This book argues that we can only understand transformations of nature studies in the
Scientific Revolution if we take seriously the interaction between practitioners (those who
know by doing) and scholars (those who know by thinking). These are not in opposition however.
Theory and practice are end points on a continuum with some participants interested only in
the practical others only in the theoretical and most in the murky intellectual and material
world in between. It is this borderland where influence appropriation and collaboration have
the potential to lead to new methods new subjects of enquiry and new social structures of
natural philosophy and science. The case for connection between theory and practice can be most
persuasively drawn in the area of mathematics which is the focus of this book. Practical
mathematics was a growing field in early modern Europe and these essays are organised into
three parts which contribute to the debate about the role of mathematical practice in the
Scientific Revolution. First they demonstrate the variability of the identity of practical
mathematicians and of the practices involved in their activities in early modern Europe.
Second readers are invited to consider what practical mathematics looked like and that
although practical mathematical knowledge was transmitted and circulated in a wide variety of
ways participants were able to recognize them all as practical mathematics. Third the authors
show how differences and nuances in practical mathematics typically depended on the different
contexts in which it was practiced: social cultural political and economic particularities
matter. Historians of science especially those interested in the Scientific Revolution period
and the history of mathematics will find this book and its ground-breaking approach of
particular interest.
