Desreza dmostrada y conocimento distorsionado: Lo amateur y la precisión en la España de finales del siglo XVIII / Displayed dexterity and distorted knowledge: Amateurism and precision in late 18TH century Spain

This paper explores the links between scientific practice and precision both in expert networks and popular literature in the second half 18th century Spain. It will be argued that scientific instruments were used and understood in different ways in these two networks, which required opposing strategies for visualizing the degree and goodness of users’ dexterities, thereby fostering the emergence of different collective and individual (epistemic) subjects. I will also argue that these subjects’ differences and affinities were constructed around three themes: firstly, the degree of precision needed to establish a correlation between data and the world, or, in other words, the degree of fluidity admitted in connecting material and cultural worlds; secondly, the relevance attributed to body and bod(il)y knowledge in producing reliable data and stabilizing expertise; and thirdly, the weight attributed to opinion in leaning towards ephemeral or lasting data. The first part of the paper looks at the epistemological and political confluences which in late 18th century Spain nurtured the emergence of both aculture of precision and a sphere of public opinion, and to the strained relationship that existed between them. The other three sections explore how Spanish people used different sets of practices to construct different images of themselves as supporters of a moral of precision (AU)

En este artículo se analiza la relación entre el ejercicio científico y la precisión científica tanto en las redes de expertos como en la literatura popular en la España de la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII. Se mostrará que los instrumentos científicos fueron utilizados y comprendidos de diferentes maneras en estas dos redes, lo cual requirió aplicar unas estrategias opuestas para visualizar el grado y la eficacia de las destrezas de los usuarios, y por lo tanto impulsó la emergencia de diferentes sujetos colectivos e individuales (epistémicos). También demostraré cómo estas diferencias y afinidades de sujetos se construyeron alrededor de tres temas: en primer lugar, el grado de precisión necesario para establecer una correlación entre los datos y el mundo o, en otras palabras, el grado de fluidez admitido para conectar el mundo material y el mundo cultural; en segundo lugar, la importancia atribuida al cuerpo y al conocimiento del cuerpo para producir datos fiables y establecerla experiencia; y en tercer lugar, el peso atribuido a la opinión al respaldarse en datos efímeros o duraderos. La primera parte del artículo se centra en las confluencias epistemológicas y políticas que en la España de finales del siglo XVIII impulsaron la emergencia tanto de una cultura de precisión como de una esfera de opinión pública, y de la tensa relación que existía entre ambas. Los otros tres apartados analizan cómo los españoles utilizaron diferentes conjuntos de prácticas para construir diferentes imágenes de ellos mismos como defensores de una moral de la precisión (AU)

Displayed dexterity and distorted knowledge: amateurism and precision in late 18th century Spain.

This paper explores the links between scientific practice and precision both in expert networks and popular literature in the second half 18th century Spain. It will be argued that scientific instruments were used and understood in different ways in these two networks, which required opposing strategies for visualizing the degree and goodness of users' dexterities, thereby fostering the emergence of different collective and individual (epistemic) subjects. I will also argue that these subjects' differences and affinities were constructed around three themes: firstly, the degree of precision needed to establish a correlation between data and the world, or, in other words, the degree of fluidity admitted in connecting material and cultural worlds; secondly, the relevance attributed to body and bod(il)y knowledge in producing reliable data and stabilizing expertise; and thirdly, the weight attributed to opinion in leaning towards ephemeral or lasting data. The first part of the paper looks at the epistemological and political confluences which in late 18th century Spain nurtured the emergence of both a culture of precision and a sphere of public opinion, and to the strained relationship that existed between them. The other three sections explore how Spanish people used different sets of practices to construct different images of themselves as supporters of a moral of precision.

Small parts: Crisóstomo Martínez (1638-1694), bone histology, and the visual making of body wholeness.

The Valencian engraver Crisóstomo Martínez (ca. 1638-1694) arrived in Paris in July 1687, commissioned to create an anatomical atlas. Impressed by Govard Bidloo's Anatomia humani corporis (1685), Martínez decided to make a comparable work on osteology. His unpublished atlas of anatomy was exceptional in its choice of topic, its quality, and its overall visual approach. Martínez's work revolves around the dissolving effects of microscopic study on the traditional understanding of the connections between parts and whole. Underlying his investigation into the most effective composition of an anatomical atlas was the idea of the self-organizing and complex nature of the body as itself a composition, an idea rooted in the way observation and judgment, the seen and the unseen, and notions about collections and communities were connected in the vanitas culture. This essay explores the links between Martínez's work and the cultures of a time in which observation and interpretation of the processes of death, decay, and fragmentation played a primary role in defining a common human nature around which notions of destiny could be articulated.