The gradual separation process from naturalistic knowledge: travel instructions for geologists and mineralogists in the eighteenth century

Abstract

Between 16th and early 19th Centuries collecting data with economic and scientific purposes have been deeply articulated through writing travel instructions oriented to defi ne actions at the distance. This association took place in different geographical and institutional settings within Europe, the Americas, Asia. Instructions were a key textual devices used since 16th-Century in order to surveying territories and collecting data. These documents concentrated and spread a set of concepts and practices related to making knowledge process which was in debt with data and agencies located on territories beyond the
original locus where instructions had been wrote. According to this framework the article aims to discuss the intimate relationship between travel, writing instruction and the gradual separation process from naturalistic knowledge focusing on travel instructions for geologists and mineralogists.