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Séminaire – Histoire des sciences, histoire du texte

janvier 9, 2025 @ 9h30 - 17h30

Diaries-notebooks

  • Odile Manon Lehnen (Durham University)

Notebooks and Annotations in the Astronomical Practices of Caroline Herschel

Abstract Unlike many other women in science Caroline Herschel (1750-1848) was and is well known for her scientific work. This however is only true for certain aspects of her contributions in astronomy. Herschel has been praised as an independent comet hunter and an indispensable, but passive assistant to her brother William Herschel. In this paper, I aim to provide a new perspective on Herschel’s scientific achievements by focusing on her use of notebooks and other paper technologies for the accumulation and production of astronomical knowledge. I explore the following question: How did Herschel use notebooks and other paper technologies as information management tools? Firstly, I will explore her systematic astronomical bookkeeping practices and draw connections between these scientific notebooks and her domestic accounting books. Secondly, I will explore Caroline Herschel’s surviving copy of John Flamsteed’s Atlas Coelestis which is heavily annotated in her hand. By studying her manuscripts as material objects worthy of inquiry in their own right, I reveal Herschel’s agency in her scribal tasks which have so far been understood as passive and subordinate assistant work. Through a focus on Caroline Herschel’s paper practices, I will highlight the collaborative nature of knowledge production in the Herschel family.

  • Dimitri Bayuk (SPHERE, CNRS—Université Paris Cité)

Trips and Reflections: The Practice of Diary Keeping by Astronomers Sent to Remote Provinces of the Russian Empire in the Eighteenth Century

Abstract: Jacques-André Mallet (1740–1790) and Jean-Louis Pictet (1739–1781), astronomers from Geneva, were to observe the transit of Venus across the Sun on 3 June 1769 from the Kola Peninsula. Both started their diaries in April 1768, while leaving Geneva, and stopped keeping them in October 1769, after their return. The diaries were published in their original form in 2005, and their Russian translations with commentaries are about to go to press. Besides quite scant scientific details, they contain personal impressions of encounters with eminent scientists, aristocrats, government and the Saint-Petersburg Academy officials, as well as commoners. The most interesting aspect of the diaries relates to the striking contrast in description of customs and everyday life in Saint Petersburg, the capital of the Empire, and those in recently colonized provinces like Lapland.

Mallet and Pictet had a predecessor: the previous transit of 1761 had been observed from Tobolsk, the capital of Siberia, by French astronomer Jean-Baptiste Chappe d’Auteroche (1728 – 1769). He also kept records published shortly after his return to Europe: first in Paris (1768) and then in Amsterdam (1769), under the title Voyage en Sibérie fait par l’ordre du roi en 1761. His diaries as well are full ethnographic and anthropological observations and critical remarks about colonial practices of the imperial authorities. Unlike Mallet and Pictet’s diaries, which were not offered to public attention, his records were hotly debated and criticized, including by Catherine the Great herself.

  • Alex Garnick (Harvard University and SPHERE)

tba

Lieu: Salle Mondrian 646A – bâtiment Condorcet

Détails

Date :
janvier 9, 2025
Heure :
9h30 - 17h30
Catégorie d’Évènement:

Lieu

Université Paris Cité – bâtiment Condorcet
4 Rue Elsa Morante
Paris, 75013 France
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