A reminder of our Wellcome Lecture this week that was announced before the
Christmas break:
-Apologies for cross-posting. Please circulate to colleagues -
University of Cambridge
DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
** Sixth Cambridge Wellcome Lecture in the History of Medicine **
On Thursday 20 January 2011 at 4.30pm
Mary Fissell (Johns Hopkins University)
will speak on
Encountering Aristotle's Masterpiece, or how to find a racy book about
reproduction
Abstract: Aristotle's Masterpiece was the most popular English book about
reproduction from its first publication in 1684 all the way into the 1930s.
It is not by Aristotle, nor a masterpiece, but affords the historian an
unusual glimpse into plebeian sexuality and reading habits. While much of
the content is typical of a late 17th century midwifery guide, its
extremely long life makes it unique.
The lecture explores the many physical spaces in which readers encountered
and bought the Masterpiece in an attempt to understand its long-lived
success. The book was hidden under teenage boys' mattresses; thumbed
through in book stalls; read aloud in girls' boarding schools, and sold by
chapmen bringing metropolitan wares to distant rural communities. These
many venues provide a key to the book's success: it was many things to many
readers.
The lecture, which doubles as the first Departmental seminar of Lent Term,
will start at 4.30pm in Seminar Room 2, Department of History and
Philosophy of Science, Free School Lane, Cambridge. There will be tea from
4pm in Seminar Room 1, and a drinks reception there after the lecture at
6pm.
If you would like to join us for dinner (and pay for yours) at 7pm, at a
local restaurant, please email [log in to unmask] by 2pm on Tuesday
18 January 2011.
Supported by the Wellcome Trust.
All welcome!
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