The Italian Society for the History of Science / Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza (SISS) is pleased to announce a new Semina r Series:
The series is conceived as an informal place for early c areer scholars to discuss their research, present, future and past. Each se ssion focuses on broad themes in the history of science and knowledge, brin ging together diverse approaches, methodologies and chronologies. The serie s is open to international scholars and broad collaboration between discipl inary fields.
All seminars are held online on Zoom: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/85357882609
Streaming:&nbs p;//www.youtube.com/@siss-societaitalianadistor9115>"& gt;https://www.youtube.com/@siss-soci etaitalianadistor9115
Information:
Organizer of the first series: Dr Lavinia Maddaluno (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice ).
Chair: Dario
Tessicini (University of Genova)
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh (Cambrid
ge University), The Western Part of the East Indies? Knowledge and
Globalizations in the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope
Morgana
Lisi (University of Turin), Whose scientific authority? Taxonomic
disputes and local knowledge in the Iberian Enlightenment botany
Abstracts and bios
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh (Cambridge Uni
versity), The Western Part of the East Indies? Knowledge and Globaliza
tions in the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope
Where does southern Afric a fit within global histories of the sciences? Between the late fifteenth a nd late nineteenth centuries, almost every traveller sailing between Asia a nd Europe spent time at the Cape of Good Hope. Often described as the "Tave rn of the Two Seas," the early modern Cape was a bustling hub of disparate, interacting cultures of knowledge. Indigenous Khoekhoen populations, Europ ean travellers, Dutch settlers, and enslaved East Africans, South Asians, a nd Southeast Asians brought diverse cosmologies to the southern tip of Afri ca, producing new, hybridised understandings of natures and humans. In May 1685, an embassy of French Jesuits destined for Siam and China disembarked at the Cape, where they built a temporary astronomical observatory in the D utch East India Company's Garden. The travelling missionaries documented th eir interactions with the Khoekhoen, translating southern African conceptio ns of the heavens and local plants and animals for European readers. The Fr ench Jesuits, familiar with Chinese cultures of knowledge from their fellow missionaries, made sense of unfamiliar African knowledges through the lens of Asian sciences. By examining the recrafting of Asian knowledges at the Cape Colony, this paper explores southern Africa's crucial importance in th e early modern globalisation of several natural knowledges. It seeks both t o cement southern Africa's crucially important place in the history of the early modern sciences and explore the ways in which "nature" has been deplo yed to write out southern African knowledges from global histories of scien ce.
Bio: Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh is the Lumley Research Fell
ow in History at Magdalene College and a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fell
ow in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. His PhD, "Glob
alising China," completed in 2023 in the Department of History and Philosop
hy of Science at Cambridge, examined how the Manchu conquest of China trans
formed politics and the sciences across early modern Eurasia. Gianamar's wo
rk has been published and is forthcoming in journals including Isis, Histor
y Workshop Journal, the Journal of the History of Ideas, and the Journal fo
r the History of Knowledge. Gianamar has been a Freer Prize Fellow of the R
oyal Institution, and a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the
History of Science in Berlin and the Descartes Centre in Utrecht.
Morgana Lisi (University of Turin), Whose scientific authority? Ta
xonomic disputes and local knowledge in the Iberian Enlightenment botany
The late eighteenth-century Bourbon scientific policies were mainl
y aimed at exploring the territories of the Spanish monarchy to define an a
vant-garde mapping of the profitable resources that could have been commerc
ialised in medicinal, goods, and luxury markets. Financed by the Crown, the
young botanists Hipólito Ruiz and José Pavón explored the nature of the Vi
ceroyalty of Peru and Chile between 1777 and 1788, observing, naming, colle
cting, and cataloguing endemic species according to the Linnean system of c
lassification. The majority of the specimens collected during the expeditio
n are now preserved at the Herbarium (MA) of the Royal Botanical Garden of
Madrid. However, some of the plants determined by Ruiz and Pavón had alread
y been described by Creole naturalists who previously studied the same terr
itory. By analysing the cases of quillay (Quillaja saponaria Molina) and ar
aucaria (Araucaria araucana (Molina) K.Koch), this contribution tries to sh
ed light on – a part of – the epistemic implications of the scientific expe
ditions and on the production of knowledge that arose from the disputes ens
ued by the clashes of different scientific authorities that studied the sam
e subject simultaneously. The aim is to enrich contemporary historiography
with ideas and actors marginally considered by the traditional narrative. I
ndeed, these actors have also participated in constructing Enlightenment bo
tany, creating an Atlantic dialogue between the local and the global dimens
ions by conveying natural knowledge of distant geographies into the Europea
n cultural horizons.
Bio: Morgana Lisi is a PhD Candidate in Global History of Empires at the University of Turin, Italy. Her resear ch interests include cultural history, the history of science, and the hist ory of knowledge in the early modern Iberian world. She authored various es says on Juan Ignacio Molina's thinking and scientific contribution, and she is currently exploring the process of epistemological transformation of Na tural History in the eighteenth-century Spanish monarchy, focusing on the s tudies by Creole naturalists in the province of Chile.
