Secrets of Craft and Nature Reconnaissance (Directed Scavenger Hunt)

A downloadable version of this assignment: [PDF]

BnF Ms. Fr. 640 has 170 folios (340 pages) with over 900 entries on metalworking, casting, painting, medicine, and sleight of hand tricks. This is an exercise with two activities to help become familiar with the online Edition and Translation of Ms. Fr. 640: Secrets of Craft and Nature.

Before you start, watch this video for tips on navigating through Secrets of Craft and Nature.

Activity 1: Explore the Manuscript Folios

Choose a linked folio from below and find:

• 2 features you think are important to note or are useful
• 2 things (edition features or manuscript content) you have questions about
• 1 thing you are excited about

Suggested folios:

• Fol. 5r
• Fol. 10r
• Fol. 34r
• Fol. 124v
• Fol. 152r

Activity 2: Explore the List of Entries, which is an index of the 900+ entries of the manuscript

• Choose a Category on left hand side.
  • How many entries do you see?
• Click on one of the entries in the list.
  • What kinds of tags are present?
• Unclick your Category and instead pick a Tag to filter the list by (you may need to collapse the Category list).
  • How many entries do you see?
  • What categories are they?
  • What other tags seem to co-occur frequently?

Further Explorations

For additional resources found in the Edition, see the 120+ Research Essays and other Resources.

For an account of how the Making and Knowing Project created the edition through courses and workshops:

• Explore the Making and Knowing Project Website, especially the tab “Project Components.”
• Read Pamela H. Smith, “Making the Edition,” in Secrets of Craft and Nature.

For more context on Ms. Fr. 640, see Pamela H. Smith, “An Introduction to Ms. Fr. 640 and its Author-Practitioner,” in Secrets of Craft and Nature.

Explore the student projects, resoures, and assignments for hands-on activities on the Research and Teaching Companion.