Workshop on Mathematical and Astronomical Practices in pre-Enlightenment Scotland and her European Networks

23-24 Nov, 2018, St Andrews

Outline of meeting:

The workshop will focus on Scottish natural philosophy and mathematics, and their innovative developments between 1550 and 1750. The astronomical observatory James Gregory founded at the University of St Andrews in 1673, six years behind Paris, but two years ahead of Greenwich, is just one example of relevant institutional initiatives that were taking place in 17th-century Scotland. However, despite the major shifts in scientific culture taking place elsewhere, traditional Scottish historiography of the period has been framed in terms of religious factions. The question of how scientific innovations flourished in this context has been little addressed.

To understand this question, we are particularly interested in mathematical practices related to measurement both in astronomy and in contexts such as navigation, surveying, cask gauging, grain measuring, and so on. Early modern professional gaugers and measurers were essentially authoritative mediators, often at the service of local authorities, powerful lords, or the crown itself, mediating between merchants, bankers, landowners, town dwellers, and public authorities. Some apparently paradoxical processes of conceptual change in early modern mathematics, such as of ratio and proportionality, can only be understood by examining the mathematical collective tacit knowledge developed through practices with measuring instruments. Such instruments, and the associated practices, concepts, and books, circulated through networks of exchange.

Provisional Programme:

Friday 23 November

9.00-9.30 Registration

9.30
Alison Morrison-Low (National Museums of Scotland): Surviving scientific instruments from early modern Scotland: a survey

Samuel Gessner (Lisbon): Thinking with instruments and the appropriation of logarithms on the Iberian Peninsula around 1630

11.00 Coffee

11.30 Kevin Baker: Practices of Reading the Principia: How contemporaries engaged with Newton’s book in the years immediately after publication

Olivier Bruneau (Lorraine): Colin MacLaurin (1698-1746): a Newtonian between theory and practice

13.00 Lunch

14.00 Visit to Special Collections to see St Andrews' collection of Medieval and Early Modern mathematics and astronomy books

15.30 Tea

16.00
Steve Russ (Warwick): John Napier: the mysterious making of a mathematician

David Horowitz (St Andrews): John Craig (1663-1731)

Saturday 24 November

9.00
Davide Crippa (CNRS, Sphere): James Gregory and his Italian readers: beating untrodden paths

Pilar Gil (St Andrews): Building an astronomical observatory in the knowledge community of St Andrews in the 17th century

Bruno Almeida (Lisbon)

11.00 Coffee

11.30
Alex Craik (St Andrews): George Sinclair on Hydrostatics

Jane Wess (Edinburgh): Colin MacLaurin on Wind and Water: the Local and the Universal

13.00 Lunch

13.45 Albrecht Heefer (Ghent): The difficult relation of surveyors and algebra: the hundred geometrical questions of Cardinael

Philip Beeley (Oxford)

Antoni Malet (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)

15.45 Close

Workshop on Mathematical and Astronomical Practices
Pdf version of provisional programme and abstracts, as of 22-10-18

Registration

This event is organised in conjunction with the British Society for the History of Mathematics and sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science and the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, to whom many thanks.

If you have any enquiries, please contact Isobel Falconer

Organised by the BSHM and the School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews; sponsored by the British Society for the History of Science, and the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications

The British Society for the History of Science Singer Prize 2018

The BSHS is delighted to invite submissions for the Singer Prize 2018. The prize, of up to £300, is awarded every two years to the writer of an unpublished essay, based on original research into any aspect of the history of science, technology or medicine.

The prize is intended for younger scholars or recent entrants into the profession. Candidates must be registered for a postgraduate degree or have been awarded such in the two years prior to the closing date. All nationalities are welcome.

Essays must not exceed 8,000 words and should be submitted in English. They should adhere to BJHS guidance to authors in all respects.

The prize may be awarded to the writer of one outstanding essay, or may be awarded to two or more entrants. Publication in the British Journal for the History of Science will be at the discretion of the Editor. Essays under consideration elsewhere or in press are not eligible.

The deadline for submissions is 30 April 2018. Submissions should be emailed to the BSHS Executive Secretary, Lucy Santos, office@bshs.org.uk with ‘Singer entry’ and the author surname in the subject line.

For further information please see http://www.bshs.org.uk/prizes/singer-prize

Charlotte Sleigh
Professor of Science Humanities
University of Kent


A: School of History | Rutherford College | University of Kent | Canterbury CT2 7NX | UK
E: c.l.sleigh@kent.ac.uk
Tw: @KentCHOTS
Bl: http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/sciencecomma/
W: http://www.kent.ac.uk/history/staff/profiles/sleigh.html

CALL FOR PAPERS: British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference 2015

2 – 5 July 2015, Swansea University

The BSHS Annual Conference will take place from Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 July 2015 at Swansea University.

The BSHS Conferences Committee now invites proposals for individual papers and for sessions from historians of science, technology and medicine, and from their colleagues in the wider scholarly community, on any theme, topic or period. Proposals are welcomed from researchers of all nationalities at all stages of their careers. Participation is in no way limited to members of the Society, although members will receive a discount on the registration fee. Offers of papers and sessions should be directed to bshs2015programme@bshs.org.uk which is the address for all enquiries about the programme (see below for enquiries about local arrangements).

