Cabinets of Experimental Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Europe

Jim Bennett is Visiting Keeper at the Science Museum, London. He was formerly Director of the Museum of the History of Science and Professor of the History of Science in the University of Oxford. He is a previous President of the Scientific Instrument Commission. Sofia Talas is Curator of the Museum of the History of Physics at the University of Padua. Her main research interests are in the history of scientific instruments and the history of physics. She is President of “Universeum” (European Network for University Heritage) and a board member of the History of Physics Group of the European Physical Society.

• List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Introduction Jim Bennett, Sofia Talas Colour Plates I-XIII Cabinets for Experimental Philosophy in the Netherlands Huib J. Zuidervaart Entrepreneurs in Experiments: The Leiden Cabinet of Physics and the Motives of its Founders (1675-1742) Hans Hooijmaijers, Ad Maas New Light on the Cabinet of Physics of Padua Sofia Talas The Lost Cabinet of Experimental Philosophy of the University of Oxford Jim Bennett Failure, Fraud, and Instrument Cabinets: Academic Involvement in the Eighteenth-Century Dutch Water Crisis Tiemen CocquytThe Cabinet of Physics at Riddarhuset in Stockholm in the Eighteenth Century Inga Elmqvist Söderlund Designing the House of Knowledge in Eighteenth-century Naples: The Ephemeral Museum of Ferdinando Spinelli, Prince of Tarsia Paola Bertucci Between Teaching and Collecting: The lost Cabinet of Physics of Princes José and João of Portugal (1777-1808) Marta C. Lourenço, David Felismino The Gazola Family’s Scientific Cabinet: Politics, Society and Scientific Collecting in the Twilight of the Republic of Venice Ivano Dal Prete Collections of Experimental Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-century Poland Ewa Wyka “Monuments of Science”: How the Teyler Museum’s Instrument Collection Became Historical Martin Weiss The Physics Cabinet of the Istituto Tecnico Toscano Paolo Brenni General Index