Lab Seminars

Hands-on research into, and reconstruction of, the materials and techniques described in the BnF Ms. Fr. 640 manuscript are carried out through seminars held in a laboratory at Columbia University, led by Seth Low Professor of History Pamela Smith. The original laboratory seminar HIST G8906: Craft and Science: Making Objects in the Early Modern World was offered to graduate students. The course combines historical research on fifteenth- and sixteenth-century sources with hands-on work in the laboratory, carrying out historical reconstruction research. The course includes discussions of primary and secondary sources drawn from material culture studies, anthropology, history of science and technology, and art history, as well as hands-on work in the laboratory.

Using the transcription and translation produced in the Paleography Workshops, the laboratory seminars focused each year on a set of related techniques described in the manuscript. In 2014-15, the focus was on Moldmaking and Metalworking (e.g., portrait medal casting, sand casting, and box molding); in 2015-16, it was on Colormaking (including dyes, pigments, artificial gems, coloring woods and metals, and varnish making); in 2016-17, Practical Knowledge: Vernacular Natural History, Practical Perspective, Optics, Mechanics, and Medicine; in 2017-2018, the theme was Ephemeral Art; in 2018-2019, the theme was Printmaking, Inscription and Impression.

Work in the laboratory each semester begins with skill building activities, then expert makers lead the students in hands-on research for two weeks. These experts are artists, conservators, or craftspeople who have studied historic techniques in areas relevant to the manuscript. Their expertise provided a crucial link to the text for the students and scholars working in the laboratory, and their contributions are invaluable for assisting in performing reconstructions and in the critical annotation of the manuscript.

The process of translation from words into actions, and the multiple issues it raises, provides valuable lessons about translation itself (in its many meanings in this project), about experiential knowledge, and about methodologies of research in history to the students in the courses, and, more generally to scholars in multiple fields. The participants’ grappling with these issues were reflected in electronic field notes, images, and video footage as part of the diverse media of the digital edition of the manuscript.

After the publication of the digital critical edition, the Project offered a redesigned laboratory seminar open to undergraduate students from fall 2021 onward. HIST GU4962 Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History continued many of the main topics and activities from the original laboratory seminar. Instead of a semester theme, students created a capstone project.

These exploratory and experimental projects offer new ways of engaging with the digital critical edition and extending the course themes to new topics. Students in past classes have produced digital/textual analysis of Ms. Fr. 640 manuscript, reconstruction insight reports, videos, lesson plans, and many other original and creative projects. Many of these projects can be found via the Research and Teaching Companion. 

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Syllabi
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