The Matter of Material: Craft, Science, and Making in Early Modern Europe

In this course we will explore European art and craft from 1300–1800 through hands-on and textual engagement. We will study a critical edition of Ms. Fr. 640, a 16th-century manuscript produced by Columbia University’s Making and Knowing Project, which contains recipes for working with natural materials. Students will analyze and reconstruct historical techniques such as preparing burn salves, molding stuccos, and making azurite pigment. Through this work we will reflect on experiential knowledge in the early modern period and consider how hands-on making and textual analysis intersect as forms of knowledge production. By course end, students will gain insight into early modern knowledge-making and how these practices shape our own ways of learning and understanding the world.