This talk will outline the complex global network of people – scholars, merchants, physicians, slaves, and collectors – who were involved in the procurement and understanding of natural specimens and scientific remedies coming from the Islamic world to Europe in the seventeenth century. It will offer an overview of the channels of procurement and importation, revealing that not only European merchants were engaged in trading natural specimens from the Islamic world to Europe but also local Arab, Turkish or Armenian merchants.
The role of these specimens, once in Europe, varied enormously from providing material for scientific experiments, some of which bound forever to change our understanding of biology (such as Francesco Redi’s Experiences which proved that life does not spontaneously generate), to curiositas quickly to be added to the shelves of museums next to other imported artefacts. The one thing they all had in common, however, was the interest they sparked among the European scholarly community and the debate they generated.
Speaker
Dr. Federica GIGANTE
History of Science Museum;
Centre for the History of Science, Medicine and Technology,
University of Oxford
ZOOM Meeting ID: 990 8868 4183
Meeting link: https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/99088684183
