Article ID: CBB001320190

The In/visible Woman: Mariangela Ardinghelli and the Circulation of Knowledge between Paris and Naples in the Eighteenth Century (2013)

unapi

Mariangela Ardinghelli (1730--1825) is remembered as the Italian translator of two texts by the Newtonian physiologist Stephen Hales, Haemastaticks and Vegetable Staticks. This essay shows that her role in the Republic of Letters was by no means limited to such work. At a time of increasing interest in the natural history of the areas around Naples, she became a reliable cultural mediator for French travelers and naturalists. She also acted as an informal foreign correspondent for the Paris Academy of Sciences, connecting scientific communities in Naples and France. Unlike other learned women of the time, Ardinghelli was neither an aristocrat nor a member of the ascendant middle class. The essay discusses the strategies she devised to build her authority and her choice of anonymity at the apex of her popularity, when she translated scientific texts by contemporary celebrities such as the abbé Nollet and the comte de Buffon. It argues that, in spite of Ardinghelli's historical invisibility, for her contemporaries she never became an invisible assistant: she constructed layers of selective visibility that allowed her authorship to be identified by specific audiences, while protecting herself from social isolation or derision.

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Authors & Contributors
Flavia Luise
D'Angelo, Fabio
Murphy, Kathleen S.
Silvana D'Alessio
Céline M. Stantina
Vincenzo Trombetta
Journals
Laboratorio dell'ISPF
Nuova Rivista di Storia della Medicina
William and Mary Quarterly
Physis: Rivista Internazionale di Storia della Scienza
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Publishers
University of California Press
Tinta da China
Edizioni CLORI
Edizioni Pendragon
Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura
Concepts
Natural history
Naturalists
Travel; exploration
Correspondence and corresponding
Republic of Letters
Medicine
People
Bianchi, Giovanni
Alessandro Catani
Taylor White
Petiver, James
Muir, John
Merian, Maria Sibylla
Time Periods
18th century
19th century
Early modern
17th century
Modern
Ancient
Places
Naples (Italy)
Italy
Great Britain
Atlantic world
Atlantic Ocean
Amazon River Region (South America)
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