2025年6月5日 15:10-17:00

北京大学一教204

Zoom会议号: 960 1180 5721

密码: 556557

摘要

  1956年，策展人德里克·德·索拉·普赖斯（Derek de Solla Price）首次指出，一些重要的欧洲科学仪器收藏中存在伪造问题。他的开创性研究结合了来源分析、理化检验和视觉判断等多重证据来源。该研究的一个关键基础是他本人在剑桥大学惠普尔科学史博物馆（Whipple Museum of the History of Science）藏品中识别出的五件伪造品。本次报告将回到普赖斯最初提出的问题，探讨对象的真实性问题，以及伪造与欺骗行为对我们研究历史物质文化所带来的影响。报告尤其关注现代X射线荧光（XRF）分析技术在持续调查惠普尔博物馆藏品中可能存在的伪造或“修复”对象时所发挥的作用。近期的研究扩大了博物馆对伪造品调查的范围，并对若干重要藏品提供了新的认识，这些藏品由罗伯特·斯图尔特·惠普尔（Robert Stewart Whipple）在两次世界大战之间购入。报告将展示这些初步成果，并探讨科学仪器策展人在尝试辨别早期现代原件与较晚期复制品或伪造品时所面临的多重复杂挑战。此外，报告亦将思考，通过对博物馆藏品进行科学分析，我们还能从中获得哪些其他层面的启示。

  In 1956 curator Derek de Solla Price identified for the first time the problem of fake scientific instruments in a range of major European collections. His pioneering work relied upon a combination of provenance, analytical, and visual evidence. A key source for this work were the five fakes that Price identified in his own collection at the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge. This talk will return to the questions first raised by Price, over the authenticity of objects and the consequence of forgery and deception for our study of historical material culture. It will consider, in particular, the role of modern XRF analytical techniques in the ongoing investigation of potentially fake or “restored” objects in the Whipple Museum’s collection. Recent work has widened the scope of the Museum's forgeries investigations, and has shed new light on several significant objects purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple in the interwar period. This talk will present these preliminary results, and discuss the many complex challenges that scientific instrument curators face when attempting to distinguish genuine early modern instruments from more recent copies and forgeries. It will also consider the other kinds of lessons that might be learnt from the scientific analysis of objects in museum collections.

主讲人

  约书亚·纳尔（Joshua Nall）是剑桥大学科学史与科学哲学系下设的惠普尔科学史博物馆（Whipple Museum of the History of Science）馆长。他的研究聚焦于1700年以后物理科学的大众传播与物质文化。他的专著《火星讯息：大众媒介与新天文的塑造（1860—1910）》(News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860-1910,University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)荣获美国科学史学会2020年度“菲利普·J·波利奖”（Philip J. Pauly Prize），该奖项专门表彰美洲科学史的最佳处女作。他与利巴·陶布（Liba Taub）和弗朗西斯·威尔莫斯（Frances Willmoth）合编有《惠普尔科学史博物馆：藏品与研究——庆祝R.S. 惠普尔捐赠剑桥大学七十五周年》（The Whipple Museum of the History of Science: Objects and Investigations, to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of R.S. Whipple’s Gift to the University of Cambridge,Cambridge University Press, 2019）；并与鲍里斯·贾丁（Boris Jardine）合编原始文献选集《维多利亚时代的物质文化：科学与医学》（Victorian Material Culture: Science and Medicine，Routledge，2022）。此外，他还策划过多场展览，包括《剑桥的科学与工业》（2014）、《天文学与帝国》（2017）以及《女工艺师：揭示科学史中被遮蔽的劳动》（2022）。其中，《女工艺师》展荣获英国科学史学会2023年度“小型展览”类最佳展示奖（Exhibiting Excellence Prize）。

  Joshua Nall is Director of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, in the Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses on mass media and material culture of the physical sciences after 1700. His book, News from Mars: Mass Media and the Forging of a New Astronomy, 1860-1910 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019)won the History of Science Society’s 2020 Philip J. Pauly Prize for the best first book on the history of science in the Americas. He is co-editor with Liba Taub and Frances Willmoth of The Whipple Museum of the History of Science: Objects and Investigations, to Celebrate the 75th Anniversary of R.S. Whipple’s Gift to the University of Cambridge (Cambridge University Press, 2019), and co-editor with Boris Jardine of the primary source volume Victorian Material Culture: Science and Medicine (Routledge, 2022). He has also curated a variety of exhibitions and displays, including Science & Industry in Cambridge (2014), Astronomy & Empire (2017), and Craftswomen: Uncovering Hidden Labour in the History of Science (2022), winner of the British Society for the History of Science Exhibiting Excellence Prize 2023 (small exhibitions category).