Early Modern German History, May 28 - 31, 2008, Berlin

Early Modern German History

May 28 - 31, 2008

Seminar at the Free University Berlin

The fourth panel was devoted to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century intellectual history and the history of science. Both papers used biographical approaches. Vera Keller's paper, "Cornelis Drebbel: Fame and the Making of Modernity," examined the career and reception of the engraver, inventor, alchemist, and natural philosopher Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633). Almost forgotten today, Drebbel enjoyed immense fame throughout the German lands during his lifetime and long thereafter. While recent historiography has characterized Drebbel as a skilled mechanical practitioner, Keller focused on Drebbel's claim to the status of natural philosopher. His widespread fame, she argued, demonstrates that an early respect for "maker's knowledge" is more accurately situated in Central Europe rather than Bacon's England. Erik Heinrichs's paper, "Caspar Kegler: Proprietary Medicine, Alchemy, and the Popular Press in early modern Germany," investigated the significance of the Leipzig physician Caspar Kegler, a largely unknown figure of German medical history. Kegler's life and work, he argued, reveal how the printing press, economic innovation, and socio-cultural exchange transformed academic medicine from an elite discipline of ancient texts and cures to one more open to the public, new medicines, and manual experimentation.