Prof. dr. Sven Dupré
From 1 October 2011 Sven Dupré is Professor of History of Knowledge at the Freie Universität Berlin and Research Group Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
To contact him, please see the information on his website in Berlin: http://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/en/staff/members/dupre.
Bio
Sven Dupré (1975) is Director of the Centre for History of Science, Lecturer of History of Science in the Department of Art History at Ghent University, and a Senior Research Fellow of the Research Foundation –
In the past his research has been supported by visiting fellowships at the Institute for History and Foundations of Science, a research centre of the Faculty of Sciences, which participates in the Descartes Centre for the History and Philosophy of the Sciences and the Humanities of the
He is the coordinator of the Scientific Research Network ‘Circulating Knowledge in Early Modern Science’ of the Research Foundation –
He was responsible for several international workshops and conferences, two of which were sponsored by the European Science Foundation, ‘The Institutional Contexts of Natural Philosophy’ (in April 2006), and ‘Optics, Instruments and Painting: The Hockney-Falco Thesis Revisited’ (in November 2003).
He gave invited talks at the Centre d'Edtudes Supérieures de la Renaissance in Tours, the University of Southern California-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute at the Huntington Library in San Marino, the Biblioteca Hertziana (Max Planck Institute for Art History) in Rome, the Huygens Institute in The Hague, the Institut d'Estudis Catalans in Barcelona, the GEMCA at the Université Catholique de Louvain, REHSEIS in Paris, the Unit of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, the National Archives in The Hague, the University of Cambridge, the Museum of History of Science at the University of Oxford, the Dibner Institute for History of Science (MIT, Cambridge, Mass.), the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Venice, the University of Antwerp, the Free University of Brussels, the Royal Academy of Belgium of Arts and Sciences in Brussels, the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin, the University of St. Andrews, the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden, The Cohn Institute for the History of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University, the Hermann von Helmholtz-Zentrum für Kulturtechnik of the Humboldt Universität in Berlin, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences in Zanjan, the University of Milan, the Roosevelt Academy in Middelburg, the University of Leuven, the University of Utrecht, the University of London.
Field of research: Art as Knowledge/Philosophy and the Natural Sciences in their Historical Relation/Knowledge Circulation and Transfer
- History of Optics and Mathematical Practice (1400-1700)
- Scientific Instruments and Material Culture
- History of Collections
- History of Experiment
- Galileo
- Art and Science
- Scientific Revolution - Historiography
- Historical Epistemology
Research projects
- 'Experiment and observation in seventeenth-century meteorology and natural philosophy. A comparative study of Descartes’ Météores and Fromondus’ Meteorologicorum libri sex.'
FWO-project, 2010-2013 (Maarten Van Dyck and Sven Dupré; Ph.D student: Lucian Petrescu) - 'Circulating Knowledge in Early Modern Science'
A Scientific Research Network of the Research Foundation –
FWO-Research Network, 2006-2011, Sven Dupré - 'Towards a historical epistemology of experiment in early modern science. A study of the use and meaning of material objects in the context of collections from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century'
Post-doc FWO, 2008-2011, Sven Dupré - 'Art, Natural Science, Local History, and the New World in
Counter-Reformation Antwerp: The Collection of the Portuguese
Merchant-Banker Emmanuel Ximenes (1564-1632)'
Collaborative project, 2010-2014, Sven Dupré, Christine Goettler (University of Bern)
Teaching
- History of Science: Conceptions, Methods and Problems
- From Copernicus to Newton: Problems from the First Scientific Revolution
Publications related to the field of history of science
Books
(as editor) [with Alison Morrison-Low, Stephen Johnston, and Giorgio Strano] From Earth-Bound to Satellite. Telescopes, Skills and Networks (History of Science and Medicine Library / Scientific Instruments and Collections Series),
(as editor) [with Albert van Helden, Rob van Gent and Huib Zuidervaart] The Origins of the Telescope [History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands 12], Amsterdam, KNAW Press (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences), 363 pp., forthcoming in 2010.
(as editor) [with Christoph Lüthy] Silent Messengers: The Circulation of Material Objects of Knowledge in the Early Modern Low Countries, Berlin, LIT Verlag, forthcoming in 2010.
(as editor) [with Fernand Hallyn] Early Modern Cosmography, special issue of Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, vol. 59, pp. 417-603, 2009, Turnhout, Brepols.
