A provisional programme for ‘The mathematical book trade in the early modern world’ workshop is now available for download from www.benjaminwardhaugh.co.uk/workshops/index.html.

The confirmed speakers are Philip Beeley, Elizabeth Biggs, Agnes Gehbald, Stefano Gulizia, Boris Jardine, Matthew Landrus, Ian Maclean, Yelda Nasifoglu, Renae Satterley, Tabitha Tuckett, Nick Wilding.

Places are available for observers; attendance fee is £40 (including dinner). Unfortunately accommodation cannot be provided for observers. To reserve a place, or for any enquiries, please contact [email protected].

19–20 December 2019
All Souls College, Oxford

Call for Papers:
The mathematical book trade in the early modern world

.  . 

Mathematical books were a distinct specialism for certain early modern print shops, and they were of special interest to certain readers and institutions. Mathematical tables, geometrical diagrams and the new algebraic notation made for a distinct appearance on the page and, for many of those involved in their production and use, a distinct class of book. Primers, textbooks and practical manuals as well as new editions of the mathematical classics and works containing new mathematics issued from the presses in large numbers and were purchased, collected, used, and in many cases re-sold, sometimes repeatedly. In what ways was the advertisement, sale and subsequent re-circulation of mathematical books distinctive? What was the place of mathematical books in the activity of book collectors and connoisseurs? Were there distinctive issues in respect of pricing or of re-use of mathematical print? How did the actual use of mathematical books relate to the stratification of the market attempted by some producers and sellers of those books? These issues are the subject of this two-day workshop, to be held in All Souls College, Oxford.

Confirmed speakers:

Philip Beeley
Ian Maclean
Yelda Nasifoglu
Renae Satterley
Tabitha Tuckett
Nick Wilding

Proposals for papers are invited on, but not confined to, the following subject areas:

-Prices, print runs and advertisement for mathematical books
-Collectors and early modern collections of mathematical books
-Mathematical books as objects of prestige and display
-The trade in second-hand mathematical books

Proposals for papers should include an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief CV, and should be emailed to [email protected] by 15 September 2019. The conference can contribute to travel costs for speakers.

We are happy to be co-organisers of the conference ‘Reading the Classics of Science: historical and anthropological perspectives’ with the ‘SAW: Mathematical Sciences in the Ancient World’ project and Maison Française d’Oxford. For more information, see http://readingeuclid.org/events/conference/.

We now have the programme for the second workshop of Digital Approaches to the History of Science, due to take place at the History Faculty, University of Oxford, on 23 March 2018, Friday:

Programme for DAHS II

Registration is now open for the second Digital Approaches to the History of Science Workshop, which will take place at the History Faculty, University of Oxford, on 23 March 2018 (9:30 to 17:00) .

Confirmed speakers include:

• Richard Dunn: the Board of Longitude Project
• Christy Henshaw: the Wellcome Collection
• Miranda Lewis, Howard Hotson, Arno Bosse: Cultures of Knowledge
• Robert McNamee: Electronic Enlightenment Project
• Tobias Schweizer, Sepideh Alassi: Bernoulli-Euler Online (BEOL)
• Sally Shuttleworth: Diseases of Modern Life or Constructing Scientific Communities
• with lightning talks by Grant Miller and Yelda Nasifoglu

The event is free but due to limited space, registration is required; see the Eventbrite page for more information.

On this workshop series, see the Bodleian Digital Library blog and our page on the DAHS Workshops.

Image: René Descartes, Principia philosophiae (Amsterdam, 1644), ‘Cartesian network of vortices of celestial motion’, p. 110. Bodleian Library Savile T 22. Edited in Photoshop by Yelda Nasifoglu.

We shall announce further details soon, but please save the date for workshop 2 on the ‘Digital Approaches to the History of Science’: 23 March 2018 at the History Faculty, University of Oxford.