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
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 the study tours of the Swedish Bureau of Mines through digital methods.
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