3.5. Revolución científica I. Libros y cartas.
The Role of Books and Letters in the Circulation of Scientific Knowledge
In this section, we learn about how books and letters were fundamental vehicles for scientific knowledge during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Books, Letters, and Images
- Along with books and letters, images also circulated as a means of communicating scientific knowledge.
- Engraving techniques for printing press and artists' ability to reproduce objects of nature led to rich engravings and reproductions in scientific treatises.
- Microscopes and telescopes were two fundamental instruments used to observe objects that were often reflected in these images.
The Republic of Letters
- The Republic of Letters was the world of exchange for books and letters during this time period.
- Experts exchanged letters accompanied by printed books or manuscript treatises, as well as images, objects, seeds, specimens to collect or exchange.
- Cabinets of curiosities scattered throughout Western Europe played a role in this exchange.
Scientific Journals
- The intensification of the density of the exchange of letters and books led to the appearance of journals in the second half of the seventeenth century.
- The first scientific journals appeared as letters taken to publishers or book reviews that had appeared in press.
- The Academie des Sciences de Paris with Journal de Savants or Royal Society of London with Philosophical Transactions provided starting points for many other journals.