CfP: Diagrams in Science, Science in Diagrams, 1300–1700

Online conference organized by the Max Planck Research Group Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions, June 14–18, 2021

In modern scientific publications, readers will often encounter diagrams providing a visual account of some complex concept or theory. This visual tool, the diagram, has a long, yet ill-understood history in premodern science. While some fields of knowledge, e.g. geometry and astronomy, have used diagrams from its very start, other disciplines of medieval and early modern science (such as medicine and alchemy) adopted this tool of presentation and reasoning at a later stage. This conference seeks to address and compare the development and use of diagrams in all strands of premodern scientific knowledge between approx. 1300 and 1700. This time period is chosen specifically to be able to study the material and medial side of diagrams, and to understand whether and how the introduction of the printing press to the Western World impacted the production, use, and availability of diagrams.

The organizers ask contributors to focus on a limited set of diagrams of one tradition or field by September 15, 2020.