Introduction -- The spectacle of experiment and the politics of virtuoso satire in the 1670s -- Retraining the virtuoso's gaze: The emperor of the moon and the Spectacles of science and politics -- Physiology, commerce and comedy: Three hours after marriage and A bold stroke for a wife -- Harlequin Newton: Faustus pantomimes and public science in the 1720s -- Modest witnesses and eager spectators: engendering enlightenment science -- Epilogue: rehearsing spectacle
Summary
The Theater of Experiment explores the crucial role of spectacle in the establishment of modern science. It analyzes eighteenth-century theatrical representations of science in order to demonstrate how experimental natural philosophy was itself a kind of performing art that was shaped by a wider culture of spectacle in the Enlightenment
