Instruments of Knowledge

Jean-François Gauvin, Ph.D. (2008) is an associate professor of history and museum studies at Université Laval in Québec city. He has published numerous articles on scientific instruments and two frequently cited edited volumes on globes and abbé Jean-Antoine Nollet.

• AcknowledgmentsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1 A Short Case Study: The Early Académie royale des sciences in Paris2 Reading This BookPart 1: OrganumIntroduction1 Quid organum erat? The Idea of Instrument in Early Modern Europe1 Organum scientiae: Definitions and Examples2 Organ-ization of Knowledge2 Organ Making and Natural Philosophical Knowledge in Marin Mersenne’s Harmonie Universelle1 Mersenne’s Seven Books on Instruments in the Harmonie universelle2 The Organ and Mersenne’s Epistemology of Natural Philosophical Knowledge3 Musical Instruments and the ‘parfait musicien’Part 2: HabitusIntroduction3 Habitus in corpore, habitus in anima: Making and Thinking in Early Modern Europe1 Defining habitus in Early Modern Europe2 Habitus and Descartes’s Logic of Practice3 Habitus and the Concept of Knowledge Production4 Blaise Pascal, coutume, and the Arithmetical Machine4 From idiotae to artistes: Artisans, Instruments, and the Nature of Craftsmanship in Early Modern Europe1 Descartes, Artisans, and âmes réglées2 Who Assists Whom: The Structural Dynamic of Artisan and Savant Interactions3 From artiste to Toyware ManufacturingPart 3: MuseumIntroduction5 Repair, Restoration, Exhibition: Instruments and the Epistemic Value of Brokenness1 Restorer v. Conservator: How to ‘Repair’ Damaged Instruments?2 Reconstruction and Restoration: Abbé Nollet’s Scientific Instruments3 Identity, Integrity, Authenticity: Between the Unit of the Total and the Unit of the Whole4 Reuse and Recycle: Exhibiting the DIY of Scientists and Craftsmen6 Instrument Trajectories: Ways of Knowing the World1 Collecting Instruments2 Knowing Through Playing3 Digitizing CollectionsEpilogueBibliographyIndex