Dr. Pamela Smith
Professor, Department of History,
Columbia University
presenting:

“Butter and Mercury: Art, Science, and Craft in Early Modern Europe”

Friday, September 29, 2006
12:00 to 1:30 pm

Student Commons, 907 Floyd Avenue
Commonwealth Ballroom B

Dr. Smith will discuss two artisanal practices of sixteenth-century European metalworkers involving butter and mercury, in order to attempt to draw out the underlying principles by which craftsmen viewed nature. This lecture will demonstrate how workshop practices were underpinned by a body of knowledge that artisans often sought in an empirical and systematic way -- one which we might call a "vernacular science."
Dr. Smith teaches early modern European history and the history of science at Columbia University. Her books include The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire (1994), Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science and Art in Early Modern Europe (ed. with P. Findlen, Routledge, 2002) and The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago, 2004).

For additional information, please contact: Dr. Karen Rader, 828-9642 or karader@vcu.edu
Light lunch will be provided on a first-come, first served basis.