Article ID: CBB001202408

Nero and the Last Stalk of Silphion: Collecting Extinct Nature in Early Modern Europe (2014)

unapi

Many studies of early modern natural history focus upon observational, empirical techniques. Early moderns also contended with entities which could no longer be observed because they no longer existed. Although it is often assumed that extinction only emerged as a concept in the eighteenth century, the concept of natural loss appeared, often unproblematically, in areas outside natural philosophy. A survey of discussions of the extinct plant silphion across Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries shows that the possibility of natural loss was well aired. Paper technologies for collecting extinct nature ran parallel to investigations of newly found nature, and thus can place the latter in a new light. Although ideas of natural mutability often drew on ideas of historical or political change rather than philosophical concepts of natural constancy, techniques developed for extinct nature, such as the list of lost things, remained influential for the research agendas of naturalists.

...More
Included in

Article Charmantier, Isabelle; Müller-Wille, Staffan (2014) Worlds of Paper: An Introduction. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 379-397). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001202408/

Similar Citations

Article Hess, Volker; Mendelsohn, J. Andrew; (2013)
Paper Technology und Wissensgeschichte (/isis/citation/CBB001420948/)

Book Krämer, Fabian; (2014)
Ein Zentaur in London: Lektüre und Beobachtung in der frühneuzeitlichen Naturforschung (/isis/citation/CBB001510178/)

Article Krämer, Fabian; (2013)
Ein papiernes Archiv für alles jemals Geschriebene (/isis/citation/CBB001420949/)

Article Dana Jalobeanu; (2018)
Spirits Coming Alive: The Subtle Alchemy of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum (/isis/citation/CBB868354009/)

Book Leong, Elaine Yuen Tien; Rankin, Alisha Michelle; (2011)
Secrets and Knowledge in Medicine and Science, 1500--1800 (/isis/citation/CBB001250282/)

Article Delbourgo, James; Müller-Wille, Staffan; (2012)
Introduction (/isis/citation/CBB001252381/)

Book Alexander Wragge-Morley; (2020)
Aesthetic Science: Representing Nature in the Royal Society of London, 1650-1720 (/isis/citation/CBB757195097/)

Book Giorgio Dell'Oro; (2021)
Mondi di carta. Materie prime, usi e commerci in età moderna (XVI-XIX secc.) (/isis/citation/CBB940967542/)

Chapter Daston, Lorraine; (2010)
The Empire of Observation, 1600--1800 (/isis/citation/CBB001221449/)

Thesis Rickman, Melissa L.; (2011)
Making the “Herball”: John Gerard and the Fashioning of an Elizabethan Herbarist (/isis/citation/CBB001567334/)

Book Knight, David M.; (2015)
Voyaging in Strange Seas: The Great Revolution in Science (/isis/citation/CBB001551963/)

Book Wolfe, Charles T.; Gal, Ofer; (2010)
The Body as Object and Instrument of Knowledge: Embodied Empiricism in Early Modern Science (/isis/citation/CBB001031882/)

Book Fairman, Elisabeth R.; Art, Yale Center for British; (2014)
Of Green Leaf, Bird, and Flower: Artists' Books and the Natural World (/isis/citation/CBB001500458/)

Book Wu, Yiyi; (2013)
From Copernicus to Newton: The Establishment of the Heliocentric Theory (/isis/citation/CBB270657253/)

Essay Review Bauer, Ralph; (2012)
Science and Early Modern Travel Writings (/isis/citation/CBB001567096/)

Chapter Randall, Robert; (2008)
Bath Naturalists: Apothecary to Zoologist (/isis/citation/CBB001022814/)

Book Alessandro Ottaviani; (2015)
Né pianta né pietra: figure della metamorfosi al confine (/isis/citation/CBB004812308/)

Chapter Lucia Tongiorgi Tomasi; Paolo Tongiorgi; (2006)
Natura, verbum, signum: brevi note su imprese e storia naturale (/isis/citation/CBB955884338/)

Authors & Contributors
Krämer, Fabian
Dell'Oro, Giorgio
Rickman, Melissa L.
Kraemer, Fabian
Fairman, Elisabeth R.
Art, Yale Center for British
Concepts
Natural history
Plants
Empiricism
Natural philosophy
Books
Naturalists
Time Periods
17th century
16th century
18th century
Early modern
19th century
Renaissance
Places
Europe
Bath (England)
London (England)
Germany
Great Britain
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment