“A Pinch of Equality”: The Cultural Technique of Numbering in the Late 18th Century
“A Pinch of Equality”: The Cultural Technique of Numbering in the Late 18th Century

Summary/Abstract: The 18th century sees the triumph of a cultural technique so self-evident to us that we hardly think that it might have a history at all: numbering. This technique assigns a number to an object or a subject - whether a house, a page in a book, a regiment, a tone pitch, a painting, a horse-drawn carriage or a policeman - in order to positively identify this object or subject. The article presents a hitherto nearly undiscovered research field by clarifying some of the basic terminology and draws on examples from all over Europe, focussing on the numbering of - mostly vagrant - people on one side, on spaces such as houses, rooms or even hospital beds on the other side. At the end some of the research questions to be asked about this topic in the future are presented.

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