This book speaks about a world of mute objects ranging from plant bulbs, divining rods, and archeological findings to drawn, painted, or printed images. It describes the functions of these objects as ambiguous and polyvalent carriers of knowledge, and it analyzes the ways in which networks of schola[...]

The origins of the telescope have been debated since the instrument's appearance in The Hague in 1608. Civic and national pride led local dignitaries, popular writers and scholars to search the archives and to put forward sharply divergent histories. Did the honour of the invention of the telescope [...]