State, Mining, and Transfer of Innovation in Early Modern Europe

In a comparative way, my project attempts to analyze particular channels and personae involved in the transfer of practical, scientific and administrative knowledge on mining. The regional focus is on German speaking countries in Central Europe (Saxony, Habsburg Empire and the region of Harz), where mining was dominated by the state’s cameralistic policies. Accordingly, the chronological frame begins in mid-seventeenth century and ends with the establishment of the first mining academies in Schemnitz (Banská Štiavnica) and Freiberg during the 1760-ies. Central to my interest in the initial phase of this project are following questions. How state involvement in transfer of this specific knowledge was managed and how this knowledge was validated? Who were the chosen experts to plan and oversee its implementation? And finally, how different media and practices played a role within the process? 

Further aspects of this research are being developed within the Working Group “The Art of Judgment.”