What Can the Historian of Science Learn from the Historian of the Fine Arts?

Abstract

Certain aspects of and approaches to historiography, such as the importance of commissioned works and the relationships between related disciplines, were already used by the historians of the fine arts at a time when there were only very few historians of science. Benvenuto and Truesdell, both great lovers and connoisseurs of the arts, taught us that science, like art, is beautiful, and that its history, when presented by great men, can be beautiful as well.