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Making And Knowing Project

@MakingKnowing

A @columbiacss Research Cluster led by @ps2270 reconstructing 15th-17th c. craft techniques. See #edition640 for yourself: https://teapawt.net/t.co/i0RnRRxotl

 Columbia University
Joined December 2014
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Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)Photo by Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)
18 months after launching #Edition640, we’re excited to share our redesigned digital critical edition! The streamlined design makes it easy to scroll through the manuscript, search through the introductory essays, and find useful resources. Take a look: tinyurl.com/edition640
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But the process of creating the edition was just as important as our results. Pedagogy was integrated with original interdisciplinary and collaborative research, opening scientific inquiry to humanities students and vice versa. teaching640.makingandknowing…
image of teacher helping student pour liquid out of beaker in a laboratory.

ALT image of teacher helping student pour liquid out of beaker in a laboratory.

Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing) profile pictureMaking And Knowing Project@MakingKnowing6 Feb 2025
Replying to @MakingKnowing
The result was our digital critical edition. It’s not only an online version of the manuscript, it includes multimedia essays, glossaries, and search functions to help readers explore and find new meanings in our work.
Homepage of the digital critical edition, Secrets of Craft and Nature

ALT Homepage of the digital critical edition, Secrets of Craft and Nature

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Instead of textbooks, M&K used low-stakes making activities to highlight other forms of knowledge: making, experimentation, collaboration, and failure. Students learned to interpret historical texts—and history itself—through materials.
zoom screenshot of students holding up papers with homemade paint.

ALT zoom screenshot of students holding up papers with homemade paint.

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Why create a Research and Teaching Companion? To answer that, we flashback to 2014, when Professor Pamela Smith founded the Making and Knowing Project to study a 16th-century French artisanal manuscript via interdisciplinary teaching, research, and digital analysis.
manuscript book cover

ALT manuscript book cover

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Over 7 years, students, scholars, and practitioners from across disciplines worked together in a boundary-breaking endeavor to research and reconstruct some of the manuscript’s 900 recipes for art objects, medical remedies, and household items.
students working in a laboratory

ALT students working in a laboratory

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Four years after publishing our digital critical edition, Secrets of Craft and Nature, we are thrilled to share its Research and Teaching Companion! These resources and tools help bring history to life in any classroom. teaching640.makingandknowing…
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ALT Thumbnail images

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Looking to bring hands-on history into your classroom? Our Research and Teaching Companion shows how experiential learning can be adapted to any space, learner level, or budget with lesson plans, case studies, and other resources. Discover it for yourself: teaching640.makingandknowing…
Making and Knowing Project Research and Teaching Companion

ALT Making and Knowing Project Research and Teaching Companion

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Our students have been in the lab making cochineal lake pigments! Found growing on cactuses in Mexico and South America, the cochineal insect revolutionized pigments and dyes. Trace empire through color and learn how to make pigments at home: tinyurl.com/rtc-cochineal
Beaker in lab filled with red pigment

ALT Beaker in lab filled with red pigment

Student working in lab

ALT Student working in lab

students working in lab.

ALT students working in lab.

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Our Director Pamela Smith (@ps2270 + @CUHistoryDept) was awarded the Herzog August Library's inaugural Research Prize! Watch the award ceremony and Pamela's lecture via YouTube. Congratulations to Pamela! youtu.be/5PgPne5ncnY?feature…
Pamela Smith receiving the Herzog August Library's inaugural Research Prize.

ALT Pamela Smith receiving the Herzog August Library's inaugural Research Prize.

Pamela Smith receiving the Herzog August Library's inaugural Research Prize.

ALT Pamela Smith receiving the Herzog August Library's inaugural Research Prize.

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Check out the event recording from our Director Pamela Smith's (@ps2270) April 1 talk at the @GLMosseProgram! youtu.be/0-RWoOUdUyc?feature…
Pamela H. Smith, "From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Reconstructing Practical Knowledge"

Pamela H. Smith, "From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Reconstructing Practical Knowledge"

Pamela H. Smith, "From Lived Experience to the Written Word: Recons...

youtube.com
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Among the pigment recipes in #Edition640, 18 entries mention “flesh colors.” What can the concept of “flesh color” tell us about understandings of race and ethnicity in early modern Europe? tinyurl.com/5ehe7n3f
Photo of four black and white faces in shadow painted on canvas.

ALT Photo of four black and white faces in shadow painted on canvas.