(as editor) [with Sachiko Kusukawa] The Circulation of News and Knowledge in Intersecting Networks, “History of Universities”, vol. 23.2, pp. 1-158, 2008, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
(as editor) Optics, Instruments and Painting, 1420-1720: Reflections on the Hockney-Falco Thesis, Special Issue of 'Early Science and Medicine', vol. 10 (2), 2005, pp. 125-339.
[Reviewed in Nature, 15 December 2005, pp. 916-7;
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 June 2006]
Renaissance Optics: Instruments, Practical Knowledge and the Appropriation of Theory. Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte Preprint 246, 2003, 112 pp.
De Optica van Galileo Galilei: Interactie tussen Kunst en Wetenschap. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, Nieuwe Reeks, Nummer 5. Paleis der Academiën, Brussel, Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten, 2001, 283 pp.
Contributions to journals and volumes
'The Making of Practical Optics: Mathematical Practitioners’ Appropriation of Optical Knowledge between Theory and Practice', in Lesley Cormack (ed.), Mathematical Practitioners and the Transformation of Natural Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, The University of Chicago Press, forthcoming.
'Kepler’s Optics without Hypotheses', Synthese, forthcoming in 2011.
'Ronchi’s Leonardo', in Romano Nanni and Maurizio Torrini (eds.), 1952. Leonardo e la cultura dell’ Europa del dopoguerra, Florence, Olschki, forthcoming.
'Art History, History of Science and Visual Experience',
'Writing the History of the Telescope: Makers, Markets, and Mapping', in Alison Morrison-Low, Sven Dupré, Stephen Johnston, and Giorgio Strano (eds.), From Earth-Bound to Satellite. Telescopes, Skills and Networks (History of Science and Medicine Library / Scientific Instruments and Collections Series),
'William Bourne’s Invention. Projecting a Telescope and Optical Speculation in Elizabethan England', in Albert Van Helden, Sven Dupré, Rob van Gent, Huib Zuidervaart (eds.), The Origins of the Telescope, History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands 12, Amsterdam, KNAW Press, 2010, pp. 129-145.
[with Albert van Helden and Huib Zuidervaart] “Introduction”, in Albert Van Helden, Sven Dupré, Rob van Gent, Huib Zuidervaart (eds.), The Origins of the Telescope, History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands 12, Amsterdam, KNAW Press, 2010, pp. 1-8.
'Trading luxury glass, picturing collections and consuming objects of knowledge in early seventeenth-century
[with Alexander Roose] 'In memoriam: Fernand Hallyn (1945-2009)', Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, vol. 59 (2009), pp. 605-608. [French translation in Studium. Revue d’Histoire des Sciences et des Universités, vol. 3 (2010), pp. 56-59]
'Nota de abertura', in Galileu Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius o Mensageiro das Estrelas, translated and edited by Henrique Leitao, Lisbon; Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, 2010, pp. 7-9.
'Los origines del telescopio', Investigacion y Ciencia, September 2009 September 2009, pp. 52-61 [re-printed in Temas 58: “Galileo y su legado”, December 2009, pp. 30-39.
'Preface: Early Modern Cosmography', Archives Internationales d’Histoire des Sciences, vol. 59 (2009), pp. 419-422.
[with Michael Korey], “Inside the Kunstkammer: The Circulation of Optical Knowledge and Instruments at the
'Printing Practical Mathematics: Oronce Fine’s ‘De speculo ustorio’ between Paper and Craft', in Alexander Marr (ed.), The Worlds of Oronce Finé: Mathematics, Instruments and Print in Renaissance France, Donington, Shaun Tyas, 2009, pp. 64-82.
'Wonder and Experiments in Kepler’s Optics and Dioptrics', in Richard L. Kremer and Jaroslaw Wlodarczyk, Johannes Kepler. From Tübingen to Zagan (Studia Copernicana, vol. 42), Warsaw, Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences, Copernicus Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, 2009, pp. 223-237.
'Het verleden van het verre-kijken', Scientific American (Dutch edition), no. 4 (2009), pp. 56-63.
[with Michael Korey] 'Optical Objects in the Dresden Kunstkammer: Lucas Brunn and the Courtly Display of Knowledge', in Giorgio Strano, Stephen Johnston, Mara Miniati, Alison Morrison-Low (eds.), European Collections of Scientific Instruments: 1550-1750 (History of Science and Medicine Library, vol. 10), Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2009, pp. 61-85.
