Lecture | Global Histories of Knowledge Seminar
Chronicling novelty. An experiment in researching the reception of new knowledge by non-experts
- Date
- Friday 22 March 2024
- Time
- Serie
- Global Histories of Knowledge 2023 - 2024
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
In the March session of the Global Histories of Knowledge series, Judith Pollmann presents:
Chronicling novelty. An experiment in researching the reception of new knowledge by non-experts
It is often argued that Europeans from the late seventeenth century were keener to accept innovations than they had been before, yet the empirical basis on which this argument rests is very shallow. Between 2018-2024 a research team at the VU University and the University of Leiden under the direction of myself and Erika Kuijpers has been experimenting with a new method to research how early modern people found out about, and engaged with, knowledge that was outside the domain of their own expertise. To do so, we created a searchable digitized collection of 200 local chronicles, in which non-experts recorded information they deemed memorable and useful. {https://kronieken.transkribus.eu/). In this presentation, I should like to share some of our experiences, the outcomes of our project, and the new questions that this has raised about studying the history of reception.