Amongst the French and Italian Jesuits who landed in India and China towards the end of the seventeenth century were a number of astronomers. They had been enlisted in a project drawn up by the famous Italian/French astronomer Cassini (1625–1712) to obtain an accurate map of the globe. In addition to these astronomical tasks, these Jesuits also wrote reports on the scientific practices, customs, systems of philosophy and jurisprudence of the subcontinent but during the early decades these were primarily about l'Inde carnatique. In the words of Filliozat, the French Jesuits were the first to inform Europe of the antiquity of Indian astronomy and sciences. In this talk I shall discuss the strategies of Jesuit writing and how their ethnographic accounts were metamorphosed into the disciplinary histories of science that began to be produced in Europe towards the end of the Eighteenth century.
Writing Home about India: The Field of Eighteenth Century Jesuit Science
21.01.2011 15:15 - 17:00
Organiser:
INSTITUT FÜR SÜDASIEN-, TIBET- UND BUDDHISMUSKUNDE
Location:
Seminarraum 1 des Instituts für Südasien-, Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde, Bereich Tibet- und Buddhismuskunde (1090 Wien, Spitalgasse 2, Eingang 2.7)