This Option Paper explores how knowledge was exchanged, transformed, and reconstituted across cultural and geographical boundaries in the early modern world (c. 1450-1800). Moving beyond traditional narratives of discovery and diffusion, the course foregrounds the material and epistemic conditions under which knowledge travelled—through texts, maps, instruments, and bodies.
Drawing on cutting-edge historical scholarship and engaging closely with primary sources—from vernacular texts to portolans, maps, and other valuable early modern materials held in the Oxford collections—students will examine how knowledge practices were shaped by translation, mediation, and circulation. Themes include the interplay between local and global epistemologies, the role of intermediaries in translation, the politics and science of map-making, and the challenges of adapting knowledge to different cultures.
This paper will be of particular interest to students of early modern history, global history, the history of science, and intellectual history. Readings and discussions emphasise comparative perspectives, material culture, and the methodological questions involved in writing a history of knowledge in motion.
