Introductory description

This module explores the role of artisanal practices and craft knowledge in shaping the Early Modern world (c.1450-c.1750) from a cultural, social, economic and environmental perspective. It critically traces the interwoven paths of key craft practices – including ceramics, textiles, woodwork and metalwork – predominantly in Europe and Asia in the so-called ‘first age of globalisation’. This module will appeal to students more broadly interested in the history of material culture, art materials and making, the development and circulation of craft knowledge, the relationship between science, technology and the arts, and art historical approaches to early modern globalisation. The module will involve the reading and interpretation of a wide range of primary sources related to craft, including treatises, recipe books and workshop documentation and include hands-on, experiential learning.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Early Modern artisanal cultures: interconnected local and global
Between art, technology and science: Representing and codifying artisanal knowledge
Cities, courts and the rise of consumption
Materials and processes: Earth-based arts
Materials and processes: Wood-based arts
Materials and processes: Textile-based arts
Materials and processes: Metal-based arts
Design and embodied knowledge
Craft organisations
Craft and the environment

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Acquire and demonstrate detailed knowledge of key aspects of Early Modern crafts and their wider contexts and impacts
• Acquire and demonstrate in-depth knowledge of primary visual, material and written sources pertaining to artisans and their practices
• Display an understanding and critically engage with key theoretical and methodological frameworks within which early modern artisanal cultures and their productions have been examined
• Initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results using accurately specific techniques of analysis and enquiry in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Ability to conduct independent research and analysis
• Sophisticated visual analysis and understanding of visual culture
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Indicative reading list

• James Farr, Artisans in Europe, 1300-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
• Robert Finlay The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History (University of California Press, 2020)
• Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello (eds), The Global Lives of Things. The Material Culture of Connections in the Early Modern World (Routledge, 2016)
• Christine Guth, Craft Culture in Early Modern Japan: Materials, Making and Mastery (University of California Press, 2022)
• Ursula Klein and Emma Spary (eds.), Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe: Between Market and Laboratory (University of Chicago Press, 2010)
• Pamela O. Long, Artisan Practitioners and the Rise of the New Sciences, 1400-1600 (Oregon State UP, 2011)
• Dagmar Schaefer, The Crafting of the 10,000 Things: Knowledge and Technology in Seventeenth-Century China (University of Chicago Press, 2011)
• Pamela H. Smith (ed.), Entangled Itineraries: Materials, Practices, and Knowledges across Eurasia (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)
• Pamela H. Smith, From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Reconstructing Practical Knowledge in the Early Modern World (University of Chicago Press, 2022)
• Luke Syson and Dora Thornton, Objects of Virtue (London, 2001)

Subject specific skills

• Acquire and demonstrate detailed knowledge of key aspects of Early Modern crafts and their wider contexts and impacts
• Acquire and demonstrate in-depth knowledge of primary visual, material and written sources pertaining to artisans and their practices
• Display an understanding and critically engage with key theoretical and methodological frameworks within which early modern artisanal cultures and their productions have been examined
• Sophisticated visual analysis and understanding visual culture
• Critical analysis of cultural artefacts in their context

Transferable skills

• Initiate and sustain group discussion through intelligent questioning and debate at an appropriate level
• Ability to undertake research and to write up the results using accurately specific techniques of analysis and enquiry in the form of a well-structured argument at an appropriate level
• Familiarity with essential ICT skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively with others
• Show understanding of diverse viewpoints
• Ability to find, select, organize and synthesize evidence
• Ability to formulate a sustained argument
• Think conceptually and independently at an appropriate level
• Ability to conduct independent research and analysis
• Bibliographical skills at an appropriate level