'Die Ursprünge des Teleskops: Von der Lesebrille bis zum astronomischen Fernrohr', Sterne und Weltraum, vol. 48 (2009), pp. 44-54.
[with Sachiko Kusukawa] 'Introduction: The Circulation of News and Knowledge in Intersecting Networks', History of Universities, vol. 23 (2008), pp. 1-5.
'Newton’s Telescope in Print: The Role of Images in the Reception of Newton’s Instrument', Perspectives on Science, vol. 16 (2008), pp. 328-359.
'Inside the Camera Obscura: Kepler’s Experiment and Theory of Optical Imagery', Early Science and Medicine, vol. 13 (2008), pp. 219-244.
'Aguilón, Vitruvianism and his Opticorum libri sex', in Piet Lombaerde (ed.), Innovation and Experience in Early Baroque in the Southern Netherlands: The case of the Jesuit Church in Antwerp (Architectura Moderna, vol. 6), Turnhout, Brepols, 2008, pp. 53-66.
‘The Prehistory of the Invention of the Telescope’, in Giorgio Strano (ed.), Galileo’s Telescope. The Instrument that Changed the World, Florence, Giunti, 2008, pp. 19-31 (+ 10 catalogue entries, pp. 123-129) [translated in Italian: ‘Preistoria dell’ invenzione del telescopio’, in Giorgio Strano (ed.), Il telescopio di Galileo. Lo strumento che ha cambiato il mondo, Firenze, Giunti, pp. 19-31 (+ 10 catalogue entries, pp. 123-129)].
'Images in the Air: Optical Games, Magic, and Imagination' in Christine Göttler & Wolfgang Neuber (eds.), Spirits Unseen: The Representation of Subtle Bodies in Early Modern European Culture (Intersections, vol. 9), Leiden and Boston, Brill, 2008, pp. 71-92.
‘Rheita, Antonius Maria Schyrleus de Schyrle [Schierl, Schürle]’, in The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, ed. Thomas Hockey et al., New York: Springer, 2007, pp. 965-966.
'Playing with Images in a Dark Room: Johannes Kepler’s Ludi inside the Camera Obscura', in Wolfgang Lefèvre (ed.), Inside the Camera Obscura – Optics and Art under the Spell of the Projeted Image, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Preprint 333, 2007, pp. 59-73.
'François de Aguilón, Optica en Vitruvianisme', Scientiarum Historia, vol. 32, 2006, pp. 17-36.
'Optica est ars bene videndi: From Gemma's radius to Galileo's telescope', in Menso Folkerts and Andreas Kühne (eds.), Astronomy as a Model for the Sciences in Early Modern Times: Papers from the International Symposium Munich 10-12 March 2003, Algorismus: Studien zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften vol. 59, Augsburg: Dr. Erwin Rauner Verlag, 2006, pp. 355-368.
[with Michael Korey] 'The Use and Re-use of Optical Instruments: Creating Knowledge in the Dresden Kunstkammer', in Bart Grob and Hans Hooijmaijers (eds.), Who needs scientific instruments?: Conference on Scientific Instruments and their Users 20-22 October 2005, Leiden: Museum Boerhaave, 2006, pp. 75-80.
'Visualization in Renaissance Optics: The Function of Geometrical Diagrams and Pictures in the Transmission of Practical Knowledge', in Transmitting Knowledge: Words, Images and Instruments in Early Modern Europe, edited by Sachiko Kusukawa & Ian Maclean, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, pp. 11-39.
'The Optics of Ettore Ausonio: Instrument Design and Optics in Sixteenth Century Italy', in Juan Jose Saldana (ed.), Science and Cultural Diversity: Proceedings of the XXI International Congress of the History of Science, Mexico City: Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Sociedad Mexicana de Historia de la Ciencia y de la Tecnologia, 2005, pp. 475-491.
'The Hockney-Falco Thesis: Constraints and Opportunities', Early Science and Medicine, vol. 10 (2005), pp. 125-136.
'Optics, Pictures and Evidence: Leonardo's Drawings of Mirrors and Machinery', Early Science and Medicine, vol. 10 (2005), pp. 211-236.
'Ausonio's Mirrors and Galileo's Lenses: The Telescope and Sixteenth-century Practical Optical Knowledge', Galilaeana: Journal of Galilean Studies, vol. 2 (2005), pp. 145-180.
