The Dark Side of Knowledge: Histories of Ignorance, 1400 to 1800 (Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture, 46)

Thoroughly researched contributions from conferences at Harvard and Paris on coping with ignorance in late medieval and early modern administrative practices, science, literature and the arts, are tightly connected by a new theoretical framework on how to historicize ignorance. Preliminary Material -- Introduction: Towards a History of Ignorance -- 1 Law and the Uncertainty of Value in Late Medieval Marseille and Lucca /Daniel Lord Smail -- 2 Nescience and the Conscience of Judges. An Example of Religion's Influence on Legal Procedure /Mathias Schmoeckel -- 3 Speaking Nothing to Power in Early Modern Germany: Making Sense of Peasant Silence in the Ius Commune /Govind P. Sreenivasan -- 4 Coping with Unknown Risks in Renaissance Florence: Insurers, Friars and Abacus Teachers /Giovanni Ceccarelli -- 5 (Non-)Knowledge, Political Economy and Trade Policy in Seventeenth-Century France: The Problem of Trade Balances /Moritz Isenmann -- 6 Ignorance in Europe's State Financial Culture (Eighteenth Century) /Marie-Laure Legay -- 7 Voluptas Carnis. Allegory and Non-Knowledge in Pieter Aertsen's Still-Life Paintings /John T. Hamilton -- 8 Humanist Styles of Reading in the Prologues and Epilogues of William Caxton /Taylor Cowdery -- 9 Coexistence and Ignorance: What Europeans in the Levant did not Read (ca. 1620-1750) -- 10 Ignorance about the Traveler: Documenting Safe Conduct in the European Middle Ages /Adam J. Kosto -- 11 International Crises as Experience of Non-Knowledge: European Powers and the 'Affairs of Provence' (1589-1598) /Fabrice Micallef -- 12 Dealing with Hurricanes and Mississippi Floods in Early French New Orleans. Environmental (Non-) Knowledge in a Colonial Context /Eleonora Rohland -- 13 'Unknown Sciences' and Unknown Superiors. The Problem of Non-Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Secret Societies /Andrew McKenzie-McHarg -- 14 Specifying Ignorance in Eighteenth-Century Cartography, a Powerful Way to Promote the Geographer's Work: The Example of Jean-Baptiste d'Anville /Lucile Haguet -- 15 Semantics of the Void: Empty Spaces in Eighteenth-Century German Historiography. A First Sketch of a Semiotic Theory /Lucian Hölscher -- 16 Non-Knowledge and Decision Making: The Challenge for the Historian /William O'Reilly -- Index nominum -- Index rerum Contents Acknowledgements Notes on the Editor Notes on the Contributors List of Illustrations and Tables Introduction: Towards a History of Ignorance Part 1 Law Chapter 1 Law and the Uncertainty of Value in Late Medieval Marseille and Lucca Chapter 2 Nescience and the Conscience of Judges. An Example of Religion’s Influence on Legal Procedure Chapter 3 Speaking Nothing to Power in Early Modern Germany: Making Sense of Peasant Silence in the Ius Commune Part 2 Economy Chapter 4 Coping with Unknown Risks in Renaissance Florence: Insurers, Friars and Abacus Teachers Chapter 5 (Non-)Knowledge, Political Economy and Trade Policy in Seventeenth-Century France: The Problem of Trade Balances Chapter 6 Ignorance in Europe’s State Financial Culture (Eighteenth Century) Part 3 Semantics Chapter 7 Voluptas Carnis. Allegory and Non-Knowledge in Pieter Aertsen’s Still-Life Paintings Chapter 8 Humanist Styles of Reading in the Prologues and Epilogues of William Caxton Chapter 9 Coexistence and Ignorance: What Europeans in the Levant did not read (ca. 1620–1750) Part 4 Political and Scientific Communication Chapter 10 Ignorance about the Traveler: Documenting Safe Conduct in the European Middle Ages Chapter 11 International Crises as Experience of Non-Knowledge: European Powers and the ‘Affairs of Provence’ (1589–1598) Chapter 12 Dealing with Hurricanes and Mississippi Floods in Early French New Orleans. Environmental (Non-) Knowledge in a Colonial Context Chapter 13 ‘Unknown Sciences’ and Unknown Superiors. The Problem of Non-Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Secret Societies Chapter 14 Specifying Ignorance in Eighteenth-Century Cartography, a Powerful Way to Promote the Geographer’s Work: The Example of Jean-Baptiste d’Anville Part 5 Theory Chapter 15 Semantics of the Void: Empty Spaces inEighteenth-Century German Historiography. A First Sketch of a Semiotic Theory Chapter 16 Non-Knowledge and Decision Making: The Challenge for the Historian Index Nominum Index Rerum How can one study the absence of knowledge, the voids, the conscious and unconscious unknowns through history? Investigations into late medieval and early modern practices of measuring, of risk calculation, of ignorance within financial administrations, of conceiving the docta ignorantia as well as the silence of the illiterate are combined with contributions regarding knowledge gaps within identification procedures and political decision-making, with the emergence of consciously delimited blanks on geographical maps, with ignorance as a factor embedded in iconographic programs, in translation processes and the semantic potentials of reading. Based on thorough archival analysis, these selected contributions from conferences at Harvard and Paris are tightly framed by new theoretical elaborations that have implications beyond these cases and epochal focus. This series of publications brings together new material on well-considered themes within the wide area of Early Modern Studies. Contributions may come from any of the disciplines within the humanities: history, art history, literary history, book history, church history, social history, history of the humanities, of the theatre, of cultural life and institutions. Each volume addresses a single theme and articles, are selected for the freshness of their approach and for the extent to which they elucidate aspects of the theme of the volume. The themes are carefully selected on the basis of a number of criteria, the most important of which are that they should address issues about which there is a lively debate within the international community of scholars and that they should be of interest to a variety of disciplines. Book jacket How can one study the absence of knowledge, the voids, the conscious and unconscious unknowns through history? Investigations into late medieval and early modern practices of measuring, of risk calculation, of ignorance within financial administrations, of conceiving the docta ignorantia as well as the silence of the illiterate are combined with contributions regarding knowledge gaps within identification procedures and political decision-making, with the emergence of consciously delimited blanks on geographical maps, with ignorance as a factor embedded in iconographic programs, in translation processes and the semantic potentials of reading. Based on thorough archival analysis, these selected contributions from conferences at Harvard and Paris are tightly framed by new theoretical elaborations that have implications beyond these cases and epochal focus. Contributors: Giovanni Ceccarelli, Taylor Cowdery, Lucile Haguet, John T. Hamilton, Lucian Hölscher, Moritz Isenmann, Adam J. Kosto, Marie-Laure Legay, Andrew McKenzie-McHarg, Fabrice Micallef, William T. O ́Reilly, Eleonora Rohland, Mathias Schmoeckel, Daniel L. Smail, Govind P. Sreenivasan, and Cornel Zwierlein. Edited By Cornel Zwierlein. Includes Bibliographical References And Indexes.