In the summer of 1704, Antonio Vallisneri (1661–1730), the preeminent Italian physician and natural philosopher of his time, traveled with a “daring soul” and “trembling feet” across the “silent horrors” of the northern Apennines: down the hills south of Reggio Emilia to northern Tuscany and the western edge of his native land, the Province of G…[Read more]

in: Nel nome di Lazzaro. Saggi di storia della scienza e delle istituzioni scientifiche tra il XVII e il XVIII secolo, edited by Centro Studi Lazzaro Spallanzani, Bologna, Edizioni Pendragon, 2014, pp. 207-220.

Preprint to appear in a special issue of Cultural Analytics on “Identity.” The article explores the paradox that the representation of gender in fiction became more flexible while the sheer balance of attention between fictional men and women was growing more unequal. We measure the rigidity of gendered roles by asking how easy it is to infer…[Read more]

Her Father’s Name (1876) is one of Marryat’s most radical and intriguing novels, featuring Leona Lacoste, a cross-dressing heroine, and Lucilla Evans, a textbook hysteric who falls in love with her. For centuries, the diagnosis of ‘hysteria’ was conveniently applied to any woman who exhibited transgressive behaviour, whether it be through sexual…[Read more]

Whereas many women writers were reticent on the issue of property, or vehemently opposed to improving the position of wives, Florence Marryat used her public platform to campaign for change. As such, her work forms an important contribution to our understanding of women and property in the nineteenth century. In this paper I discuss the ways in…[Read more]

This is the English summary of my dissertation Notam superponere studui: the use of technical signs in the early Middle Ages, which was defended on March 18, 2016 at Utrecht University.

3700 words

This blog post originally appeared on the website of Huygens ING (https://www.huygens.knaw.nl/marginal-scholarship-annoteren-met-behulp-van-tekens-in-plaats-van-woorden/?lang=en) on June 30, 2016. It was published both in Dutch and in English as a part of a four-part series about the Marginal Scholarship project, which was hosted by the Huygens…[Read more]

Edition von 41 Farb- und Tintenrezepten zur Buchherstellung aus der Handschrift Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. germ. 1 mit einem textgeschichtlichen Kommentar.

Marco Heiles, Die Farb- und Tintenrezepte des Cod. germ. 1 der Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Hamburg und ihre Vorlagen, in: Mittelalter. Interdisziplinäre Fo…[Read more]

While organ transplantation has been established in the medical imagination since the 1960s, this technology is currently undergoing a popular re-imagination in the era of global capitalism. As transplantation procedures have become routine in medical centers in non-Western and developing nations, and as organ sales and transplant tourism become…[Read more]

Review of the book “The Vesuvian Eruption of 1631: an Early Modern History” (by Alfonso Tortora)

By the end of the sixteenth century, many Jesuit colleges had become centers of excellence all over Europe for such disciplines as mathematics, astronomy, hydraulics, and mechanics. Not a few members of the order provided influential contributions to science: in the case of the study of waters, the inquisitive eye of Jesuits took part in the l…[Read more]

Since its first attempts to understand natural phenomena, early modern science devoted great attention to the problematic issue of the origin of springs. This essay examines the lively debate that emerged from the studies on fresh water during the years spanning from the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth. By focusing on the…[Read more]

In 1687, after he graduated in Medicine, young Antonio Vallisneri (1661-1730) returned in the Duchy of Modena and Reggio. In those years he mainly served as general practitioner; nevertheless, he also devoted many studies to various aspects of the natural sciences. He performed many observations, accurately reporting them in seven “Quaderni”…[Read more]

Since the beginning of his scientific activity the physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri
(1661-1730) devoted many studies to the Earth sciences. In those years his interest focused
particularly on the features of mineral kingdom and its relationship with spring water. The first
observations date back to the last decade of XVII century,…[Read more]

The scientific studies of the Italian physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri
(1661–1730) were concerned with the cultural and religious implications of the debate on
fossils in the early decades of the eighteenth century. In De’ Corpi Marini he summarized the
main diluvial theories but declined to support them. He explained the pre…[Read more]

This paper deals with the identification of the microscope used by the Italian physician and naturalist Antonio Vallisneri (1661-1730) during his research activity. The investigation was structured in three phases: a) a first text analysis on published and manuscript sources, looking for information about the microscope(s) used by Vallisneri; b)…[Read more]

Anton Pannekoek (1873-1960) was both an innovative astronomer and an influential Marxist. In this article we will investigate both his Milky Way research and Marxist philosophy, with special focus on his ideal scholarly persona and the epistemic virtues he advocated in his research. This focus allows us to place Pannekoek in the larger development…[Read more]

Anton Pannekoek (1873–60) was both an influential Marxist and an innovative astronomer. This paper will analyze the various innovative methods that he developed to represent the visual aspect of the Milky Way and the statistical distribution of stars in the galaxy through a framework of epistemic virtues. Doing so will not only emphasize the u…[Read more]

Parables of Care presents true stories of creative responses to dementia care, told by carers, taken from a group of over 100 case studies available at http://carenshare.city.ac.uk/. Creativity, emotional intelligence and common sense are amply shown in these 14 touching and informative stories. Drawn by Dr Simon Grennan with Christopher…[Read more]