Sundar Henny: ‘Masters of Useless Information: Private Papers as Treasuries in Seventeenth-Century Zurich’

Discussion of the material culture of Hearth Tax, showing the intrusion of the state into households but also the potential for negotiation.

Discussion of the project on The Visual and Graphic Practices of the Early Royal Society.

Discussion of the Archeology of Reading project and the digital archive.

Discussion of the manuscript library of Thomas Plume

Discussion of Irish Jacobites' conflicts over the role and ownership of the Great Book of Lecan (fifteenth-century Codex).

Discussion of Thomas Leeds's Temple of Wisdom, reflecting on the treasuring mentality and the role of the 'impartial reader' (recording missed the first five minutes, for which Brooke Palmieri very helpfully provided a transcript, to be found under the 'transcript' tab).

Discussion of the Swiss merchant archives and their use in legal and cultural usage.

Discussion of concealing and revealing, inclusion and exclusion in the history of information gathering of the Dutch East India Company.

Discussion of the access and use of the Venetian secret archives, interrelating the administrative impulses with erudite historical study.

Sundar Henny Challenges the focus on 'information' and 'knowledge' in the study of archives and libraries, and draws attention to the materiality and symbolic value.