New Books Network Dominik Berrens, "Naming New Things and Concepts in Early Modern Science: The Case of Natural History" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
Apr 6, 2026
Dominik Berrens, classicist and scholar of Neo-Latin and early modern science, explores how terminology for natural history formed. He traces Latin’s dominance, the use of Greek, Arabic, vernaculars and indigenous names. He recounts naming practices for New World and microscopic organisms. He highlights debates, accidental coinages, and the surprising non-scientific forces behind technical terms.
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Naming As The Core Scientific Act
- Naming was the fundamental process that established new objects as scientific objects worth studying.
- Dominik Berrens argues many Latin and Greek technical terms still in use were created in the early modern period to make discoveries legible to scholars.
Neo-Latin Balanced Style And Scientific Need
- Neo-Latin is the Renaissance revival of classical Latin styles used for early modern science rather than a language with native speakers.
- Scholars imitated Cicero for style but had to expand vocabulary for technical needs beyond Ciceronian models.
Multiple Language Sources Built Scientific Terms
- New technical terms in early modern science came from many source languages, not only Latin and Greek.
- Berrens gives Digitalis as an example where Leonard Fuchs translated German Fingerhut (thimble) into Latin.
