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The Fellows’ Letters from Distant Countries: New Science, the “Other” and Imperialism

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The Royal Society and the Discovery of the Two Sicilies

Part of the book series: Italian and Italian American Studies ((IIAS))

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Abstract

Starting from the English sixteenth and early seventeenth century tradition of the ars apodemica manuals, Chap. 1 is based on Henry Oldenburg’s determination to include “inquiries” on—and descriptions of—distant countries in Philosophical Transactions. Its four subsections all refer to the late Restoration period: they describe the tools of learned travel in the age of New Science, and focus on the Royal Society’s correspondence from the East and from early America. The short extracts taken from vols. 1–22 of Philosophical Transactions are also meant to show the Society’s imperialistic vision of the “Other” and of the indigenous’ “knowhow” in most fields.

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  1. University of Catania, Catania, Italy

    Manuela D’Amore

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D’Amore, M. (2017). The Fellows’ Letters from Distant Countries: New Science, the “Other” and Imperialism. In: The Royal Society and the Discovery of the Two Sicilies. Italian and Italian American Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55291-0_2

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