This document contains a full text version of all material discussed during the lectures. With the exeption of lecture 8 (disciplines) and lecture 11 (laboratory), everything is a running text.
College 2 - Classical knowledge in the Arab world 5
College 3 - The Monastery 8
College 4 - The University 13
College 5 - The Republic of Letters 19
College 6 - The Scientific Revolution 22
College 7 - The Museum 26
College 8 - The Disciplines 29
College 9 - The Vrije Universiteit 34
College 10 - Naturalism & Historicism 39
College 11 - The laboratory revolution 41
College 12 - The Digital Turn 46
1
, College 1 - The Library
Problem
The problem of knowledge is the exclusion of several groups. White male knowledge is also
a problem.
History of Knowledge
Knowledge is often seen as an active act and is thus more than just numbers and facts.
Knowledge is the result of an active process, for example conducting research or studying
sources. Knowledge can be defined, created, passed on, consumed and validated/
Relevance
The relevance of the history of knowledge is first for history in general. Knowledge has also
been influential on the development of art, literature, media, et cetera. Knowledge has
always been presented in a form of art, for example the universe. The universe and its
components are often pictured in art. Psychological knowledge has had an influence on
literature, for example books written about theories or books that contain psychological
motives.
The Library
The institution of the library originated in Classical Antiquity and Hellenistic culture. However,
there is a pre-history to this. The oldest libraries date back to the Sumerians, who lived in
South-Mesopotamia.
Sumerians
The Sumerians lived from 4000-3000 BC in South-Mesopotamia and have done quite a lot
for the development of our current culture. The Sumerians invented the irrigation system, in
which lies the origins of agriculture. The irrigation system allowed them to control the food
supplies, which gave the Sumerians the possibility of living together in a society. This led to
urbanization. The Sumerians engaged in professional trading and bureaucracy; without
administration, it would have not been possible to have cities. The Sumerians invented the
cuneiform script on clay tablets (3200 BC) out of necessity to control language. This
provided them with the possibility to note and record language, which was deemed useful to
do the administration of the emerging cities. The script and knowledge were passed across
consecutive cultures. To keep the system working, education was necessary. This led to the
development of the school system. Because a lot of things were written down, collections
arose. These collections led to the emergence of important libraries in several cities, such as
the one in Nineve.
Nineve
The Nineve Library was the Archive of King Ashurbanipal. The clay tablets were baked in a
fire, which caused the preservation of the collection. The library consisted of 30.000 tablets,
of which 5000 were deemed literature. The rest consisted of finances, taxes, administrations,
et cetera. The Library of Nineve was the biggest library before Alexandria. The tablets were
taken out of the location before they could be studied, so we do not know about the ordering
system of the library.
Ebla and Egypt
2
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