Open AccessWhen the Tallamys Met John French
Author(s) -
Elaine Leong
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
osiris
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.233
H-Index - 27
eISSN - 1933-8287
pISSN - 0369-7827
DOI - 10.1086/719222
Subject(s) - reading (process) , adaptation (eye) , joins , space (punctuation) , reuse , linguistics , history , knowledge transfer , sociology , computer science , psychology , knowledge management , engineering , philosophy , neuroscience , programming language , waste management
Centered on the life story of the Tallamy family's copy of John French's The Art of Distillation (London, 1651), this article explores translation, print, and medical reading in early modern England. It traces the adaptation and reuse of textual and practical knowledge across linguistic, geographical, gender, and spatial boundaries and shines light on the scientific labor of translators, technicians, and householders, historical actors who are so often hidden by structures of the archival record. By historically situating translation, reading, and writing practices, it joins recent calls to view each translation as an independent text shaped by new contextual settings. It concludes by offering the concept of "knowledge itineraries" as a framework for analyzing long-view connected histories of knowledge transfer across time and space.