Proposals for individual papers should include an abstract of no more than 250 words, be comprehensible to a non-specialist audience and avoid footnotes. Sessions, of either ninety minutes or two hours, should normally consist of three or four papers. They may also have a commentator. Proposals for alternative types of session, such as ‘round-tables’ (e.g., history of science and ‘impact’; managing research teams in history of science), are strongly encouraged. Please discuss your ideas for such alternative sessions well in advance of the submission deadline.

The deadline for proposals is 31 January 2015.

Further details on how to submit individual abstracts and session proposals are now available on the BSHS website at http://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/2015-swansea.

Venue and accommodation

The conference will be held at the Singleton Park campus of Swansea University, which overlooks the magnificent sandy beach of Swansea Bay and adjoins Singleton Park proper, containing botanical gardens, boating lake, and acres of open meadow. It will start on the evening of 2 July with a plenary lecture delivered by Prof Iwan Morus (Aberystwyth University). Friday evening will offer a change of scene, with an opportunity to take in some of the sites and dining options of the city. On the Saturday evening, we shall remain on campus for the Presidential address and conference dinner featuring Welsh cuisine.

Delegates choosing to stay in the en-suite accommodation on campus will be no more than ten minutes from the dining facilities and the venue for the academic sessions, the appropriately-named Faraday Building. The programme will include parallel themed sessions, an opportunity to explore the archives and museums of the University and the city, and optional excursions to local sites of interest. An inclusive conference package will be available. Twin rooms can be requested. All enquiries relating to the local arrangements should be directed to bshsswansea2015@bshs.org.uk.

About the area
Swansea University was founded in 1920 as the fourth college of the University of Wales. It became a university in its own right in 2007. Currently it is enjoying the kudos of having been shortlisted by the Times Higher for ‘University of the Year 2014’, and the anticipation of expanding on to a second campus, due to open in 2015. History of science, medicine, and technology takes place at the University in a number of guises: in the activities of the historians of science based in the large History & Classics department, whose interests span the ancient world to the twentieth century; in the cross-campus collaboration that has led to the University become a leading centre for Disability History; in the ‘Science, Scientists, and Society’ seminar convened by staff within the College of Science; in work on the Dillwyn family, whose diverse nineteenth-century interests encompassed pottery, photography, astronomy, and literature; and in the ongoing historical work on the metal industries of South Wales, which includes the Cu@Swansea project to preserve, interpret, and regenerate the Hafod-Morfa copperworks in the Lower Swansea Valley. The University’s Richard Burton Archives contain not only the eponymous collection of the actor’s papers but also the papers of Raymond Williams, part of the South Wales Coalfield Collection, and many materials concerning the metal industries of South Wales and the families who dominated them in the nineteenth century.

Swansea, Wales’s second-largest city, is situated on the sandy southwest Wales coast, not far from the Brecon Beacons, and serves as the gateway to the Gower peninsula, the first site in Britain to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Direct trains to Swansea run from London Paddington and Manchester Piccadilly, taking approximately 3 hours and 4 hours respectively; buses run directly from the train station to the University via the city centre. Swansea can also be reached by intercity coach services. The nearest airports are at Cardiff, and then Bristol. The attractions of Swansea include two medieval castles, the Swansea Museum (formerly the Royal Institution of South Wales), the National Waterfront Museum, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, West Glamorgan Archives, and the Dylan Thomas Centre. It can serve as your staging post for day-trips and vacations further afield: to Worm’s Head and Rhossili Bay, named Britain’s best beach by TripAdvisor; to the castles of Gower; to the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne; further west to Pembrokeshire and the spectacular Pembrokeshire Coast Path; northeast to the Brecons; or southeast to Wales’s capital city, Cardiff. Further information on getting to Swansea can be found here. General tourist information for the area is available here, with information specific to the city to be found at here

Dr Ben Marsden
Senior Lecturer, Department of History
Associate Member, Department of Music

Director, Centre for History and Philosophy of Science,Technology and Medicine (CASS)
Chair, BSHS Conferences Committee

Crombie Annexe
Meston Walk
Aberdeen AB24 3FX
United Kingdom
e-mail: b.marsden@abdn.ac.uk
phone: +44 (0)1224 272637 (office)
web: www.abdn.ac.uk/sdhp/history/

Recent publications:
http://www.pickeringchatto.com/titles/1498-9781848933620-uncommon-contexts
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415520430/

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Àir. SC013683.

CALL FOR PAPERS: British Society of Science, Postgraduate Conference

The British Society for the History of Science is holding its post-graduate conference at the University of Leeds on 8-10 January 2014.

The deadline for submission of abstracts is 5pm on Friday 8th of November.

For further details and the CFP please visit http://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/postgraduate-conference/2014-postgraduate-conference-leeds and do not hesitate to contact the Organising Committee should you have any questions.

Funding: BSHS Student Assistance for For Conference Fees

The British Society for the History of Science (BSHS) is pleased to offer financial assistance to its student members attending the 2013 International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Manchester. The value of each award will be 205 British pounds, which is the amount of the conference fee for early registration (ending on 14 April 2013).

These bursaries will be available to all student members of the BSHS, but you must make an application by 31 January 2013. The application should simply consist of an e-mail attachment submitted to Lucy Tetlow<office@bshs.org.uk>, the Executive Secretary of the BSHS, giving your name and institutional affiliation and stating that you would like to receive a bursary. (Please note that you can also apply separately for travel assistance from the BSHS Butler-Eyles fund.)

Decisions will be made by the Council of the BSHS, and announced by 28 February 2013. Funds will be made available directly after the Congress on confirmation of attendance.