Treasuries of Knowledge Cambridge University
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- History
Treasuries of Knowledge: Collecting and Transmitting Information in the Early Modern World
Colloquium, 8 April 2016
Organisers: Jennifer Bishop, Liesbeth Corens, and Tom Hamilton
Early modern people understood collections of information as ‘treasuries’, both in a metaphorical and a material sense. Collecting and storing information created a useful, cumulative repository for present and future reference. Collections were preserved in jewel houses or treasure rooms, their contents locked up in chests or boxes, thus reinforcing the idea that information was a valuable commodity to which access should be moderated. They were situated at the interface between past and future, particular documents and larger structures. They also raise questions of secrecy and access, value and materiality. In discussing treasuries, this one-day workshop directs the conversation towards their utility and value, their form and location, and the hierarchies they constituted. It provides a platform for further exchanges among the diverse scholars working on collecting, and invites scholars to reflect further on the common denominator of the utility of collections and the significance of their location and accessibility. For the full programme, see: https://liesbethcorens.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/final-programme-treasurie.pdf.
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Frances Maguire: ‘Printed Receipts and Personal Solvency: Collecting the Paperwork of Hearth Tax’
Discussion of the material culture of Hearth Tax, showing the intrusion of the state into households but also the potential for negotiation.
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Sietske Fransen and Katherine Reinhart: 'Making Visible: The Visual and Graphic Practices of the Early Royal Society'
Discussion of the project on The Visual and Graphic Practices of the Early Royal Society.
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Matt Symonds: 'Archeology of Reading'
Discussion of the Archeology of Reading project and the digital archive.
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Helen Kemp: ‘All My Manuscripts Papers of My Own Hand to be Carefully Preserved in the Study of the Said Library’
Discussion of the manuscript library of Thomas Plume
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Stéphane Jettot: ‘Treasuries of Refugees: The Collection of Genealogical Archives by Exiled Jacobites in the Reign of Louis XIV’
Discussion of Irish Jacobites' conflicts over the role and ownership of the Great Book of Lecan (fifteenth-century Codex).
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Brooke Palmieri: ‘A Little World of Strangeness’
Discussion of Thomas Leeds's Temple of Wisdom, reflecting on the treasuring mentality and the role of the 'impartial reader' (recording missed the first five minutes, for which Brooke Palmieri very helpfully provided a transcript, to be found under the 'transcript' tab).