Testimony and proof in early-modern England

Serjeantson, Richard

doi:10.1016/s0039-3681(98)00050-8

Cited by 47 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…48 Since the sixteenth century the giving of testimony by witnesses had become a fundamental part of the legal process across Europe, and this provided a model for the gathering and presentation of evidence in natural philosophy from at least the seventeenth century. 49 Barbara Shapiro especially has done much to elucidate the way in which 'many of the assumptions and much of the technology of fact-finding in law were carried over' into science. 50 In natural history as in law, through the testimony of reliable witnesses it was possible to obtain 'moral certainty' regarding matters of fact.…”

Section: Testimony and Authority In Early Nineteenth-century Natural ...mentioning

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The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early nineteenth-century natural history

Jenkins

2022

Notes Rec.

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When an unknown sea creature was washed ashore on the Orkney Islands in September 1808, the Edinburgh anatomist John Barclay declared that this was the first solid scientific evidence for the existence of the ‘great sea snake’. The testimony of witnesses along with some of its preserved body parts were examined by both the Wernerian Natural History Society in Edinburgh and the surgeon and anatomist Everard Home in London. Contradicting Barclay's opinion, Home identified the creature as a decomposing basking shark. While Barclay took the testimony of the local witnesses largely on trust and accepted their interpretation of the Beast, Home discounted it and instead asserted his own expert authority to correctly interpret the evidence. Both made use of the preserved physical remains of parts of the creature in strikingly different ways: Barclay to support the accounts of the witnesses, Home to undermine them. The debate between the two anatomists has much to tell us about the uses of evidence and testimony in early nineteenth-century natural history, but also has broader resonances for the roles of evidence and authority in science that still remain relevant today.

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Section: Testimony and Authority In Early Nineteenth-century Natural ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early nineteenth-century natural history

Jenkins

2022

Notes Rec.

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“… 59 Issues of credibility and proof pervade early modern scholarship, but they have hardly been studied as a historical topic in themselves. For some perceptive exceptions, see the following selection: Randall; Frisch; Serjeantson, 1999 and 2006; Dooley; Popper; Shapin; Shapiro; Ginzburg, 1999.…”

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Reconstructing the Ottoman Greek World: Early Modern Ethnography in the Household of Martin Crusius

Calis

2019

Renaiss. Q.

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This article uses the life and writings of Martin Crusius (1526–1607), professor of Latin and Greek at the university of Tübingen, to explore the methods and tools of early modern ethnographers. For decades Crusius recorded contemporary Greek life under Ottoman rule by investigating a broad array of visual, material, textual, and oral evidence and by mustering various scholarly methods. The documentary record that Crusius compiled demonstrates that early modern ethnography was one among many period forms of knowledge making in which tropes and techniques from several fields and disciplines came together fruitfully.

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“…Several scholars have discussed how, in the seventeenth century, supposedly theory‐neutral “matters of fact” became a fundamental feature of scientific knowledge, and have noted their dependence upon notions of probability and credible testimony, not least when they described extraordinary or miraculous phenomena (e.g., Shapiro, ; Dear, ; Daston, ; Shapin, ; Serjeantson, ). While the rhetorical and social features of such testimony are no doubt relevant to a longer view, this article limits its scope to the period since ca.1840.…”

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The Making of Extraordinary Psychological Phenomena

Lamont¹

2012

J History Behavioral Science

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This article considers the extraordinary phenomena that have been central to unorthodox areas of psychological knowledge. It shows how even the agreed facts relating to mesmerism, spiritualism, psychical research, and parapsychology have been framed as evidence both for and against the reality of the phenomena. It argues that these disputes can be seen as a means through which beliefs have been formulated and maintained in the face of potentially challenging evidence. It also shows how these disputes appealed to different forms of expertise, and that both sides appealed to belief in various ways as part of the ongoing dispute about both the facts and expertise. Finally, it shows how, when a formal Psychology of paranormal belief emerged in the twentieth century, it took two different forms, each reflecting one side of the ongoing dispute about the reality of the phenomena.

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Testimony and proof in early-modern England

Cited by 47 publications

References 74 publications

The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early nineteenth-century natural history

The ‘Stronsay Beast’: testimony, evidence and authority in early nineteenth-century natural history

Reconstructing the Ottoman Greek World: Early Modern Ethnography in the Household of Martin Crusius

The Making of Extraordinary Psychological Phenomena

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