History of the Book: Not a snapshot - scientific images in early modern printed books. 

Professor Sachiko Kusukawa

Fellow in History and Philosophy of Science, Trinity College Cambridge

Not a snapshot: scientific images in early modern printed books. 

In this paper, I examine characteristic features of images in early modern printed book on scientific topics (broadly construed). Contrary to modern expectations of accuracy akin to a snapshot image, I argue that scientific objects represented in these printed images had the features of manipulating the natural course of time that governed objects in nature. Images enabled bridging time, speeding up or slowing down time or defying time in order to render objects knowable.  The making of such images also took time, which was also a critical feature of telescopic and microscopic observation. 

This event will take place in the Wilkins Room of the Parker Library.