Communicating Observations in Early Modern Letters (1500–1675). Epistolography and Epistemology in the Age of the Scientific Revolution, edited by Dirk van Miert

Stemming from a conference held at the Warburg Institute, this engaging volume highlights the exchanges of knowledge through correspondences in the Renaissance and early modernity. The book does not only focus on the study of epistolographies but also gathers materials drawn from other fields: anthropology, astronomy, botany, epigraphy, geography, history, medicine, philology, and philosophy. Usually considered in the realm of natural history, these different materials are examined in the context of correspondences, where notitiae were collected and stored in a way other than the natural history collected in Wunderkammern and cabinets. The sharing of information regarding experiments, observations, and collaborations emerges through these letters. Moreover, the analysis of correspondences contributes to a “behind the scene” investigation of the epistemologies at play during observation, of the relationship between communication and observation, and to a discussion of the effect of scientific revolution (p. 7).