Johns Hopkins University, Department of the History of Science and Technology, Baltimore

Professeur invité à l’EHESS, Paris, mai-juin 2016

 

Présentation

María M. Portuondo, PhD is associate professor in the department of the History of Science and Technology at the Johns Hopkins University. The focus of her historical research is early modern science and technology in Europe and Latin America. She is the author of Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (Chicago, 2009) and currently writing a book on the natural philosophy of Benito Arias Montano.

 

Conférences

 

1. Mardi 17 mai, 19h-21h

Dans le cadre du séminaire de Rafael Mandressi et Anne Carol, Histoire de la médecine et des savoirs sur le corps

EHESS, 105 bd Raspail 75006 Paris, salle 2

The Empiricist Impulse and Natural Philosophy before the New Science

This conference explores the relationship between empiricist approaches to the study of nature and various natural philosophical systems proposed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Proposals to address the perceived shortcomings of Aristotelian natural philosophy in Spain ranged from modest adjustments to novel, idiosyncratic systems that sought to build a new natural philosophy on an empiricist epistemic criterion. Spain’s scientific enterprise, having tested the bounds of empiricism early on and having identified its shortcomings, sought a cohesive and comprehensive natural philosophy through which to interpret the natural world.

 

2.  Mardi 24 mai, 14h-17h

Dans le cadre du séminaire du groupe TaK – Histoire des Techniques à Koyré,Les savoirs opératoires de la matière de la Renaissance à l’industrialisation.

Centre Alexandre-Koyré, 27, rue Damesme, 75013 Paris, 5^e étage

Technology in Early Modern Transoceanic Empires

This conference discusses the panorama of the historical studies of technology during the early modern era and in particular those technologies that were integral to the development and successful establishment of transoceanic empires. It surveys some key technologies using examples from the European venture in Meso and South America that proved key to the first globalization, such as navigation, shipbuilding and design, planning and construction of defenses, urban planning and construction and the development of overland transportations networks. It then considers a number of theoretical approaches that have been proven useful in studies of later technologies and proposes ways in which these could be brought to bear on technologies of transoceanic empires.

 

3. Mercredi 25 mai, 17h-19h

Dans le cadre du séminaire d’Antonella Romano, Rafael Mandressi et Jean-Marc Besse, Savoirs et productions du monde au XVI^e siècle : Lieux, acteurs, échelles

EHESS, bât. France, salle 2 (rdc), 190-198 av. de France 75013 Paris

Spanish Thinkers, Natural Theology and Scripture

This conference focuses on natural theology and its role in natural philosophical proposals set forth by Spanish thinkers during the early modern era. We consider the work of Raymond Sebond, Luis de Granada and Alejo Venegas. Attention then turns to the works of  Benito Arias Montano (1527-1598), including the Arcano sermone and the Naturae historia (1601).  In these works he presented a complete natural philosophical system based on the Sacred Scriptures and sensual experience, andproposedit as an alternative to Aristotelian natural philosophy. In doing so he marshaled as evidence the history of the Hebrew language and its philologyall the while submittinghis linguistic findingsto empirical tests.

 

4. Mardi 7 juin, 14h-17h

Dans le cadre du séminaire Histoire et anthropologie du monde ibérique

Colegio de España, Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, 7E bd Jourdanl 75014 Paris

Los cosmógrafos españoles y las metodologías empíricas [Spanish Cosmographers and Empirical Methodologies]

Esta conferencia será dictada en español[This conference will be delivered in Spanish]

En esta conferencia discutiré varios aspectos de mi libro Ciencia Secreta: Cosmografía española y el Nuevo Mundo (Iberoamericana, 2013) al igual que nuevo material para a través de ellos explorar aspectos empíricos de la labor de los individuos encargados en recolectar y evaluar información geográfica, etnográfica y de historia natural sobre el Nuevo Mundo. Identifico ciertas metodologías utilizadas por cosmógrafos españoles y las comparo con las utilizadas por otros europeos. Propongo a manera de conclusión una revisión a la tesis de mi libro sobre el efecto de la política de confidencialidad que impuso el imperio español sobre el conocimiento cosmográfico y su impacto en el desarrollo de la ciencia en España.

[This conference revisits my earlier work, Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World (Chicago, 2009) as well as some new material to explore the empirical aspects of the work of individuals involved in collecting and assessing geographical, ethnographical and natural historical information about the ‘New World’. The conference identifies a number of distinct methodologies cosmographers employed and compare them with approaches used elsewhere in Europe. I posit, by way of conclusion, a revision to my book’s original theses concerning the effect the Spanish Empire’s secrecy policy had on the development of science in early modern Spain.]