29 June 2022, h. 17:30 (Rome); 16:30 (London); 11:30 (New York)

TRaCer (TACITROOTS* Research Colloquium Series) presents: John Finch from the Medici to the Ottoman court. A science in, as well as of, the Mediterranean (ca. 1649-82)

Speaker: Stefano Gulizia (University of Milan)            

Discussant: Mordechai Feingold (Caltech)

Chair: Andreea Badea (Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt)

This paper is about the interplay of science and information in the early modern period. As a way into a world of rising academic aspirations and seventeenth-century communication, I consider one English virtuoso, Sir John Finch (1626-82), whose life lends itself to be repackaged as a small palimpsest of European-Ottoman sociability. Finch’s anatomical notebook and miscellaneous reports will allow us to question the relationship between experimenting and publishing, and to rehearse the construction of the scribal self as a dynamic adjustment between gaps and interactive awareness. Against this background, my talk defends a more dynamic, polycentric view of the Cimento’s network, which includes both Medicean and cosmopolitan historical actors, and reassesses the notion of connectedness by using a comparative approach. Finally, Finch’s career also ensures a discussion of Livorno as a pivotal port city and diplomatic entrepôt.

This event is organized and moderated by the team of the TACITROOTS project at the University of Milan, directed by Prof. Giulia Giannini.

The event is free. To register, please write an email to stefano.gulizia@unimi.it and you will receive the link to join the Zoom meeting. Do not share this link.

More info: www.sites.unimi.it/tacitroots/.

* Project TacitRoots  (PI Giulia Giannini) – Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (GA n.818098)