1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910136606103321

Autore

Zwierlein Cornel

Titolo

Imperial unknowns : the French and British in the Mediterranean, 1650-1750 / / Cornel Zwierlein [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2016

ISBN

1-316-73307-6

1-316-73114-6

1-316-74465-5

1-316-61750-5

1-316-71104-8

1-316-74658-5

1-316-75430-8

1-316-74851-0

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 416 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

382.091822

Soggetti

Mediterranean Region Commerce History 17th century

Mediterranean Region Commerce History 18th century

Mediterranean Region Relations Great Britain

Mediterranean Region Relations France

Great Britain Relations Mediterranean Region

France Relations Mediterranean Region

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 27 Oct 2016).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover ; Half-title page; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Note on Conventions; List of Abbreviations; Introduction; History of Empires, History of Ignorance; Actors, Institutions, Places, Period; Terminology and the Questions a History of Ignorance Asks; Disclaimers: The Author's Ignorances; 1 Politics and Economy: Nationalizing Economics; The Constructive Power of Non-Knowledge; Norms as Specifiers of National Non-Knowledge; Baldus versus Grotius: Conceiving the Empires and Their Unknowns; Conclusion: Operative National Non-Knowledge

2 Religion: Empires Ignoring, Learning, Forgetting ReligionsEntangling



Powers of Non-Knowledge between West and East (Greek Church, Samaritans, Phoenicians); English Chaplains versus French State Catholicism: Conditions and Functions of Non-Knowledge Communication; Comparison and Conclusion; 3 History: How to Cope with Unconscious Ignorance; The Forgotten Arabic Middle Ages; Growing Awareness;  Structure Replaces Content;  Standardization and Spatialization; Conclusion; 4 Science: Mediterranean Empires and Scientific Unknowns; From Avicenna to the Queries of the Royal Society (1692)

Enlightened FalsificationsFrom Natural History to Nation's History; Conclusion: Scientific Unknowns and the Mediterranean; Conclusion; Historicizing Ignorance, Synchronizing Empires; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this major new study, the history of the French and British trading empires in the early modern Mediterranean is used as a setting to test a new approach to the history of ignorance: how can we understand the very act of ignoring - in political, economic, religious, cultural and scientific communication - as a fundamental trigger that sets knowledge in motion? Zwierlein explores whether the Scientific Revolution between 1650 and 1750 can be understood as just one of what were in fact many simultaneous epistemic movements and considers the role of the European empires in this phenomenon. Deconstructing central categories like the mercantilist 'national', the exchange of 'confessions' between Western and Eastern Christians and the bridging of cultural gaps between European and Ottoman subjects, Zwierlein argues that understanding what was not known by historical agents can be just as important as the history of knowledge itself.