How to See the Invisible: New Instruments, Observation Techniques, and the imagination in Seventeenth Microscopy

KIIP Talk & Workshops by Sietske Fransen 

On Tueday 10 October between 16h15 and 17h45, biologist, medievalist and writer Sietske Fransen will hold a talk entitled 'How to See the Invisible: New Instruments, Observation Techniques, and the imagination in Seventeenth Microscopy'. This talk will discuss how an interdisciplinary approach to the history of microscopy can gives us new insights into practices of science and art in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries. 

Fransen currently leads the Max-Planck-Research Group “Visualizing Science in Media Revolutions” at the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History in Rome. She has published widely on early modern medical and scientific translation, drawing and microscopy, copying practices, and early modern scientific communication. 

Workshop

Before her talk, Fransen will hold a workshop from 10:00 to 12:00 in which participants will have the opportunity to work with replica-Leeuwenhoek microscopes and draw their observations (no drawing skills needed!). These experiences will be put in context of the early modern drawings and printed images, as well as descriptions written by seventeenth-century microscopists about their use of the single-lens microscopes. 

The workshop can be attended by up to 18 people. If that number is reached, an additional workshop will be organised.

ATTEND THE LECTURE AND INTERESTED IN THE WORKSHOP ? CLICK ON REGISTER AT THE TOP RIGHT.

The initiative for the KIIP series comes from VUB professor Kees-Jan Schilt, knowledge historian and philosopher. Every two weeks for four years, a renowned intellectual will come to VUB to give a talk on a topical subject. The aim behind the series is to break down the barriers between different sciences and create more connection between professors and students from different disciplines.

In addition to the talk and workshop by Dr Sietske Fransen (Max Planck Research Group, Bibliotheca Herziana, Rome), Prof Dr Taha Yasin Arslan (Istanbul Medeniyet University), Dr Joëlle Weis (Trier Centre for Digital Humanities), Prof Dr Daniel Margocsy (University of Cambridge) and Prof. Dr. Rens Bod  (University of Amsterdam) are scheduled in the coming weeks and months.