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A digital kunstkammer (an early modern collection of art objects) honors women in early modern Europe who overcame social constraints to create medical objects and knowledge. Learn more: tinyurl.com/46e9u9ps
Kunstkamer: Women at Work

ALT Kunstkamer: Women at Work

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Congratulations to our friend and long-time collaborator, Vera Keller!
UO College of Arts and Sciences (@uocas) profile pictureUO College of Arts and Sciences@uocas15 Feb 2024
Congratulations to Vera Keller, professor of history, for being awarded the Phyllis Goodhart Gordan Book Prize from the Renaissance Society of America @RSAorg. Keller received this award for her 2023 book The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge.
Image from UO College of Arts and Sciences (@uocas)
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As a text that deals with art making and materials, it’s no surprise the names of colors and pigments are common throughout #Edition640. One student investigated how terms for red colors and pigments are used across the manuscript. tinyurl.com/2z6dyd7f
Red pigments

ALT Red pigments

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A visual history project brings the natural world of #Edition640 to life. Learn more about the ecological references used in the manuscript, evolutionary lineages, botanical drawings, and historical climate knowledge. tinyurl.com/ycxt7rnj
Image of bird and fauna

ALT Image of bird and fauna

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It's been 4 years since we published our Digital Critical Edition! But the work isn't done. In-person and on Zoom, we've continued to draft new essays, redesign site functionality, and create more resources for students and scholars.
Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing) profile pictureMaking And Knowing Project@MakingKnowing6 Feb 2020
An announcement five years in the making: Our digital critical edition is live!! Check out #edition640 for yourself on your laptop at edition640.makingandknowing.….
Image from Making And Knowing Project (@MakingKnowing)
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Since 2021, students in our lab seminar cap off the semester with exploratory + experimental projects that find new ways to engage with #Edition640. Our spring 2023 projects are now on our sandbox! To celebrate, we’ll be sharing projects past and present. tinyurl.com/53xzxrsz
Students taking a video of the iron gall ink making process.

ALT Students taking a video of the iron gall ink making process.

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Recipe collections were a major literary genre for the transmission of technical knowledge through the early modern period. Learn how #Edition640 compares to a slightly older counterpart from German monk Wolfgang Sedelius. shorturl.at/gxO29
Image of a manuscript with drawings of organ construction.

ALT Image of a manuscript with drawings of organ construction.

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What is the meaning of bread in Ms. Fr. 640? The varieties of flours, breads, and methods of making it show that “bread” in the 16th century had different connotations than today. tinyurl.com/mr3nw2pb
photo of a loaf of bread

ALT photo of a loaf of bread

16th century print of baker putting bread in an oven

ALT 16th century print of baker putting bread in an oven

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Thirty-six entries in #Edition640 mention esmail, a term which is frequently translated as “enamel.” How has the understanding of esmail changed over the centuries? tinyurl.com/mk-esmail
Close up of semi-opaque enamels on a 16th century dish

ALT Close up of semi-opaque enamels on a 16th century dish

Mixing egg yolks with crushed pigments to make paint and enamel.

ALT Mixing egg yolks with crushed pigments to make paint and enamel.

Blue and white pigments painted on a copper sheet

ALT Blue and white pigments painted on a copper sheet

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The desire to make black colors runs throughout #Edition640, appearing in recipes for oils, stains, varnishes, pigments, and as a dye. Learn more about the importance of black textiles in the manuscript and early modern society. tinyurl.com/blackdye640
Small cups filled with white and black liquid. A person is using chopsticks to dye wool in one of the cups filled with white liquid.

ALT Small cups filled with white and black liquid. A person is using chopsticks to dye wool in one of the cups filled with white liquid.

Small cups filled with purple and black liquid.

ALT Small cups filled with purple and black liquid.

Two cups with small pieces of yarn that have been dyed black.

ALT Two cups with small pieces of yarn that have been dyed black.

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Folio 84v in #Edition640 contains entries on moldmaking and casting and a curious marginal note to “try burnt oysters.” Students used textual research and hands-on reconstruction to decipher this puzzling note. tinyurl.com/mk-oysters
Dry sand mixed with oyster shells.

ALT Dry sand mixed with oyster shells.

Moisture on the table after packing the calcined oyster shell sand mold.

ALT Moisture on the table after packing the calcined oyster shell sand mold.

A glass container of calcined oyster emulsion with a mixture separated into a green substance and a red-brown liquid.

ALT A glass container of calcined oyster emulsion with a mixture separated into a green substance and a red-brown liquid.

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