The Italian Society for the History of Science / Società Italiana di Storia della Scienza (SISS) is pleased to announce a new Semina r Series:
The series is conceived as an informal place for early c areer scholars to discuss their research, present, future and past. Each se ssion focuses on broad themes in the history of science and knowledge, brin ging together diverse approaches, methodologies and chronologies. The serie s is open to international scholars and broad collaboration between discipl inary fields.
All seminars are held online on Zoom: https://unipd.zoom.us/j/85357882609
Streaming:&nbs p;//www.youtube.com/@siss-societaitalianadistor9115>"&g t;https://www.youtube.com/@siss-socie taitalianadistor9115
Information: <
a href="mailto:info@societastoriadellascienza.it">
Organizer o f the first series: Dr Lavinia Maddaluno (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice) .
Chair: Dario
Tessicini (University of Genova)
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh (Cambridg
e University), The Western Part of the East Indies? Knowledge and G
lobalizations in the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope
Morgana
Lisi (University of Turin), Whose scientific authority? Taxonomic d
isputes and local knowledge in the Iberian Enlightenment botany
Abstracts and bios
Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh (Cambridge Univ
ersity), The Western Part of the East Indies? Knowledge and Globalizat
ions in the Early Modern Cape of Good Hope
Where does southern Africa fit within global histories of the sciences? Between the late fifteenth an d late nineteenth centuries, almost every traveller sailing between Asia an d Europe spent time at the Cape of Good Hope. Often described as the "Taver n of the Two Seas," the early modern Cape was a bustling hub of disparate, interacting cultures of knowledge. Indigenous Khoekhoen populations, Europe an travellers, Dutch settlers, and enslaved East Africans, South Asians, an d Southeast Asians brought diverse cosmologies to the southern tip of Afric a, producing new, hybridised understandings of natures and humans. In May 1 685, an embassy of French Jesuits destined for Siam and China disembarked a t the Cape, where they built a temporary astronomical observatory in the Du tch East India Company's Garden. The travelling missionaries documented the ir interactions with the Khoekhoen, translating southern African conception s of the heavens and local plants and animals for European readers. The Fre nch Jesuits, familiar with Chinese cultures of knowledge from their fellow missionaries, made sense of unfamiliar African knowledges through the lens of Asian sciences. By examining the recrafting of Asian knowledges at the C ape Colony, this paper explores southern Africa's crucial importance in the early modern globalisation of several natural knowledges. It seeks both to cement southern Africa's crucially important place in the history of the e arly modern sciences and explore the ways in which "nature" has been deploy ed to write out southern African knowledges from global histories of scienc e.
Bio: Gianamar Giovannetti-Singh is the Lumley Research Fello
w in History at Magdalene College and a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fello
w in the Faculty of History at the University of Cambridge. His PhD, "Globa
lising China," completed in 2023 in the Department of History and Philosoph
y of Science at Cambridge, examined how the Manchu conquest of China transf
ormed politics and the sciences across early modern Eurasia. Gianamar's wor
k has been published and is forthcoming in journals including Isis, History
Workshop Journal, the Journal of the History of Ideas, and the Journal for
the History of Knowledge. Gianamar has been a Freer Prize Fellow of the Ro
yal Institution, and a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the
History of Science in Berlin and the Descartes Centre in Utrecht.
Morgana Lisi (University of Turin), Whose scientific authority? Tax
onomic disputes and local knowledge in the Iberian Enlightenment botany
The late eighteenth-century Bourbon scientific policies were mainly
aimed at exploring the territories of the Spanish monarchy to define an av
ant-garde mapping of the profitable resources that could have been commerci
alised in medicinal, goods, and luxury markets. Financed by the Crown, the
young botanists Hipólito Ruiz and José Pavón explored the nature of the Vic
eroyalty of Peru and Chile between 1777 and 1788, observing, naming, collec
ting, and cataloguing endemic species according to the Linnean system of cl
assification. The majority of the specimens collected during the expedition
are now preserved at the Herbarium (MA) of the Royal Botanical Garden of M
adrid. However, some of the plants determined by Ruiz and Pavón had already
been described by Creole naturalists who previously studied the same terri
tory. By analysing the cases of quillay (Quillaja saponaria Molina) and ara
ucaria (Araucaria araucana (Molina) K.Koch), this contribution tries to she
d light on – a part of – the epistemic implications of the scientific exped
itions and on the production of knowledge that arose from the disputes ensu
ed by the clashes of different scientific authorities that studied the same
subject simultaneously. The aim is to enrich contemporary historiography w
ith ideas and actors marginally considered by the traditional narrative. In
deed, these actors have also participated in constructing Enlightenment bot
any, creating an Atlantic dialogue between the local and the global dimensi
ons by conveying natural knowledge of distant geographies into the European
cultural horizons.
Bio: Morgana Lisi is a PhD Candidate in Global History of Empires at the University of Turin, Italy. Her researc h interests include cultural history, the history of science, and the histo ry of knowledge in the early modern Iberian world. She authored various ess ays on Juan Ignacio Molina's thinking and scientific contribution, and she is currently exploring the process of epistemological transformation of Nat ural History in the eighteenth-century Spanish monarchy, focusing on the st udies by Creole naturalists in the province of Chile.
