For those interested in the history of vision and surveillance...
This symposium will be organized in cooperation with the Huygens Institute
for the History of Literature, Science and Scholarship of the Royal
Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Hague.
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In September 2008 it will be exactly 400 years ago that the Dutch spectacle
maker Hans Lipperhey travelled from Middelburg, the capital of the Province
of Zeeland, to The Hague, the seat of the States General, then the governing
body of the Dutch Republic, to apply for a patent for 'a certain instrument
for seeing far'.
Lipperhey's application is the oldest known record anywhere in the world of
an actual and usable telescope, an instrument that has changed the world in
many respects: both the telescope and the microscope (an instrument
developed directly from the telescope) have been of vital importance for
military, navigational and scientific use.
During his stay in The Hague the spectacle maker demonstrated the telescope
to the Stadholder, Prince Maurits of Orange, and several other court
officials and diplomats, who had gathered in this city for a peace
conference. In this diplomatic context the vital importance of the telescope
was grasped immediately. The news of the new strategic 'spyglass' spread
throughout Europe like wildfire. As a result, Lipperhey was ordered to
produce several telescopes. A patent was, however, not granted, as
Lipperhey's invention was disputed, for instance by his fellow-citizen
Sacharias Jansen and by Jacob Metius of Alkmaar.
However, within less than six months after Lipperhey's demonstration in The
Hague, the telescope was in the possession of the most important European
authorities: at least one telescope was owned by the States General; another
was held by their commander-in-chief; a third and a fourth had been sent to
the French King and his prime minister; another instrument was in the hands
of the governor of the Spanish Netherlands, and even the Pope in Rome had
received a telescope, a gift from one of the Vatican diplomats.
The significance of the instrument increased further when, starting in 1609,
Galileo Galilei used more powerful telescopes of 'Dutch design' in Italy for
his astronomical discoveries. Of these the satellites of Jupiter are the
most famous. Now the telescope also had become a major tool for astronomy.
In 2008 The Netherlands will celebrate this landmark in the history of
Western culture with a number of activities, one of these will be the
symposium held in Middelburg, the cradle of the Dutch telescope: an
instrument with a convex objective lens and a concave eyeglass.
In the Middelburg symposium several internationally renowned historians of
science, cultural and intellectual historians, historians of literature,
archaeologists and other scholars in the field of historic scientific
instruments will reflect on the historic importance of the instrument in the
first years of its existence.
Recent insights in the prehistory of the telescope and the production and
distribution of glass technology will allow this interdisciplinary group of
scholars to shed new light on the cultural, technical, and scientific
circumstances that led to the construction of the instrument. Speakers will
place the invention of the telescope within the economic, political, and
religious contexts of the emerging Dutch Republic, Middelburg and the
Province of Zeeland to respond to the question of why it took place in
Middelburg in September 1608.
Recent finds of early 17th-century telescopes will contribute to our
understanding of the enormous impact of the Dutch telescope in science,
culture and society, from its use for navigational purposes on VOC ships,
its attractiveness as an object worthy of mercantile and princely
collections, its metaphorical use in early modern literature to its
revolutionary impact in optics, astronomy and cosmology.
Invited speakers
· Klaas van Berkel (Groningen University)
· Mario Biagioli (Harvard University)
· Marvin Bolt (Adler Planetarium, Chicago)
· Daniëlle Caluwé (Free University Brussels)
· Floris Cohen (Utrecht University)
· Sven Dupré (Ghent University)
· Rob van Gent (Utrecht University)
· Albert van Helden (Emeritus Utrecht University & Rice University)
· Vincent Ilardi (University of Massachusetts)
· Michael Korey (Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon Salon, Dresden)
· Antoni Malet (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona)
· Jan Parmentier (Ghent University)
· Eileen Reeves (Princeton University)
· Mark Smith (University of Missouri)
· Katrien Vanagt (Twente University)
· Rienk Vermij (University of Oklahoma).
· Rolf Willach (Independent Scholar, Switzerland)
Organizing Committee
· Albert van Helden, Albert Clement, Sven Dupré, Peter Louwman, Rob
van Gent, Huib Zuidervaart
Potential participants can subscribe to the conference by sending an e-mail
to:
Dr. Huib J. Zuidervaart
Huygens Institute (KNAW)
P.O. Box 90.754
2509 LT The Hague
The Netherlands
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
For hotel information in Middelburg, see: www.hotels.nl/nl/Middelburg
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