MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jul 28, 2020
The Hortus Malabaricus Images in the Context of a European Visual Tradition

This brief presentation will focus on the visual content of the Hortus Malabaricus, and raise a set of questions about its multicultural origins in late seventeenth-century southwest India. I will address themes related to the visual culture of natural knowledge-making. How do the Hortus’s images of plants convey knowledge visually, and what/whose kinds of knowledge was it? Do these images fit completely within European modes of depicting naturalia? Do we find indications of local visual traditions and epistemologies? Is it useful, methodologically speaking, to consider early modern visual evidence concerning naturalia from the New World side by side with the images from the Hortus?

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This virtual lecture is the opening session of an event series, which forms part of Minakshi Menon's current research project ”Hortus Indicus Malabaricus: The Eurasian Life of a Seventeenth-Century ‘European‘ Botanical Classic“. If you would like to participate, or for more information, please contact Minakshi Menon.

2020-07-28T15:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2020-07-28 15:00:00 2020-07-28 16:30:00 The Hortus Malabaricus Images in the Context of a European Visual Tradition This brief presentation will focus on the visual content of the Hortus Malabaricus, and raise a set of questions about its multicultural origins in late seventeenth-century southwest India. I will address themes related to the visual culture of natural knowledge-making. How do the Hortus’s images of plants convey knowledge visually, and what/whose kinds of knowledge was it? Do these images fit completely within European modes of depicting naturalia? Do we find indications of local visual traditions and epistemologies? Is it useful, methodologically speaking, to consider early modern visual evidence concerning naturalia from the New World side by side with the images from the Hortus? Minakshi Menon Minakshi Menon Europe/Berlin public