'The Dioptrics of Refractive Dials in the Sixteenth Century', Nuncius, vol. 18 (2003), pp. 39-68.
'Galileo's Telescope and Celestial Light', Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 34 (2003), pp. 369-399.
'Galilei en Kunst', in John De Poorter (ed.), De Val van Galilei, www.devalvangalilei.be, met steun van Arteveldehogeschool, Centrum Informatieve Spelen, Vlaamse Regering, 2002.
'Galileo, Mathematical Instruments and Orthographic Projection', Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 69 (2001), pp. 10-20.
Mathematical Instruments and the 'Theory of the Concave Spherical Mirror': Galileo's Optics beyond Art and Science', Nuncius, vol. 15 (2000), pp. 551-588.
Reviews
Review Essay of Rolf Riekher, Johannes Kepler. Schriften zur Optik 1604-1611. Eingeführt und ergänzt durch historische Beiträge zur Optik- und Fernrohrgeschichte von Rolf Riekher, Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Harri Deutsch, 2008, in Beiträge zur Astronomiegeschichte, vol. 10 (2010), pp. 346-351.
Review of Carolin Bohlmann, Thomas Fink and Philipp Weiss (eds.), Lichtgefüge des 17. Jahrhunderts. Rembrandt und Vermeer - Spinoza und Leibniz, München, Wilhelm Fink, 2008, in Sehepunkte, vol. 9 (2009), URL: http://www.sehepunkte.de/2009/09/14178.html.
'Microscopes of the Ancien Régime'. Review of Dario Generali and Marc J. Ratcliff (eds.), From Makers to Users: Microscopes, Markets, and Scientific Practices in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries / Dagli artigiani ai naturalisti: Microscopi, offerta dei mercati e pratiche scientifiche nei secoli XVII e XVIII.
Review of Edward Grant, A history of natural philosophy from the ancient world to the nineteenth century, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2007, in Medical History, vol. 53 (2009), pp. 149-150.
'De hand van Galilei', [review of Horst Bredekamp, Galilei der Künstler: Der Mond, die Sonne, die Hand, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2007], De Gids, August 2008, pp. 666-678.
Review of Horst Bredekamp, Galilei der Künstler: Der Mond, die Sonne, die Hand, Berlin, Akademie Verlag, 2007, in Nuncius, vol. 23 (2008), pp. 396-397.
Review of Jutta Schickore, The microscope and the eye: A history of reflections, 1740-1870, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007, in Bildwelten des Wissens, vol. 6 (2008), pp. 107-108.
Review of Eileen Reeves, Galileo’s Glassworks: The Telescope and the Mirror, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and London: Harvard University Press, 2008, in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 61 (2008), pp. 928-929.
'The telescope in history'. Review of Jürgen Hamel and Inge Keil (eds.), Der Meister und die Fernrohre: Das Wechselspiel zwischen Astronomie und Optik in der Geschichte, Frankfurt am Main, Verlag Harri Deutsch, 2007, in Journal for the History of Astronomy, vol. 39, pp. 410-411.
Review of Vincent Ilardi, Renaissance Vision from Spectacles to Telescopes, Philadelphia; American Philosophical Society, 2007, in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 61 (2008), pp. 250-252.
Review of Mario Biagioli, Galileo’s Instruments of Credit: Telescopes, Images, Secrecy, Chicago and London, The University of Chicago Press, 2006, in Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 60 (2007), pp. 223-225.
Review of Jean-Vincent Blanchard, L’ optique du discours au XVIIe siècle: De la rhétorique des jésuites au style de la raison moderne (Descartes, Pascal), Les Presses de l’ Université Laval, 2005, in Isis, vol. 97 (2006), pp. 746-747.
Review Essay of Arnaud Maillet, The Claude Glass: Use and Meaning of the Black Mirror in Western Art, New York: Zone Books, 2004, in Aestimatio, vol. 2 (2005), pp. 24-32.
Review of John North, The ambassadors' secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance, London/New York: Hambledon and London, 2002, in Isis, vol. 95 (2004), pp. 487-488.
Review of Gerard Simon, Archeologie de la vision, Paris: Editions du Seuil, 2003, in Archives Internationales d' Histoire des Sciences, vol. 54 (2004), pp. 192-194.