Book Artisanal enlightenment

Paola Bertucci is associate professor of history at Yale University She has published extensively on the public culture of science in eighteenth century Europe and is the author of prize winning essays on secrecy selective visibility and industrial travel in the Enlightenment A groundbreaking work that places the mechanical arts and the world of making at the heart of the Enlightenment What would the Enlightenment look like from the perspective of artistes the learned artisans with esprit who presented themselves in contrast to philosophers savants and routine bound craftsmen Making a radical change of historical protagonists Paola Bertucci places the mechanical arts and the world of making at the heart of the Enlightenment At a time of great colonial commercial and imperial concerns artistes planned encyclopedic projects and sought an official role in the administration of the French state The Soci t des Arts which they envisioned as a state institution that would foster France s colonial and economic expansion was the most ambitious expression of their collective aspirations Artisanal Enlightenment provides the first in depth study of the Soci t and demonstrates its legacy in scientific programs academies and the making of Diderot and D Alembert s Encyclop die Through insightful analysis of textual visual and material sources Bertucci provides a groundbreaking perspective on the politics of writing on the mechanical arts and the development of key Enlightenment concepts such as improvement utility and progress Artisanal Enlightenment Science and the Mechanical Arts in Old Regime France