The making of extraordinary facts: authentication of singularities of nature at the Royal Society of London in the first half of the eighteenth century

Costa, Palmira Fontes da

doi:10.1016/s0039-3681(02)00012-2

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…49 As Palmira Fontes da Costa has emphasized, visual representations were particularly important in establishing the uniqueness of the event or object. 50 Thus, when the Royal Society had the stones from Lord Belcarres's heart drawn and then copied, it was attesting to the fact that the Society agreed that the stones were as depicted. In deciding to copy the drawing into the Register Book, the Society further reinforced the authority of the observation as well as of the image.…”

Section: Copied Images and Their Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copying images in the archives of the early Royal Society

Fransen¹,

Reinhart²,

Kusukawa³

2019

Word & Image

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This article argues that the copying of text and image was a key process in acquiring, approving, and recording knowledge in the early Royal Society of London. In particular, it focuses on how the administrative archives were set up and sustained in the nascent Society to preserve and establish new knowledge through a copying practice. Images were copied alongside texts to facilitate the collaborative scientific practice among the members of the Royal Society; to communicate essential features of an argument; to serve as proof of rare phenomena; and to establish priority for an invention or an idea. This copying practice was part of a unique system of emphasizing, prioritizing, and preserving for contemporary and future Fellows what was deemed important, groundbreaking , or useful knowledge.

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Section: Copied Images and Their Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Copying images in the archives of the early Royal Society

Fransen¹,

Reinhart²,

Kusukawa³

2019

Word & Image

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…During the eighteenth century, the role of anatomical expertise became increasingly important and this new trend was particularly evident in the validation of observations of phenomena outside the common course of nature, such as monstrous births (Fontes da Costa 2002). It was also during this period that the increased use and refinement of techniques of dissection contributed to a more important role for anatomical expertise in the authentication of these kind of reports.…”

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confidence: 99%