Article ID: CBB943814655

Performing in a Different Place: The Use of a Prodigy to the Dublin Philosophical Society (2020)

unapi

From 8 February until at least 19 April 1686, the Dublin Philosophical Society was occupied with a prodigiously talented young girl whose name was never recorded. She was less than eleven years of age, but still much older than the society itself, which had begun meeting less than three years previously. Although one of many wonders engaging the curiosity of the nascent society, this girl served a surprising range of purposes, so that accompanying her anonymity was a curious malleability. Pressed into several different roles and identities, her exploitation affords a glimpse into the various qualities that could make a spectacle useful in a philosophical climate that was unique among the British Isles. The use of this girl therefore not only sheds light on the needs of a less familiar learned society, but also shows how these could differ from those of its better-understood counterparts. For a period of time, it was the versatility not of the gentlemen in Dublin, but of the prodigy they used, that best served this group on the periphery.

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Authors & Contributors
Karl Schulze-Hagen
Charissa S. L. Cheah
Anna Kathryn Kendrick
Claudia Pancino
Renato Malta
Nan Zhou
Concepts
Children
Children and science
Creativity; genius
Societies; institutions; academies
Psychology
Health
Time Periods
17th century
20th century, early
19th century
18th century
16th century
Modern
Places
Dublin (Ireland)
Netherlands
Ireland
United States
Sicily
Spain
Institutions
Dublin Philosophical Society
Trinity College Dublin
Museum of Irish Industry
Natural History Society of Dublin
Royal Society of London
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