Finding a Teacher of Navigation Abroad in Eighteenth-Century Venice: A Study of the Circulation of Useful Knowledge

Preto Paolo , “Le riforme”, in del Negro Piero Preto Paolo (eds), Storia di Venezia, VIII: L'ultima fase della Serenissima (Rome, 1998), 119–28.

Secord James , “Knowledge in transit”, Isis, xcv (2004), 654–72; see also Roberts Lissa , “Situating science in global history: Local exchanges and networks of circulation”, Itinerario, xxxiii (2009), 2009–20.

Mokyr Joel , The gifts of Athena: Historical origins of the knowledge economy (Princeton and Oxford, 2002), 4–15; Mokyr , “Knowledge, enlightenment, and the industrial revolution: Reflections on The gifts of Athena“, History of science, xlv (2007), 2007–96; Mokyr , The enlightened economy: An economic history of Britain 1700–1850 (New Haven and London, 2009).

For a critical approach to the use of such terminology see: Roberts Lissa Schaffer Simon Dear Peter (eds), The mindful hand: Inquiry and invention from the late Renaissance to early industrialisation (Amsterdam, 2007), xiii–xxvii; see also Jones Peter , Industrial enlightenment: Science, technology and culture in Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1820 (Manchester, 2008), 1–18.

Edgcombe Thomas , master of the Scuola Nautica in 1781, described his different methods of teaching navigation whether “as pure craft” or as a “demonstrative science” depending on the requirements of his pupils: Archivio di Stato, Venice (ASV), Riformatori dello Studio di Padova, Busta 526, Thomas Edgcombe to Riformatori, 17 September 1781.

This was the definition copied out by each pupil into his “plan of mathematical learning”. Portsmouth City Record Office, 1/A/H/1, MS “Plan of Mathematical Learning taught in Royal Academy, by H C Baddeley, a student there 177–”.

See Taylor E. G. R. , The haven-finding art: A history of navigation from Odysseus to Captain Cook (London, 1956).

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 14–18.

Mokyr , The enlightened economy (ref. 3); Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 70–91.

Ferreiro Larrie D. , Ships and science: The birth of naval architecture in the scientific revolution, 1600–1800 (Cambridge, MA., and London, 2007), 280–1; see also Schaffer Simon , “‘The charter'd Thames’: Naval architecture and experimental spaces in Georgian Britain”, in Roberts Schaffer Dear (eds), op. cit. (ref. 4), 279–308.

Horn Jeff , The path not taken: French industrialisation in the age of revolution, 1750–1830 (Cambridge, MA., and London, 2006), 1–13.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 151. See also Bruland Kristine (ed.), Technology transfer and Scandinavian industrialisation (New York and Oxford, 1991); Harris J. R. , Industrial espionage and technology transfer: Britain and France in the eighteenth century (Aldershot, 1998) and Cross Anthony G. , “The British in Catherine's Russia: A preliminary survey”, in Garrard J. G. (ed.), The eighteenth century in Russia (Oxford, 1973), 233–63.

Epstein Stephan R. Prak Maarten , (eds), Guilds, innovation, and the European economy, 1400–1800 (Cambridge, 2008), 1–16; Epstein Stephan R. , “Transferring technical knowledge and Innovating in Europe, c. 1200–1800”, LSE working paper (2005), 1–43; Hilaire-Pérez Liliane Verna Catherine , “Dissemination of technical knowledge in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Era: New approaches and methodological Issues”, Technology and culture, xlvii (2006), 2006–40; Belfanti Carlo Marco , “Guilds, patents, and the circulation of technical knowledge: Northern Italy during the early modern age”, Technology and culture, xlv (2004), 2004–89.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 1.

For the move towards a more sensitive concept of the circulation of science with attention to processes of translation and local appropriation see: Roberts , op. cit. (ref. 2), 9–30; Kostas Gavroglu and colleagues, “Science and technology in the European periphery: Some historiographical reflections”, History of science, xlvi (2008), 153–75.

