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This essay adopts the concept of trading zones first developed for the history of science by Peter Galison and redefines it for the early modern period. The term "trading zones" is used to mean arenas in which substantive and reciprocal communication occurred between individuals who were artisanally trained and learned (university-trained) individuals. Such trading zones proliferated in the sixteenth century. They tended to arise in certain kinds of places and not in others, but their existence must be determined empirically. The author's work on trading zones differs from the ideas of Edgar Zilsel, who emphasized the influence of artisans on the scientific revolution. In contrast, in this essay, the mutual influence of artisans and the learned on each other is stressed, and translation is used as a modality that was important to communication within trading zones.

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This special issue is dedicated to the cultural values and impacts of the early modern mining industry and some of the enterprises and practices that surrounded them. The contributions enquire into how mining and metallurgy became a key sector in early modern European society, not only in terms of economic prosperity with its utilitarian connotations, but as a sociocultural phenomenon, whose materials and products affected, or even enabled, many areas of life and rulership. The authors' contributions focus on places, materials, and processes, and assess how historical actors engaged with metallic materials, both under and above the ground. They analyse human engagement with mined materials not simply from an economic perspective, but also as an administrative and legal praxis, a technological challenge, an environmental problem, a spiritual engagement, and an affective experience. This approach affords a broader perspective which expands the history of mining beyond the narrow sense of a history of material extraction, one that crosses the borders of the European mining regions and takes activities in urban hubs and on the sea into consideration as well.