Learning a Craft from Books

Abstract

The early modern period witnessed a great increase in the production and dissemination of artisanal handbooks, manuals and recipes. A central question is what role these texts played in the transmission of artisanal knowledge. This study explores the case of Dutch silversmith Willem van Laer (1674–1722) who published a Guidebook for upcoming gold- and silversmiths (1721), a comprehensive and well-received manual of the craft. To assess the role of the Guidebook in the acquisition of practical skills in the eighteenth century, this study employs traditional historical methods combined with historical re-enactment. I argue that effective use of the Guidebook depended on complementary hands-on education of master craftsmen, which suggests that the Guidebook was far from a DIY crash course and illustrates that the textual transmission of craft knowledge depended upon, rather than threatened, established routes to craft learning, such as apprenticeships.

A Sensory Education

“…In the last decade, scholarly interest in other sensory skills besides a predominant focus on manual skills has resulted in studies of sonic skills, 47 trained ears, 48 skilled vision, 49 skilled smelling, 50 skilled tasting 51 and sensory knowledge acquisition. 52 Ethnographic studies have looked at sensory practices such as capoeira, 53 Nihon Buyo dance, 54 auscultation, 55 cooking, 56 scuba diving, cattle breeding, 58 tea tasting 59 and surgery, 60 just to name a few. Scholars have also looked specifically at critical new pedagogical forms, calling for sensational pedagogies, 61 while the impressive collection of articles in a recent issue of the journal Senses & Society examines embodied enculturation across time and place, through the lens of the history of education.…”

“…The chapter has highlighted the role of instructions in learning, something which is often neglected by anthropologists interested in skill. Alongside others, such as de Solier 53 and Hagendijk, 54 I have tried to understand more about how media acts as a mediator in the ways people learn sensory things. This work also needs to be understood within the invisible economic logics underlying the various media forms I have discussed and where sensory education takes place more broadly, 55 something which I explore further in the next two chapters.…”

“…53 Blumenthal argues that hearing is the most undervalued sense in terms of food and tries to reinsert it back in. In the introduction to his cookbook Heston Blumenthal at Home, 54 the chef advocates for making food that appeals to the senses more generally, and describes some of the ways in which the amateur cook can use sound to enhance the flavours of their lovingly prepared meal: a crackling fire to accompany Christmassy dishes for example, or recordings of the sounds of cicadas to enhance a BBQ.…”