Dr Matthew Landrus

Supernumerary Fellow

Wolfson College

matthew.landrus@history.ox.ac.uk

I examine innovative interactions with natural philosophy, technology and the practical arts during the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries. As a specialist on the working methods and intellectual interests of artist/engineers, I study cross-disciplinary investigative and inventive approaches in the histories of ideas, science and technology. Much of this work focuses on European material culture, though often in connection with global, transcultural developments. Examining the transmission and development of knowledge, I work mainly with early notebooks, manuscripts, informative objects and built environments that help assess trajectories of innovative engagements.

Although I focus on early modern Italy, my research has extended beyond core subjects to developments of the following courses: the science of art, history of medicine, history of collecting, princely courts, the Grand Tour, British history, architectural history, historiography, philosophy, transcultural objects, South Asian visual culture, illuminated manuscripts, paradoxes in visual culture, and modern art. I have also worked on a broad range of exhibitions, focusing in recent years on the work and reception of Leonardo da Vinci.

This work assists with teaching courses on 'global networks of innovation, 1000-1700: China, Islam and the rise of the west', 'theories and methods in historical analysis', a short course on the 'history of medicine'; and assists with tutorials on 'histories of madness and mental healing in a global context', medieval and early modern British history, nature and art in the Renaissance, conquest and colonisation in the sixteenth century, Flanders and Italy in the quattrocento, and South Asian sculpture.

Research Interests

Visual culture of science, medicine, mathematics and technology
Early modern notebooks, manuscripts and the history of printing
Preparatory marks on medieval and Renaissance drawings and paintings
Early modern philosophy of natural history
Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries
Civil and military engineering, c. 1000-1700
Music, festivals and the mechanical arts
Conquest and colonisation
South Asian visual culture

See page on Wolfson College website

Featured Publication

Leonardo da Vinci’s Giant Crossbow

Although Leonardo's Giant Crossbow is one of his most popular drawings, it has been one of the least understood. "Leonardo's Giant Crossbow" offers the first in-depth account of this drawing's likely purpose and its highly resolved design. This fascinating book has a wealth of technical information about the Giant Crossbow drawing, as it's a complete study of this project, though this is as accessible to the general audience as much as it is also informative with new discoveries for the professors of engineering, technology and art.

Teaching

I currently teach:

Prelims	FHS
History of the British Isles, 1330-1550	History of the British Isles: The Late Medieval British Isles, 1330-1550
European and World History: Renaissance, Recovery and Reform, 1400-1650	Further Subject: Anglo-Saxon Archaeology of the Early Christian Period, c. 600-750
Optional Subject: Nature and Art in the Renaissance	Further Subject: Culture and Society in Early Renaissance Italy, 1290-1348
Optional Subject: Conquest and Colonisation: Spain and America in the Sixteenth Century	Further Subject: Flanders and Italy in the Quattrocento, 1420-1480
Paper IV: Art and History	Further Subject: Encountering South Asian Sculpture
	Further Subject: Histories of Madness and Mental Healing in a Global Context.
	European and World History: Global Networks of Innovation, 1000-1700: China, Islam and the Rise of the West
	Honour School of Natural Science - Supplementary Subject: History and Philosophy of Science

Graduate Papers:

MSt History: Theory and Methods
Ideas meet Things: Why Materiality Matters in History of Science, Medicine and Technology
Science and Practice: Instruments, Collections and Museums
State and Society in Early Modern Europe
The Dawn of the Global World, 1450-1800: Ideas, Objects, Connections
The Global Middle Ages
The Scientific Revolution, 1540-1740

Publications

Period Early Modern

Region Europe South Asia Transnational & International

Specialism Architectural History Cultural History History of Art & Visual Culture History of Science, Medicine & Technology Material Culture Religious History War & Military History

College Wolfson College