ASV, Riformatori dello Studio di Padova, Busta 527, copy of memorial by Provveditori all' Armar, 8 November 1710.

ASV, Provveditori all' Armar, Capitolari, Registro 2, 15 April 1734; Lane Frederick C. , Venice: A maritime republic (Baltimore and London, 1973), 418–25.

ASV, Senato Terra, 1733 agosto prima, filza 1780; ASV, Riformatori dello Studio di Padova, Busta 527, Decree of Senate, 12 September 1739.

Costantini Massimo , Una repubblica nata sul mare: Navigazione e commercio a Venezia (Venice, 2006), 102.

Venetian commerce beyond the Strait saw brief periods of expansion particularly during the European wars of the 1740s and 1780s: Lane , op. cit. (ref. 17), 418–25; Ugo Tucci, “La pratica della navigazione”, in Tenenti Alberto Tucci Ugo (eds), Storia di Venezia, XII: Il mare (Rome, 1991), 527–59; Costantini Massimo , “Commercio e marina”, in del Negro Preto (eds), op. cit. (ref. 1), 555–612.

On the British experience by contrast see: Clifton Gloria , “The London mathematical instrument makers and the British Navy, 1700–1850”, in van der Merwe Pieter (ed.), Science and the French and British Navies, 1700–1850 (London, 2003), 24–33; Cormack Lesley B. , “The commerce of utility: Teaching mathematical geography in early modern England”, Science and education, xv (2006), 2006–22; Schaffer Simon , op. cit. (ref. 10), 279–308; Taylor E. G. R. , The mathematical practitioners of Hanoverian England, 1714–1840 (Cambridge, 1966).

Dooley Brendan , Science, politics, and society in eighteenth-century Italy: The Giornale de' letterati d'Italia and its world (New York and London, 1991), 99–100; Ferreiro , op. cit. (ref. 10), 249.

Cited in Costantini , op. cit. (ref. 19), 103.

ASV, Provveditori all' Armar, Capitolari, Registro 2, 8 November 1710.

Zenoni Luigi , Per la storia della cultura in Venezia dal 1500 al 1797: L'accademia dei nobili alla Giudecca (1619–1797) (Venice, 1916), 34–35, 86–101.

Costantini , op. cit. (ref. 19), 100.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Giovanni Poleni to Riformatori, 1 May 1733.

Ibid.

The school in the Levant lasted only until 1748: Costantini, op. cit. (ref. 19), 108–12.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 527, Provveditori all' Armar to Riformatori, 15 July 1739.

This candidate is anonymous in the record: ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to the Senate, 29 November 1766.

Ibid.

Ibid.

See Graf Arturo , L'anglomania e l'influsso inglese in Italia nel secolo XVIII (Turin, 1911); Venturi Franco , The end of the old regime in Europe, 1768–1776: The first crisis (Princeton, 1989), 384.

Cit. in Tabacco Giovanni , Andrea Tron e la crisi dell'aristocrazia senatoria a Venezia (Trieste, 1957), 25.

Molà Luca , “States and crafts: Relocating technical skills in Renaissance Italy”, in O'Malley Michelle Welch Evelyn (eds), The material Renaissance (Manchester and New York, 2007), 133–53; idem, “Il mercato delle innovazioni nell'Italia del Rinascimento”, in Arnoux Mathieu Monnet Pierre (eds), Le technicien dans la cité en Europe occidentale 1250–1650 (Rome, 2004), 215–50; Belfanti , op. cit. (ref. 13), 569–89.

Berveglieri Roberto , Inventori stranieri a Venezia (1474–1788): Importazione di tecnologia e circolazione di tecnici artigiani inventori (Venice, 1995), 22.

See Preto Paolo , I servizi segreti di Venezia: Spionaggio e controspionaggio ai tempi della Serenissima (Milan, 2004).

