Public knowledge and common secrets. Secrecy and its limits in the early-modern netherlands

Early Science and Medicine

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 411-427

  Davids, Karel ^a  

^a VU UNIVERSITY AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 33745150823     PISSN: 13837427     EISSN: 15733823     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1163/1573382054615424     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. University Library Uppsala Ms. X 306, S. Buschenfelt, "Berättelse till Bergscollegium om en resa till Tyskland, Nederländerna, England och Frankrike 1694-1697," fol. 28.
2. Johann Ludwig Oeder, "Aus den Berichten eines Kameralisten von seinen Reisen nach der Schweiz, Frankreich, Holland und England im Jahr 1759 und 1763," in Beyträge zur Oekonomie-, Kameral- und Polizeywissenschaft (Dessau, 1782) 82-172, at 162;
3. the prevalence of openness in the Dutch Republic up to the middle of the eighteenth century is further documented in Karel Davids, "Openness or Secrecy? Industrial Espionage in the Dutch Republic," The Journal of European Economic History, 24 (1995), 333-348, esp. 336-338.
4. Pamela Long, Openness, Secrecy, Authorship. Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore, 2001), 13-14, 245.
5. William Eamon, Science and the Secrets of Nature. Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton 1994), 80-82; for a a summary of Eamon's argument, see the introduction to the present fascicle.
6. Johannis van Zyl, Theatrum machinarum universale of groot algemeen molenboek (Amsterdam, 1734), Preface.
7. See, for example, the contracts in J. G. van Dillen (ed.), Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van het bedrijfsleven en gildewezen van Amsterdam, vol.3 (The Hague, 1974), 332 no. 620, contract 11 February 1642, and 579 no. 1157, contract 14 July 1651.
8. Gemeentearchief (GA) Amsterdam Notarieel Archief (NA) 841, contract 19 January 1629.
9. Van Dillen (ed.), Bronnen, 3: 738-739 no. 1557, contract 19 January 1666.
10. Other examples of contracts to keep inventions secret in Van Dillen (ed.) Bronnen, vol. 1 (The Hague, 1929), nr. 1191, contract 18 April 1611, and GA Amsterdam, NA 130 fols. 198-199, contract 28 March 1613.
11. Streekarchief Kennemerland (SAK), Stadsarchief (SA) Haarlem, Loketkast 7-15-7-1, contract 18 November 1678.
12. Gemeentearchief Zaandam, Oud NA 5447 no.106, 2 March 1751, 5453 no. 563, 19 December 1761.
13. Kees Zandvliet, Mapping for Money. Maps, Plans and Topographic Paintings and their Role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries (Amsterdam, 1998), 95-96 (including the quote from Van Buchell).
14. Kees Zandvliet, Mapping for Money. Maps, Plans and Topographic Paintings and their Role in Dutch Overseas Expansion during the 16th and 17th Centuries 91, 95.
15. Pieter Linpergh, Architectura mechanica Moolen boek (Amsterdam, [1686]), preface.
16. Leonhard Christoph Sturm, Durch einen grossen Theil von Teutschland und der Niederlanden bis nach Paris gemachete architectonische Reise-anmerckungen (Augsburg, 1719), 29, 34.
17. idem, Vollständige Mühlen Baukunst (Augsburg, 1718), Preface.
18. John Smeaton, Diary of his Journey to the Low Countries 1755, ed. A. Titley (Leamington Spa, 1938), 39.
19. GA Amsterdam NA 3114, fol. 202-202v, contract 19 April 1680.
20. Jaap Vogel, Een ondernemend echtpaar in de achttiende eeuw: Pieter Merkman jr. en Isabella van Leeuwarden. De Haarlemse garenlintindustrie (Rotterdam, 1987), 46-47;
21. Floris Mulder, "De Haarlemse textielnijverheid in de periode 1575-1800," in Haarlem ging op wollen zolen. Opkomst, bloei en ondergang van de textielnijverheid aan het Spaarne (Schoorl, 1995), 53-109, at 108-109.
22. H. Kisch, Prussian Mercantilism and the Rise of the Krefeld Silk Industry (Philadelphia, 1968), 26-31.
23. Peter Kriedte, "Proto-industrialisierung und großes Kapital. Das Seidengewerbe in Krefeld und seinem Umland bis zum Ende des Ancien Regime," Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, 23 (1983), 219-266, esp. 228-239.
24. Zandvliet, Mapping for Money, 98-100, 128-130.
25. E. Ashtor, "The Factors of Technological and Industrial Progress in the Middle Ages, "Journal of European Economic History, 18 (1989), 7-35, at 20-21;
26. W. Endrei and W. von Stromer, "Textilherstellung und hydraulische Erfindungen und ihre Innovatoren - die Seidenzwirnmühle," Technikgeschichte, 41 (1974), 89-117, at 99;
27. A. Gasparetto, Il vetro di Murano dalle origini ad oggi (Venice, 1958), 70, 110-113.
28. Carlo Poni, "All'origine del sistema di fabbrica: tecnologia e organizzazione produttiva dei mulini da seta nell'Italia settentrionale (secc. XVII-XVIII)," Rivista Storica Italiana, 88 (1976), 444-497, at 444-445.
