Book contents
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction: The Age of the New
- Part I The New Nature
- Part II Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge
- 6 The Man of Science
- 7 Women of Natural Knowledge
- 8 Markets, Piazzas, and Villages
- 9 Homes and Households
- 10 Libraries and Lecture Halls
- 11 Courts and Academies
- 12 Anatomy Theaters, Botanical Gardens, and Natural History Collections
- 13 Laboratories
- 14 Sites of Military Science and Technology
- 15 Coffeehouses and Print Shops
- 16 Networks of Travel, Correspondence, and Exchange
- Part III Dividing the Study of Nature
- Part IV Cultural Meanings of Natural Knowledge
- Index
- References
11 - Courts and Academies
from Part II - Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
- Frontmatter
- 1 Introduction: The Age of the New
- Part I The New Nature
- Part II Personae and Sites of Natural Knowledge
- 6 The Man of Science
- 7 Women of Natural Knowledge
- 8 Markets, Piazzas, and Villages
- 9 Homes and Households
- 10 Libraries and Lecture Halls
- 11 Courts and Academies
- 12 Anatomy Theaters, Botanical Gardens, and Natural History Collections
- 13 Laboratories
- 14 Sites of Military Science and Technology
- 15 Coffeehouses and Print Shops
- 16 Networks of Travel, Correspondence, and Exchange
- Part III Dividing the Study of Nature
- Part IV Cultural Meanings of Natural Knowledge
- Index
- References
Summary
An English courtier of the twelfth century lamented that “In the court I exist and of the court I speak, what the court is, God knows. I know not.” The same difficulty affects court studies; no one definition of a courtly “site” can stand equally well for all periods, places, and historical circumstances. In the early modern era, political patronage and clientage networks functioned as effective means of government administration; this made the court a “point of contact” in the ongoing exchange and political maneuvering between a ruler and those seeking to influence the direction of royal or princely power, rather than a physical location. Some members of the court resided at a distance from the ruler himself, maintaining a more remote presence as part of a courtly circle. A court was thus more than a household, more than buildings, and more than ritualistic events based in legal custom or ceremonial-administrative protocols. It was also an “abstract totality,” a society of individuals in service to, but not necessarily in immediate attendance upon, a sovereign.
The court was an “ethos” as well as an institution, and particular courts gave rise to particular sorts of cultures, each with its own attitudes and habits, its own system for judging merit and value, and its own social and symbolic mechanisms for directing the behavior of its members. Courts also varied according to size and relative number within specific linguistic regions. In politically fragmented areas, courts were larger in number but smaller in territories of jurisdiction.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Science , pp. 251 - 271Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
- 14
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