Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk › Academic
Description
This presentation focuses on MS Sloane 2052, better known as the ‘Mayerne Manuscript’, that has gained fame as an indispensable handbook for the study of Netherlandish painting. I discuss the making of the Mayerne Manuscript from its original compilation (1620-1640) to its publication in print in the long nineteenth century up to its current use for teaching and reconstruction research in conservation studies and technical art history, and its recent digitisation. While the recipes and technical instructions contained in the Mayerne Manuscript have a long reception history, the manuscript has rarely been studied as an early modern artefact or as part of early modern material knowledge cultures. I portray the Mayerne Manuscript as a historical object with its own rich cultural biography. Moreover, I make a case for art technological source research and material-technical approaches as integral part of interdisciplinary research in art history, material culture studies, and history and philosophy of science.