Preto , op. cit. (ref. 38), 403–16; Trivellato Francesca , “Guilds, technology and economic change in early modern Venice”, in Epstein Prak (eds), op. cit. (ref. 13), 199–231.

Panciera Walter , “Tecnici stranieri, innovazione e cultura d'impresa nei lanifici veneti (1670–1790 ca.)”, http://www.storiadivenezia.net/sito/saggi/panciera_tecnici.pdf [consulted 28/5/12], 1–15.

Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12).

Preto , op. cit. (ref. 38), 381–4.

Candiani Guido , I vascelli della Serenissima: Guerra, politica e costruzioni navali a Venezia in età moderna, 1650–1720 (Venice, 2009), 381–3.

Cit. in Concina Ennio , “Venezia: Arsenale, spazio urbano, spazio marittimo. L'età del primato e l'età del confronto”, in Concina (ed.), Arsenali e città nell' occidente europeo (Rome, 1987), 25.

Preto Paolo , op. cit. (ref. 1), 119–28.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 95–96.

Venturi Franco , Settecento riformatore V: L'Italia dei lumi, Tomo II: La repubblica di Venezia (1761–1797) (Turin, 1990), 56–99.

Venturi , op. cit. (ref. 34), 395–6.

The “most respectable writers” on the subject were French: Bouguer and Duchamel for example according to: Cavallotto Giandomenico , Saggio di osservazioni particolari sopra lo stato in cui attrovasi presentemente la naval costruzione in Venezia… (Venice, 1766), ix–xi; Lane , op. cit. (ref. 17), 419.

Ferreiro , op. cit. (ref. 10), 298–9.

Griselini Francesco , Dizionario delle arti e de' mestieri, tomo 1 (Venice, 1768), 18–19.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 121, March 1766 to July 1767.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 121, March 1766 to July 1767.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 122, 21 August 1767.

Zorzanello Giulio , “Il diplomatico Veneziano Simon Cavalli e la sua legazione in Inghilterra (1778–1782)”, Ateneo Veneto, xxii (1984), 225–56.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 122, 11 December 1767.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 121, March 1766 to July 1767.

Ibid., 29 April 1767.

Ferreiro , op. cit. (ref. 10), 298–9.

Marzo Alessandro , “La vicenda Veneziana di James Pattison: Un ufficiale Britannico al servizio della Serenissima (1768–1772)”, Studi Veneziani, xix (1990), 293–311.

Cit. in ibid., 296.

Masquerading as a Portuguese bookseller in London, Santacilia managed to smuggle nearly seventy British and Irish naval shipwrights, sculptors and caulkers to work in Cuban and Spanish dockyards: Ferreiro , op. cit. (ref. 10), 275, 291. See also Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12), passim.

Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12), 268–82.

Preto , op. cit. (ref. 38), 386–7.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 121, September 1766.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 70–91.

Mokyr , The enlightened economy (ref. 3), 45.

For a re-consideration of French industrialisation and the role of the state see: Horn , op. cit. (ref. 11).

Cit. in Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12), 550.

Dooley , op. cit. (ref. 22), 110–11, 114–19; Dooley , “Giornalismo, università e organizzazione della scienza: Tentativi di formare una Academia Scientifica Veneta all' inizio del settecento”, Archivio Veneto, v (1983), 5–39.

Granovetter Mark , “Economic action and social structure: The problem of embeddedness”, The American journal of sociology, xci (1985), 481–510.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 527, Terminazione of 17 September 1739.

Jones , op. cit. (ref. 4), 1.

The first master in 1765 received £150 p.a. The National Archives, ADM 42/1102, Yard pay books, Portsmouth, July—September 1765.

ASV, Dispacci, Inghilterra, Filza 121, July 1767; Filza 122, March 1768.

On the archives of the Council of Ten, Inquisitori di Stato and diplomatic dispatches for example, see: Preto , op. cit. (ref. 38).

