Summer 2021 was the first offering of the Laboratory Seminar
HIST GU4962: Making and Knowing in Early Modern Europe: Hands-On History at Columbia University by the Making and
Knowing Project. The course contributed to exploratory and experimental projects that serve as companion pieces to Secrets of
Craft and Nature in Renaissance France. A Digital Critical Edition
and English Translation of BnF Ms. Fr. 640. Students in the course explored themes and making practices as detailed in BnF Ms. Fr. 640. Organized by student researcher, the pages below are results from their hands-on reconstruction and skill building work. Their final projects are published in the Making and Knowing Project's Research and Teaching Companion.
Notably, this course was an intensive six-week summer session, taught remotely. Students received some materials for hands-on work by mail, but sourced tools and other materials from their homes and dorm rooms. During hands-on work, students and instructors met by video calls from kitchens, gardens, bedrooms, and more locations.