International Conference 14-15 January 2026 | Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries
22 May 2025
Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries
International Conference 14-15 January 2026
Venue: Musée d’histoire des sciences, Geneva
ARGUMENT
Nowadays, most library users are unaware that for centuries, libraries have combined written and ‘hands-on’ dimensions of knowledge by collecting instruments and objects of all kinds.
In the Middle Ages, library collections frequently included astrolabes, quadrants, and sundials alongside treatises explaining their construction and use. Theories of libraries in the Renaissance already anticipated the inclusion of ‘mathematical instruments’. With the emergence of curiosity cabinets, between the 16th and 18th centuries the array of objects was continuously extended. Libraries acquired more and more maps, portraits, coins, medals, natural specimens, models, and exotic artefacts intended to engage with and enrich the libraries’ vast encyclopaedic knowledge.
The presence of a cabinet and the interaction between instruments and books became a crucial material and epistemological concern in the management of libraries, whether private or ‘public’, from the 17th century onwards.
Objects were stored close to books, or in adjoining rooms, and fulfilled various functions. Instruments were regarded as both ornaments and complements to written knowledge, three-dimensional representations of knowledge that could be handled. They therefore played a crucial role in understanding scientific texts, serving as examples or as mnemotechnic tools.
With the exception of a few studies, the presence of instruments in libraries has received little attention in the general history of libraries. The history of education, reading practices, architecture and institutions have taken precedence. The international conference Beyond Books: Instruments and Knowledge in Libraries aims to re-evaluate these historiographical assessments and reconnect libraries, instruments, and books. In a deliberately multidisciplinary and diachronic approach, the event will interrogate the acquisition, status and use of instruments in libraries across different time periods, geographical areas, and knowledge cultures.
Here is a non-comprehensive list of possible topics which may be studied and discussed:
- the concept of ‘scientific instrument’ in libraries;
- cabinets of curiosities and/in libraries;
- a user-oriented focus on instruments and their possible uses;
- scientific practices in libraries and/or science libraries;
- paper and parchment instruments;
- biography of instruments (before entering a library collection/as part of a library collection/after leaving the library collection);
- instruments listed in library catalogues;
- library rules and regulations;
- furniture, storage procedures, collection management;
- curatorial strategies and careers;
- conservation and restoration aspects, past and present.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals of 300 words max. — in French or English — should be sent to Rossella Baldi (rossellangelicabaldi@gmail.com) and Samuel Gessner (samuel.gessner@gmail.com). The deadline for submissions is 15th June 2025.
Comité scientifique
Rossella Baldi
Jérôme Baudry
Laurence-Isaline Stahl-Gretsch