Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ANTIQUITATES (Empirical Knowledge and Antiquarian Architecture in Sixteenth-century Venice)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-03-08 bis 2023-03-07
The overarching aim of the ANTIQUITATES project is to investigate the quantitative empirical practices of the early modern historical disciplines.
The case study of ANTIQUITATES regards antiquarian architecture in the Republic of Venice during the sixteenth century. This project studies the work of a group of groundbreaking architects from Veneto, including Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) and Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616), and their patronage networks. Particularly, this project considers these architects for their antiquarian interests. The project aims to understand how their antiquarian analyses developed, and how these figures blended historical and quantitative empirical knowledge.
If these are the immediate aims of the project, its long-term approach is more ambitious. This research aims to lay the foundations for a new area of historical research at the intersection between the early modern study of antiquity and the development of early modern empiricism. This approach promises to provide a new, integrated interpretation of the rise and development of early modern empiricism, in which the history of the sciences, humanities and art are combined and integrated into a shared history of empirical knowledge.
The case study of ANTIQUITATES regards antiquarian architecture in the Republic of Venice during the sixteenth century. This project studies the work of a group of groundbreaking architects from Veneto, including Andrea Palladio (1508-1580) and Vincenzo Scamozzi (1548-1616), and their patronage networks. Particularly, this project considers these architects for their antiquarian interests. The project aims to understand how their antiquarian analyses developed, and how these figures blended historical and quantitative empirical knowledge.
If these are the immediate aims of the project, its long-term approach is more ambitious. This research aims to lay the foundations for a new area of historical research at the intersection between the early modern study of antiquity and the development of early modern empiricism. This approach promises to provide a new, integrated interpretation of the rise and development of early modern empiricism, in which the history of the sciences, humanities and art are combined and integrated into a shared history of empirical knowledge.
In the project’s first year, I was affiliated as a Visiting Fellow in the History Department of Princeton University, working with Prof. Anthony Grafton. In this period, I mainly performed work in two directions. First, I analyzed the quantitative methods of architects in the antiquarian tradition and began work on a specific Venetian patron of architecture, Daniele Barbaro (1514-1570). The figure of Barbaro is particularly interesting because he blended historical and naturalistic interests. In particular, I studied and analyzed Barbaro’s involvement in the planning, establishment and development of the Botanical Garden of the University of Padua in the mid-sixteenth century. Second, with the key advice of Prof. Grafton, I conducted an extensive study of current trends and approaches to the study of the antiquarian tradition, developing new methodologies for the combined study of antiquarian and scientific practices.
In the project’s second year, I was affiliated with the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at my host institution, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, under the supervision of Prof. Marco Sgarbi. During this final phase, I further expanded my investigation of sixteenth-century antiquarian culture in Veneto but also considered its ramifications and the connections of the antiquarian architects from Veneto to the rest of Italy and the Roman context in particular. I further developed a methodology that I developed in the first year of my fellowship, that is to say, the combined study of antiquarian and naturalistic epistemic practices.
During the fellowship, I developed several actions for disseminating partial research results, culminating in the organization of an international workshop held at Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, in May 2023. The two-day meeting brought together some of the leading scholars working on the history of collections, scholarship, and the sciences to discuss and study preliminary cases on a new and interdisciplinary line of research on the links between antiquarian and scientific knowledge. The workshop included established and well-known scholars, as well as early-career scholars and doctoral students. Papers from the workshop are in preparation for a joint publication. I also signed a contract with Oxford University Press to produce a monograph developed out of the ANTIQUITATES project.
In the project’s second year, I was affiliated with the Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage at my host institution, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, under the supervision of Prof. Marco Sgarbi. During this final phase, I further expanded my investigation of sixteenth-century antiquarian culture in Veneto but also considered its ramifications and the connections of the antiquarian architects from Veneto to the rest of Italy and the Roman context in particular. I further developed a methodology that I developed in the first year of my fellowship, that is to say, the combined study of antiquarian and naturalistic epistemic practices.
During the fellowship, I developed several actions for disseminating partial research results, culminating in the organization of an international workshop held at Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, in May 2023. The two-day meeting brought together some of the leading scholars working on the history of collections, scholarship, and the sciences to discuss and study preliminary cases on a new and interdisciplinary line of research on the links between antiquarian and scientific knowledge. The workshop included established and well-known scholars, as well as early-career scholars and doctoral students. Papers from the workshop are in preparation for a joint publication. I also signed a contract with Oxford University Press to produce a monograph developed out of the ANTIQUITATES project.
In general, A key outcome of the project is the identification of a new and comprehensive approach for examining the interactions between the study of antiquity and nature in the early modern age. This methodology consists of the idea of investigating the epistemic practices shared by antiquarians and naturalists. While the analysis of epistemic practices is overall an established methodology in the history of science, this is not yet the case in the history of the humanities. Moreover, the idea of analyzing shared practices between the sciences and humanities to investigate their connections and integrated development is entirely new. The analysis of shared practices makes an innovative and groundbreaking contribution toward a comprehensive history of empirical knowledge. Traditional accounts of Renaissance scholarship on one side and early modern empiricism on the other have tended to develop in separate disciplinary histories of arts, architecture, humanities, and the sciences. ANTIQUITATES takes the opposite approach: producing a comprehensive, interdisciplinary narrative of the development of empirical knowledge. In the longer term, this work will lay the foundations for a new and cutting-edge area of historical research integrating early modern disciplines in a shared history of empirical knowledge.