Practical knowledge and empire in the early modern Iberian world. Towards an artisanal turn

Abstract

Several fields of research associated with the history of the early modern Iberian world have experienced a significant boost in recent decades: Iberian science as it relates to the Atlantic world, the history of European colonial empires, and the study of knowledge production in Latin American cultures. This expansion has coincided with a renewed interest of historians of the early modern period in practical knowledge and artisanal cultures. This paper presents an updated historiographic review of both lines of research as well as of their close interconnections. In addition, it offers a re-interpretation of Iberian imperial science in the context of the European maritime expansion through the lens of artisanal epistemology. K E Y W O R D S early modern period, empirical knowledge, Europe, Ibero-Atlantic science, maritime culture YOUNG SCHOLARS LECTURE ESHS 2018