Jan Brueghel the Elder, Allegory of Fire (detail), 1608, oil/copper, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, inv. #68

Making and Matter in a Sixteenth-Century Workshop

Pamela H. Smith (Columbia University)

This lecture examines the intriguing late sixteenth-century anonymous manuscript, Ms. Fr. 640 (now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France) that has been researched since 2014 by the Making and Knowing Project . The technical and artistic “recipes” contained in Ms. Fr. 640 provide an opportunity to explore the meanings and conceptualization of making and materials in the sixteenth century. Ms. Fr. 640 provides important insights into the material, technical, and intellectual world of the late sixteenth century, and brings a better understanding of how and why nature was investigated, used in art, and collected and appreciated in early modern Europe. It sheds light on the type of knowledge possessed by handworkers, today often called “how-to,” and, more broadly, on how the work of making was related to knowing.