May 20, 2021
Agriculture and the Making of Sciences, 1100-1700
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Primary Source Reading Group
- Dept. III
In conjunction with our "year of soil," the theme of this month's readings is on the relationship between agricultural development and the sciences of chemistry and botany. We will read two articles—one on the "Muslim agricultural revolution" and its influence on botany, medicine, and taxonomy in both the Islamic world and in Europe and one on experimental alchemy, its use of plants and soils as "laboratories," and its impact on agriculture in seventeenth-century England.
Readings
- Zohor Idrisi, "The Muslim Agricultural Revolution and Its Influence on Europe," Foundation for Science, Technology, and Civilisation, Working Group Paper (June 2005): 1-19.
- Antonio Clericuzio, "Plant and Soil Chemistry in Seventeenth-Century England: Worsley, Boyle, and Coxe," Early Science and Medicine 23 (2018): 550-583.
Contact and Registration
Everyone is welcome to join, though we ask the non-MPIWG participants who are not already on the RG mailing list to register in advance. For registration or any questions about the seminar please contact Chun Xu (cxu@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de).
About This Series
The working group “Agriculture and the Making of Sciences” holds a primary source reading group where we invite scholars to read, translate, and discuss selected primary sources. For this Summer Semester we will continue to translate and compare two fourteenth-century agricultural treatises: (1) Nongsang yishi cuoyao in Classical Chinese from the Mongol-Yuan dynasty and (2) Al-Filāḥa al-Muntakhaba [Selected Agriculture] in Arabic from the Mamluk period.
The group will meet once every two weeks: one meeting for the Chinese text and the next for the Arabic manuscript. Prior to each meeting, an English translation of the selected excerpts will be made available. No language background is required.