Jacob Orrje
Researcher at Department of History of Science and Ideas
- Telephone:
- +46 18 471 79 59
- E-mail:
- jacob.orrje@idehist.uu.se
- Visiting address:
- Engelska parken, Thunbergsvägen 3P
- Postal address:
- Box 629
751 26 UPPSALA
Download contact information for Jacob Orrje at Department of History of Science and Ideas
Short presentation
Academic merits: Ph.D, associate professor in history of science and ideas.
My research focus is digital history and early modern history of knowledge. Currently, I am conducting two research projects, funded by the Swedish Research Council. In "Merchants of Enlightenment", I study the role of merchants in the exchange of scholarly knowledge. In the project "Mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge", I lead a group of researchers from Stockholm and Uppsala University who explore
Keywords
- digital humanities
- cultural history of science
- early modern history
- eighteenth century
- global history
- digital history
- handwritten text recognition (htr)
Biography
My research examines early modern knowledge making from cultural and social perspectives. I have an interest in practical mathematics, and knowledge about nature in contexts outside of universities and academies, e.g. in public life, the emerging state apparatus, and in commerce. With a background in information technology, I am also interested in the use of digital methods, for understanding early modern history in new ways. Especially, I have been exploring the use of machine-learning based methods for transcriptions of printed and hand-written historical text, and how such methods can change the way we use older historical sources.
Currently, I am employed as a researcher in history of science and ideas at Uppsala University, and as a digital historian of science at the Center for History of Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
I received my PhD from in History of Science and Ideas from Uppsala University in 2015, where I worked as a researcher and teacher 2015–16. From 2016–19, I held a postdoctoral position in cultural history at the Department for Culture and Aesthetics at Stockholm University.
Research
From January 2022, I am leading the project "Mapping the geographies of early modern mining knowledge". The project uses state-of-the-art digital methods – such as handwritten text recognition (HTR) and deep mapping – to explore the collection of foreign knowledge of the Swedish Bureau of Mines through their collection of handwritten travelogues.
Between 2019–24, I am also conducting the research project "Merchants of Enlightenment" (funded by Vetenskapsrådet). The project examines how merchants in the North Sea and Baltic Sea region of the eighteenth century provided a logistical infrastructure for the circulation of knowledge, through which e.g. letters, books, and instruments were exchanged. Read more about the project here.
Previously, I have studied the role of the Swedish Lutheran congregation in London as a contact-zone in the exchange of Anglo-Swedish scholarly knowledge, as well as the actions of go-betweens with multiple state loyalties in the travel narratives in Swedish travelogues from London of the eighteenth century.
My thesis (Mechanicus. Performing an early modern persona, 2015) analysed mechanics as a way for young men in early modern Sweden to present themselves as virtuous and useful subjects.

Publications
Recent publications
Part of History of European Ideas, p. 806-821, 2023
- DOI for Infrastructural strains on scholarly transnational collaboration in eighteenth-century Europe: The logistics of knowledge in making Thomas Mangey’s Philonis Judaei Opera 1728–42
- Download full text (pdf) of Infrastructural strains on scholarly transnational collaboration in eighteenth-century Europe: The logistics of knowledge in making Thomas Mangey’s Philonis Judaei Opera 1728–42
Actors out of sight?: Digital methods and the visibility of historical knowers
Part of Knowledge Actors, p. 217-232, Nordic Academic Press, 2023
Part of Lychnos, p. 65-83, 2022
Part of Historisk Tidskrift, p. 723-732, 2021
Part of British Journal for the History of Science, p. 351-369, 2020
- DOI for The logistics of the Republic of Letters: Mercantile undercurrents of early modern scholarly knowledge circulation
- Download full text (pdf) of The logistics of the Republic of Letters: Mercantile undercurrents of early modern scholarly knowledge circulation
All publications
Articles in journal
Part of History of European Ideas, p. 806-821, 2023
- DOI for Infrastructural strains on scholarly transnational collaboration in eighteenth-century Europe: The logistics of knowledge in making Thomas Mangey’s Philonis Judaei Opera 1728–42
- Download full text (pdf) of Infrastructural strains on scholarly transnational collaboration in eighteenth-century Europe: The logistics of knowledge in making Thomas Mangey’s Philonis Judaei Opera 1728–42
Part of Lychnos, p. 65-83, 2022
Part of Historisk Tidskrift, p. 723-732, 2021
Part of British Journal for the History of Science, p. 351-369, 2020
- DOI for The logistics of the Republic of Letters: Mercantile undercurrents of early modern scholarly knowledge circulation
- Download full text (pdf) of The logistics of the Republic of Letters: Mercantile undercurrents of early modern scholarly knowledge circulation
Mechanics of Patronage: Christopher Polhem and the Changing Regimes of the Swedish State (1680–1750)
Part of Artefact. Techniques histoire et sciences humaines, p. 143-155, 2016
Reading art, reading nature: How microscopic literature formed seventeenth-century readers
Part of Lychnos, p. 91-116, 2009
Chapters in book
Actors out of sight?: Digital methods and the visibility of historical knowers
Part of Knowledge Actors, p. 217-232, Nordic Academic Press, 2023
Part of Transnational Cultures of Expertise, p. 107-128, De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2019
Vardagens kuriositeter: Eric Alstrins besök i England vid 1700-talets början
Part of Böckerna i borgen, p. 101-122, Kungliga biblioteket, 2018
Part of Navigational Enterprises in Europe and its Empires, 1730–1850, p. 89-110, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
L'espace scandinave (XVe-XVIIIe siècle)
Part of L’Europe des sciences et des techniques, p. 501-506, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2016
Conference papers
Part of Topoi, topographies and travellers, p. 148-162, 2019
Monograph doctoral thesis
Reports
2020
Other
Part of Lychnos, p. 336-338, 2019
A Comet of the Enlightenment: Anders Johan Lexell's Life and Discoveries
Part of Isis, p. 174-175, 2016
Recension av David Dunér, "Tankemaskinen. Polhems huvudvärk och andra studier i tänkandets historia"
Part of Scandia, p. 150-151, 2013
Recension av Cecilia Rosengren, "Conway. Naturfilosofi och kvinnliga tänkare i barockens tidevarv".
Part of Lychnos, p. 315-316, 2010