See in addition to Preto, op. cit. (ref. 38); Berveglieri , op. cit. (ref. 37).

Mokyr , The enlightened economy (ref. 3).

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 31 November 1775.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Report on Arthur Edgcombe, n. d. (1766–67).

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Edgcombe's letter of reference, 8 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Bernadino Zendrini to Riformatori, 20 August 1733.

Ibid.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

Anonymous, The northern imposter; being a faithful narrative of the adventures, and deceptions, of James George Semple, commonly called Major Semple,… (4th edn, London, 1786).

Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12), 547–9; Bensimon Fabrice , “British workers in France, 1815–1848”, Past & present, ccxiii (2011), 147–89.

Harris , op. cit. (ref. 12), 547.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

Ibid.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

Ibid.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Arthur Edgcombe to Riformatori, n. d. (but 1767).

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Report on Arthur Edgcombe, n. d. (but 1766–67).

Pooley Colin G. Whyte Ian D. , (eds), Migrants, emigrants and immigrants: A social history of migration (London and New York, 1991), 3–13; Schurer Kevin , “The role of the family in the process of migration”, in ibid., 106–42.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Arthur Edgcombe to Riformatori, n. d. (1767).

Ibid.

Ibid.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, copy of contract between Thomas Edgcombe and Francesco Alberghetti, 15 September 1777.

Dandolo Girolamo , La caduta della repubblica di Venezia ed i suoi ultimi cinquant' anni: Studi storici (Venice, 1855).

Roberts Lissa , “Devices without borders: What an eighteenth-century display of steam engines can teach us about ‘public’ and ‘popular’ science”, Science and education (2006), DOI: 10.1007/s11191-006-9015-0, 1–12; Roberts, op. cit. (ref. 2), 16–24; Gavroglu and colleagues, op. cit. (ref. 15).

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Arthur Edgcombe to Riformatori, n. d. (1767).

Ibid.

An example of a pupil's “Plan of mathematical learning” from the 1770s survives in the Portsmouth City Record Office: See ref. 6. See also Dickinson H. W. , “The Portsmouth Naval Academy, 1733–1806”, Mariner's mirror, lxxxix (2003), 17–30.

Costantini , op. cit. (ref. 19), 130.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Arthur Edgcombe to Riformatori, n. d. (1767).

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

Ibid.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 12 September 1766.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 29 November 1766.

Ibid.

Griselini , op. cit. (ref. 51), 39–58.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Arthur Edgcombe to Riformatori, n. d. (1767).

The instruments were intended for classroom study and included “two dozen short mathematical scales”, two dozen pairs of measuring compasses and drawing pens: ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Vignola to Riformatori, 7 January 1767.

Ibid.

A catalogue for the firm, including several of these titles, appears in James Atkinson's Epitome of the Art of Navigation…(London, 1774), i.

Dooley , op. cit. (ref. 22).

Edgcombe Thomas , Pratica giornaliera del piloto in altura o sia metodo breve e facile di tenere conto del cammino di un naviglio in alto mare con le tavole necessarie alla pratica della navigazione (Venice, 1777); for the term “virtual classroom” see: Roberts , op. cit. (ref. 107).

Bayly C. A. , Empire and information: Intelligence gathering and social communication in India, 1780–1870 (Cambridge, 1996), 1–8; Schaffer Simon Roberts Lissa Raj Kapil Delbourgo James (eds), The brokered world: Go-betweens and global intelligence, 1770–1820 (Sagamore Beach, MA., 2009).

ASV, Riformatori dello Studio, Busta 526, Catalogue of all pupils at the Scuola Nautica from 1767–83.

Ibid.

Hocquet Jean-Claude , “La gente di mare”, in Tenenti Tucci (eds), op. cit. (ref. 20), 493.

ASV, Riformatori, Busta 526, Riformatori to Senate, 31 November 1775.