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Chapter 6 Openness and Authorship I Mining, Metallurgy, and the Military Arts S ixteenth-century writings on mining, metallurgy, artillery, and fortification emerged as a result of specific economic, social, and technological developments . Many of these books contained detailed technical information, which their authors for the most part purveyed openly. Print made possible the rapid reproduction of multiple copies, facilitating wide dissemination. Yet printing by itself should not be credited with the promulgation of the value of openness; it could also promote, as previously noted, the greater circulation of esoteric doctrines . The press was not the unambiguous herald of openness that some have claimed it to be.1 Although the greater availability of books at lower cost facilitated the development of a larger and more diverse readership, printing cannot be isolated from other aspects of the social, cultural, and economic context in which it operated. Mining, metallurgy, and the military arts were closely tied to the power and wealth of princes and rulers. From antiquity the military arts had been a focus of authorship. Fifteenth-century manuscript books, as we have seen, tied the praxis of tactics, strategy, and military leadership more closely to the technical arts of weaponry. In the sixteenth century technological developments, including the great expansion of gunpowder artillery and a new form of fortification, the bastion fort, further motivated military authorship. Mining and metallurgy were tied to the development of artillery by virtue of the manufacture of guns. Mining and practices of metallurgy such as ore processing and assaying became a new focus of authorship in the sixteenth century. Authors on both mining and the military arts treated their topics openly; indeed, some explicitly advocated open communication . The display of courtly magnificence and learning was never the only issue. Aggressive and efficacious mining, ore processing, and assaying had a very real impact on the actual wealth of the princes of central Germany and elsewhere, a fact that they themselves undoubtedly never forgot. Assaying was essential to the integrity and value of the coinage of the realm, a constant concern in the face of the chaos of early modern specie. Military effectiveness, with its complex requirements of armaments and other technologies, organization, leadership, and supplies might have everything to do with whether a particular ruler ruled or not, and where he or she ruled. Military success depended upon complex factors, including technical competence in many areas. Cultural studies concerned with status and representation in the courts and elsewhere that neglect such realities of material wealth and military power present an incomplete picture. Mining, metallurgy, and the military arts provided a focus of intense interest on the part of a range of individuals, from noble patrons to middle-level practitioners . Authorship devoted to such practices expanded. Given the ease of creating multiple copies, what might be called the performative range of books expanded as well. Dedicating a book to a patron was a time-honored method for authorclients to create a gift that could result in patronage. Yet by producing books for market, the printing press facilitated a new mode of authorship, that undertaken for the purpose of selling books. The book as a commodity encouraged the growth of a middle-level readership. A book could function simultaneously as a gift within the system of court patronage and as a commodity in the book market. A book could explain to investors the nature of the practices in which they had invested , such as mining. It could also instruct current and potential practitioners and help to shape the self-image and group identity of particular kinds of practitioners , such as military captains and engineers. Finally, the printing press provided a new choice, between producing a manuscript book and producing a printed edition. Ultimately, I suggest, such authorship had broad epistemological significance. Mining, metallurgy, the mathematics of aiming cannon, and the design and construction of forts continued to function as practices carried out in numerous speci fic locations. Authorship on such topics meant that these practices also took the form of discursive disciplines structured by principles, whether mathematical or otherwise, presented in writing. Authorship created discursive forms out of skillbased practices, and it created physical books suitable for libraries, books that treated topics such as ore processing or the quality of soils needed for earthworks in fortification. The expansion of authorship in general on such technical arts helped to connect the world of empirical practice to the world of learning. Authorship created disciplines of knowledge out of...

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