Categories, disciplines, and values of transmission: A retrospective essay on Openness, secrecy, authorship

Abstract This study, which begins in antiquity and ends around 1600, investigates values of transmission (openness and secrecy), and issues of both authorship and ownership as they operated within the traditions of technical practice and the crafts. Further it includes studies of esoteric traditions such as alchemy and N eoplatonic traditions. Traditional historians assumed that science was open, whereas technology was secret. The openness of science seemed to be confirmed by the articulation of Mertonian norms (Robert Merton held that the institutional conception of science as part of the public domain is linked with the imperative for communication of findings) and by the current practices of scientific publication. The secrecy of the crafts and technologies has often been assumed to be an inherent attribute of these activities. It has been supposed that the interest of artisans in making profits from unique products would result in secrecy.