Marius Buning’s research interests focus on the origins of intellectual property law; the relationship between science and technology; how experiment bears upon theory; and the part played by the early modern state in defining these respective fields. In 2013 Marius defended his PhD thesis at the European University Institute in Florence. His thesis examined the history of patent law in relation to the development of early modern science. Focusing on the Dutch Republic between 1581–1621, Marius reconstructed the legal background to the patents system, the social construction of patent procedures, and the ways in which new inventions were tested. He argued that the institution of a patent system was an integral part of early modern state formation and that it provided a distinct "working model" for how to arrive at truth claims through the use of experimental method.
Marius was a Teaching Assistant at the University of Amsterdam (2006), a Visiting Fellow at the History of Science department of Harvard University (2010) and a student representative at the History Department of the European University Institute (2012). He has an ongoing interest in the Digital Humanities and is currently involved in Primary Sources on Copyright (1450–1900), a Cambridge-based collaborative research project to create a digital archive of primary sources on copyright.
Projekte
Selected Publications
Schäfer, Dagmar, Annapurna Mamidipudi, and Marius Buning, eds. (2023). Ownership of Knowledge: Beyond Intellectual Property. Inside Technology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/14648.001.0001.
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Buning, Marius (2023). “Teaching Intellectual Property: Constructing the Historical Narrative of Intellectual Property in University Textbooks.” In Ownership of Knowledge: Beyond Intellectual Property, ed. D. Schäfer, A. Mamidipudi, and M. Buning,…
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Buning, Marius (2017). “Promoting Technical Knowledge: Printing Privileges and Technical Literature in the Early Dutch Republic.” In Le livre et les techniques avant le XXe siècle: à l’échelle du monde, ed. L. Hilaire-Pérez, K. Vermeir, V. Nègre,…
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Buning, Marius (2016). “Discovering inventions : a short history of inventor’s privileges.” In Janello Torriani : a Renaissance genius, Exhibition catalogue, Cremona – Museum of the Violin, Cremona, 2016, pp. 59-61., ed. C. Zanetti, 59–61. Cremona:…
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Past Events
Premodern Conversations Series
- Institute Event
A History of Rules: Algorithms, Patterns, and Recipes
MOREPremodern Conversations Series
- Institute Event
Epistemological Reflections in the Prize Contests of the French Academies (1720–1760)
MOREPremodern Conversations Series
- Institute Event
Infrastructures of Natural History
MOREPremodern Conversations Series
- Institute Event
Coal in the Early Modern History of Resources
MOREKolloquium
Spirits Coming Alive: The Subtle Alchemy of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Money as a Problem for Early Modern People (and for Historians who Study Them)
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
The Physician’s Album Amicorum: Vitality, Vividness, and Values.
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Transits in Time, Transits on Paper: Charles Plumier’s Iconographic Archive of Nature, 17th–19th centuries.
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Uncertainty, Risk, and Fortune
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
Toward the History of Everything? How to Move between the History of Science, History of Technology and Global History
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
The Notion of Industry
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Uncertainty, Risk and Fortune
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Sanskrit, Plants, and Paper: Botanical Knowledge Making in East India Company Bengal, c. 1790
MORE- Institute Event
Categorical Binaries
MOREVeranstaltungsreihe Premodern Conversations
- Institute Event
Gestures and Experiment as Historical Method
MOREPresentations, Talks, & Teaching Activities
Conference, "Stevin Inside Out: New Perspectives on Simon Stevin," The Stevin Centre for History of Science and Humanities, Amsterdam
Workshop, "Ownership of Knowledge," MPIWG, Berlin
Workshop, "Figures de la propriété intellectuelle XVIe—XXe siècles," University of Geneva, Geneva
Conference, "Mobilising and Using Energy, from Antiquity to the Present Time," Bordeaux-Montaigne University, Bordeaux
Conference, "Languages of the Book," The Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP), Paris
Workshop, “Creating a Knowledge Society in Globalizing World, 1450–1800,” MPIWG, Berlin in Cooperation with the Staatliche Museeen zu Berlin (SMB)
Conference, 7th St. Andrews Annual Book Conference, "Buying and Selling," University of St Andrews
Colloquium, "Art and Knowledge in Pre-Modern Europe," MPIWG, Berlin
Conference, "Le livre et les techniques avant le XXe siècle. À l’échelle du monde," Collège de France, Paris
Workshop, "Mechanisms for the Circulation of Technology in Pre-industrial Europe," European University Institute, Florence
Conference, European Society of History of Science (ESHS), Athens
Workshop, "Europe in the World," Princeton University, New Jersey
Conference, "Scientiae," Simon Fraser University, Vancouver
Postgraduate Conference, British Society for the History of Science (BSHS), University of Warwick