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Brian W. Ogilvie: Research

I am currently engaged in three related areas of research. Two address the relationship between material culture and scholarship, in their focus on the way that Renaissance and early modern intellectuals developed an understanding of things--natural objects and the material remains of classical antiquity. The third will examine the relationship between natural history (in its broad sense) and religion in the Western tradition by focusing on the history of natural theology and the argument from design.

Early modern natural history

My first book, The Science of Describing: Natural history in Renaissance Europe, 1490-1620, has just been published (spring 2006) by the University of Chicago Press. This study traces the formation of a new scientific discipline in the sixteenth century out of different threads in classical philology, medical botany, horticulture, and the Renaissance culture of curiosity.

I have written several essays and conference papers on early modern natural history (see below). In addition to the book, I am working on further scholarly essays in the area, including an essay on seventeenth-century entomological illustrations.

Renaissance and early modern antiquarianism and history

My second project examines the relationship between history and antiquarianism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. I am beginning with an intellectual biography of Ezechiel Spanheim, a Calvinist diplomat and antiquarian who was one of the founders of modern numismatics. In December 2003, I received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship that let me begin in-depth research on this book in Europe from June 2004 through May 2005. I am also considering writing a book-length synthetic essay, tentatively titled Antiquarian Interests: Antiquity and History from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, that will examine the relationships between history, antiquarianism, ethics, and esthetics in early modern Europe.

History of natural theology and the design argument

I am also writing a book-length essay on the history of the "argument from design"--the claim that the world we live in shows signs of having been designed by a powerful and wise (even omnipotent and omniscient) Creator--and natural theology, the attempt to elucidate the character and attributes of this Creator by studying the creation. In connection with this, I have written an op-ed essay on the Kitzmiller v. Dover "intelligent design" trial that took place in Fall 2005.

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More generally, I am interested in the relationship between scholarly disciplines and the broader culture in which they are situated, the history of the classical tradition, humanism and science (see the Teaching section), and, increasingly, the history of affect and emotions.

Research resources at UMass

For students and research assistants, I have compiled a list of online and print resources for research in Renaissance and early modern European history.

Selected publications

The science of describing: Natural history in Renaissance Europe, 1490-1620. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.

"A triumph for religion as well as for science," op-ed essay distributed by the History News Service, December 22, 2005; published in the following newspapers (and possibly others): Providence (R.I.) Journal; Montreal (Québec) Gazette; Winona (Minn.) Daily News; Lakeland (Fl.) Ledger; Harrisburg (Penna.) Patriot-News.

“Natural history, ethics, and physico-theology,” in Historia: Explorations in the history of early modern empiricism (working title), edited by Gianna Pomata and Nancy G. Siraisi (Boston: MIT Press, forthcoming in June 2005).

“Science,” in Palgrave advances in Renaissance historiography, edited by Jonathan Woolfson (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004).

“The many books of nature: Renaissance naturalists and information overload,” Journal of the History of Ideas 64 (2003): 29-40.

“Image and text in natural history, 1500-1700,” in The power of images in early modern science, ed. Wolfgang Lefèvre, Jürgen Renn, and Urs Schöpflin, 141-166 (Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 2003).

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