“These Rude Collections”: Accumulating Observations and Experiments

Abstract

This chapter consists of a close study of the illustrated articles related to astronomy and anatomy from the early years of Philosophical Transactions. Studying these engravings along with their sources reveals the importance of images to the process of communication within the early modern scientific community and highlights the important role of Oldenburg’s network of correspondents in the production of a corporate record of experiments and observations. Moving across languages and among correspondents who rarely, if ever, saw one another’s instruments or workspaces, the visual component of these articles was not peripheral to their usefulness, but indeed was a central feature. Studying these articles shows how accuracy was produced through the accumulation of images that circulated among this pan- European community.