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Early modern Europe saw the foundation of exactly such curation institutions, and it was these institutions—rather than the printing press or specific books like On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres—that constituted the bedrock of the scientific revolution. These key curation institutions were not the universities. Many of the most important

From road building to the grafting of vines and fruit trees, Western Europe ceased employing many techniques that had once been well known and practiced to a high standard. Even so ancient a device as the potter’s wheel disappeared in many places. Mining operations contracted. Metallurgy receded. Irrigation works in the Mediterranean region disinte