underlying the published printed works of both savants. Delving into their personal archives
and focusing on the materiality of working notes conceived of as paper tools, it
becomes possible to shed light on the making of theory by tracing the multifarious material
practices underpinning any intellectual operation.
Words that do not form sentences, sentences that do not form texts, crossing-outs,
symbols, figures, drawings, and schematics bear witness of a mindful hand and a handy
mind jointly elaborating worlds on paper. Building on a hermeneutics of such handwritten
inscriptions scattered on these early-modern folios, this archaeology of Viviani and
Leibniz’s paper minds will question the long-inherited dichotomy between épistémè and
tekhnè by unravelling the practice-ladenness of physico-mathematical theorizing. While
underlining the similarities and discrepancies in the cognitive practices lying at the foundations
of two forms of thought, this material history of savant work seen through the
working papers of Viviani and Leibniz eventually understands knowledge as a production
of meaning: a dynamical process woven from archival science, authorial strategies, rhetorical
arguments, inscriptions making, drawings, and symbolics.
Sala dei Levrieri, Villa Salviati
DD/MM/YYYY
Sala dei Levrieri, Villa Salviati
In November 1689, a brief Tuscan encounter between Leibniz and Galileo’s last disciple
Vincenzio Viviani set the stage for the epistemological confrontation of a symbolic ‘blind
thought’ and the Florentine visual culture. Arguing about many problems of mechanics,
hydraulics, and geometry stemming from Galileo’s intellectual as well as material heritage,
the scholars shared two very different perspectives on the intricacies of a nascent physicomathematics
at the crossroad of natural philosophy, mixed mathematics, and mechanical
arts.
In order to better understand the cultural peculiarities at the root of such a conflict
of sensibilities, the present dissertation proposes to unveil the many networks of writings
– scrips and drafts, scribbles and working papers, correspondences, and reading notes –
underlying the published printed works of both savants. Delving into their personal archives
and focusing on the materiality of working notes conceived of as paper tools, it
becomes possible to shed light on the making of theory by tracing the multifarious material
practices underpinning any intellectual operation.
Words that do not form sentences, sentences that do not form texts, crossing-outs,
symbols, figures, drawings, and schematics bear witness of a mindful hand and a handy
mind jointly elaborating worlds on paper. Building on a hermeneutics of such handwritten
inscriptions scattered on these early-modern folios, this archaeology of Viviani and
Leibniz’s paper minds will question the long-inherited dichotomy between épistémè and
tekhnè by unravelling the practice-ladenness of physico-mathematical theorizing. While
underlining the similarities and discrepancies in the cognitive practices lying at the foundations
of two forms of thought, this material history of savant work seen through the
working papers of Viviani and Leibniz eventually understands knowledge as a production
of meaning: a dynamical process woven from archival science, authorial strategies, rhetorical
arguments, inscriptions making, drawings, and symbolics.
- Location:
- Sala dei Levrieri, Villa Salviati
- Affiliation:
- Department of History and Civilization
- Type:
- Thesis defence
- Defendant:
-
Simon François Dumas Primbault (EUI - Department of History and Civilization)
- Supervisor:
-
Stéphane Van Damme
- Examiner:
-
Antonella Romano
-
Ann Thomson (European University Institute)
-
Frédérique Aït-Touati (CNRS)
- Contact:
-
Miriam Felicia Curci
-
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