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Planning: This preliminary project was created by Roberto de Andrade
Martins, Group of History and Theory of Science, UNICAMP, Brazil. The plan
was grounded upon a similar project (on Portuguese and Brazilian science
and technology from Renaissance to 1900) that began in 1990. Starting from
the preliminary plan presented here, we are beginning to contact researchers
and institutions of several countries to check whether this work could
be started or not. This preliminary project may suffer several changes,
in the future , as a result of suggestions received from other researchers. |
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| Primary
sources: The aim of this project is to find information on primary
documents (scientific, medical and technological works produced from Renaissance
to 1900), not secondary literature (historiography of history of science).
However, as secondary works are one of the sources of information concerning
primary documents, they will also be searched for, specially in the case
of secondary works that contain a large number of references to primary
sources. |
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| Materials:
The project aims to describe all kinds of sources that are employed in
historiographic research: not only published and unpublished texts,
but also images and three-dimensional objects that might be useful to some
special kinds of research. Besides collecting references to all kinds of
relevant materials, the project will also launch a campaign to protect
and preserve those sources for research. |
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| Subjects:
For practical reasons, it is necessary to restrain the subjects that will
be included in the search. If one tried to include the whole intellectual
and artistic Ibero-American memory, the project would grow to a much larger
size (and cost). Several kinds of works might contain relevant information
for the historian of science, but seldom do: sermons, political speeches,
laws, biographies of prominent non-scientific men and women, poetry, etc.
In such cases the general rule will be to exclude those materials,
taking into account, however, some relevant exceptions: laws on education,
medicine and technology; some religious works that are known to contain
relevant philosophical pieces, or geographical descriptions, or linguistic
knowledge, etc.; literary works describing themes directly related to science,
technology or medicine; and so forth. |
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| Authors:
The aim of the project is to facilitate access to information that is expected
to be useful in the study of the history of science produced in
Ibero-American countries. Therefore, as a general rule, authors from other
countries who have written on those countries (that is, works with Ibero-American
countries as their subject) should not be included in the search.
For instance: a book written by a French author on the geography or anthropology
of Latin America should not be included in the databases, except if that
foreign author was strongly attached to some Ibero-American country – for
instance, people who lived for several years or taught at those countries,
etc. Ibero-American translations of foreign scientific works will be included,
because knowledge of the very process of translating and disseminating
foreign works is relevant to the study of the scientific development of
the country. |
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| Estimate:
It is very hard to evaluate the volume of relevant scientific, medical
and technological documents produced in Ibero-American countries during
the whole period from Renaissance to 1900. It is possible, however, to
estimate that number taking into account the project on Portuguese and
Brazilian science, that refers to the same period and approaches the goal
of 100.000 entries. In the second half of the 19th century, the total population
of Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries was about 3 times that of
Portugal and Brazil. Besides that, the number of literate people
living in Spanish-speaking countries around 1900 was about 4.5 times that
of Portugal and Brazil. Taking into account those indexes, it is possible
to provide a rough estimate that the scientific, medical and technological
production of Spanish-speaking countries, up to 1900, should amount to
300,000-500,000 items. That is the best estimate we can provide today.
Only after a few years of work it will be possible to reach a more reliable
estimate. |
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| Location
of items: Whenever possible, it is of the utmost importance to identify
the places (libraries, archives, museums, etc.) where each relevant item
can be found. The information that something exists is not very
useful for the historian, if he cannot find it. Therefore the project
should try to obtain information on relevant Ibero-American collections
pertaining to all countries – not only Ibero-American countries, but many
others such as France, United Kingdom, United States of America, Italy,
etc., where there might be rare or even unique important Ibero-American
documents. |
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| Information
sources: An ambitious project such as this can only be successful if
it makes use of all work that has been done hitherto by archivists, librarians
and historians. Instead of beginning the work looking for documents and
materials in the very places where they are, the best strategy is using
first all information available in printed reference works – such
as retrospective national bibliographies, old printed library catalogues,
published catalogues of manuscripts and maps, scientific bibliographies,
etc. A preliminary survey led to a bibliography
of bibliographies containing over 700 reference works that could be
used in this project. This list will be easily expanded to over 2,000 reference
works. For comparison, the project on Portuguese and Brazilian science
and technology made use of 400 reference works up to now, and will reach
between 500 and 600 in the next few years. Besides reference works in paper
form, it is also useful to consult several available electronic databases. |
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| Centralization:
It is not convenient to develop several parallel national projects, for
the following reason: a large proportion of reference works contain information
about works produced by authors of several different countries. Take as
an instance a library catalogue: if someone intends to use such a reference
work to select authors from a single Ibero-American country, it would be
necessary to check the nationality of each author – and that would be much
more difficult than selecting all works published in Ibero-American countries
or written by an author with an Ibero-American name. Besides that, the
same reference work should be consulted and in several countries, and checked
several times, page by page, reference by reference – a wasteful strategy.
Therefore, it is better to develop the work in an united way. Besides that,
it is not convenient in any sense to develop several different databases
in several places, and then to try to join them building a single file:
that cannot be done in an automatic way, and there would be much duplication
of references, with waste of time and money. The best strategy is to centralize
all databases in a single server that can be accessed from any country,
by Internet, with the use of passwords, in such a way that everyone will
collaborate in the development of a single database. That can be technically
done with a software such as MS-Access. |
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| Cooperation:
The project requires A LOT of help in several ways. These are the main
practical activities:
1) To complement the preliminary list of reference works. 2) To obtain work copies (original editions, photocopies or microfilms) of all reference works that are relevant for the project. 3) To analyze and mark, in each reference work, all primary materials that are deemed relevant for the project. 4) To use adequate softwares to create an adequate structure and Internet interface for consulting and entering information in the databases. 5) To set a server and a net of computers that will be used by the project. 6) To enter and check information . 7) In a second phase, to search for relevant items in museums, libraries and archives. According to the previous experience that was obtained in the development of the project on Portuguese and Brazilian science and technology it is possible to estimate that all this work, using 2,000 reference works (that is, excluding the step #7) could be done at a cost of about US$80,000.00 per year, in a period of 10 years. |
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Anyone willing to cooperate should contact Roberto
de Andrade Martins. Thank you. |
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