As explained in my last post, my project for this semester surrounds the early modern science movement and the literature that came out of it. Oh the joys of our wonderful library database! While learning how to be efficient in my exploration of the contents of special collections, I have definitely taken steps in becoming more of an expert on the ways of our database. One finding leads to another and before long, I have found many primary sources for this project. Take a look at some of the first books I discovered:
The [Probably Too Ambitious] Historie of the World, translated from Plinius Secondus
A page from Memoir’s For a Natural History of Animals, by Claude Perrault
Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, by Robert Boyle
Hopefully these examples make it clear that there were many names and terms associated with science literature that did not at first seem very intuitive. Using “natural,” “philosophy,” and even “physick” proved to help broaden my sources. And of course, once I found one decent source, it usually led me to even more.
I am very excited to be widening my research, from more medical/physician based literature to now astrology and alchemy. At the same time, it was frustrating to have to become more general in my quest for wider breadth of knowledge. This is because I was hoping to use my work at CCEPS this semester to help guide my personal research for my thesis next semester. Hoping to narrow down a topic has been increasingly difficult as I keep jumping from one lead to the next. But that will have to be something I figure out on my own.