29. Early and isolated examples were prohibition orders on the export of looms by the city governments of Leiden and Haarlem in 1602 and 1671, see N. W. Posthumus (ed.), Bronnen tot de geschiedenis van de Leidsche textielnijverheid, vol. 6 (The Hague, 1922), 29, 128, 267, 319;
30. idem, De geschiedenis van de Leidsche lakenindustrie, vol. 2 (The Hague, 1939), 372-373, SAK, SA Haarlem, Ambachtsgilden 327.
31. SAK, SA Haarlem, Ambachtsgilden nr.161, by-law 21 April 1749;
32. Vogel, Een ondernemend echtpaar, 37-39.
33. GA Gouda Archief Pijpnering nr. 103 no.73.
34. GA Delft Ie Afdeling 11/2 by-law 26 November 1755.
35. Groot placaet-boeck, ed. C. Cau , 10 vols. (The Hague, 1658-1797),
36. Groot placaet-boeck 7: 1624-1635.
37. Groot placaet-boeck 9: 1354-1355.
38. Ibid., 8: 1272.
39. Ibid., 8: 1273-1274, 1281-1282, 9: 1345-1346, 1351-1353.
40. G. de Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad. De geheimhouding van staatszaken ten tijde van de Republiek (1600-1750) (The Hague, 1991), 414.
41. Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic. Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806 (Oxford, 1995), 639-640;
42. cf. also De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad, 427.
43. S. Groenveld, "The Mecca of Authors? State Assemblies and Censorship in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic," in Britain and the Netherlands, vol. 9:
44. 'Too Mighty to be Free'. Censorship and the Press in Britain and the Netherlands, eds. A. C. Duke and C. A. Tamse (Zutphen, 1987), 63-86, at 65-69;
45. Ingrid Weekhout, Boekencensuur in de Noordelijke Nederlanden. De vrijheid van drukpers in de zeventiende eeuw (The Hague, 1998), 23-48.
46. Groenveld, "The Mecca of Authors?," 71.
47. Weekhout, Boekencensuur, appendix I and 59-107;
48. Groenveld, "The Mecca of Authors?," 73-77.
49. Carlo Marco Belfanti, "Guilds, Patents, and the Circulation of Technical Knowledge. Northern Italy during the Early Modern Age," Technology and Culture, 45 (2004,) 569-589.
50. Karel Davids, "Patents and Patentees in the Dutch Republic, 1580-1720," History and Technology, 16 (2000), 263-283, at 264-265.
51. Davids, "Patents," 265-266;
52. G. Doorman, Octrooien van uitvindingen in de Nederlanden uit de 16e-18e eeuw (The Hague, 1940), 21.
53. Doorman, Octrooien, 20-28;
54. Posthumus, Geschiedenis Leidsche lakenindustrie, 2: 395.
55. M. Silberstein, Erfindungsschutz und merkantilistische Gewerbeprivilegien (Winterthur, 1961) 21, 86;
56. examples in Doorman, Octrooien, 96, 117, 119, 121, 123, 125.
57. Doorman, Octrooien, 21-22;
58. J. Coren, Observationes rerum in senatu iudicatarum; item consilia quaedam (The Hague, 1633) 159-264, esp. 161-162
59. Davids, "Patents," 267.
60. Examples of the difficulty of keeping inventions secret: Algemeen Rijksarchief (ARA), Archief Staten Generaal (SG) 12301, fol. 222, patent 6 August 1615
61. Van Dillen (ed.), Bronnen, 2: 150, nr. 270, contract 21 March 1616; nr. 340, contract 17 November 1616; 234-235 nr. 378, insinuation 21 April 1614.
62. Israel, The Dutch Republic, 499-505, 637-640,674-677; quote at 505
63. See the contributions by Reinhold Reith and Anne-Françoise Garçon in this issue.
64. See the article by Larry Stewart in this issue.
65. S.R. Epstein, "Craft Guilds, Apprenticeship and Technological Change in Preindustrial Europe," The Journal of Economic History, 58 (1998), 684-713, p.703-704;
66. cf also Long, Openness, 13-14.
67. Jan Lucassen and Maarten Prak, "Guilds and Society in the Dutch Republic (16th-18th centuries)," in Guilds, Economy and Society, ed. S. R. Epstein, H. G. Haupt, C. Poni, H. Soly (Madrid, 1998), 63-77, at 64-66.
68. Jan Lucassen, "Labour and Early Modern Economic Development," in A Miracle Mirrored, The Dutch Republic in European Perspective, eds. Karel Davids and Jan Lucassen (Cambridge, 1995), 367-409, esp. 397-398;
69. Lucassen and Prak, "Guilds and Society," 66;
70. Sandra Bos, "Uyt liefde to malcander." Onderlinge hulpverlening binnen de Noord-Nederlandse gilden in internationaal perspectief (1570-1820) (Amsterdam, 1998), 173.
71. R.W. Unger, Dutch shipbuilding before 1800 (Assen, 1978), 76.
72. M. Hulshof, "De gilden," in K. Goudriaan et al. (eds.), De gilden in Gouda (Zwolle, 1997), 115.
73. I. H. Van Eeghen, De gilden. Theorie en praktijk (Bussum, 1965), 109.
74. See the article by Anne-Françoise Garçon in this issue.
75. De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad, 427, 621.
76. De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad, Ibid., 618-621.
77. Weekhout, Boekencensuur, 110-117, 364-367.
78. Karel Davids, "From De la Court to Vreede. Regulation and Self-Regulation in Dutch Economic Discourse from c. 1600 to the Napoleonic Era," The Journal of Eurpean Economic History, 30 (2001), 245-289, esp. 256-264;
79. Davids, "Openness or Secrecy," 343;
80. Zandvliet, Mapping for Money, 128-130.
81. Quoted in De Bruin, Geheimhouding en verraad, 427.
82. Davids, "Openness or Secrecy," 347.