General objectives
1. Exploring how mid seventeenth century – early eighteenth century naturalists used different theoretical explanations as starting points in their experimental attempts.
2. Investigating the role played by experiments with plants in constructing the new science of vegetation.
3. Exploring the way in which mid-seventeenth century naturalists combined alchemy, natural magic and artisanal practices of the Renaissance in their experiments. This will also lead to unveiling unrevealed connections between various practitioners and contexts.
4. Opening up a novel and interdisciplinary avenue of research that joins the history of science and intellectual history with the history of philosophy in a cross-disciplinary approach. If successful, our investigation can give hints for further interpretation in more than one field of research (such as the history of medicine and the history of technology).
Specific objectives
1. Studying the texts–research stages at the British Library, Wellcome Library, Royal Society etc.
2. Participating to international conferences in order to disseminate the results of our research (e.g. British Society for History of Science Conference, European Society for the History of Science Conference, International Society for Intellectual History Conference).
3. Publishing five articles in reputed international journals.
4. Editing a collective volume of articles sent for publication to a prestigious foreign publishing house or editing a special thematic issue of a scientific journal.
5. Organizing a transdisciplinary research seminar together with the project team members on the mentioned topic.
6. Organizing one international conference.