Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden AgeA new and unexpected history of the Dutch pursuit of commerce in the 16th and 17th centuries and how it triggered the Scientific Revolution In this wide-ranging and stimulating book, a leading authority on the history of medicine and science presents convincing evidence that Dutch commerce—not religion—inspired the rise of science in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh and exciting. He uncovers direct links between the rise of trade and commerce in the Dutch Empire and the flourishing of scientific investigation. Cook argues that engaging in commerce changed the thinking of Dutch citizens, leading to a new emphasis on such values as objectivity, accumulation, and description. The preference for accurate information that accompanied the rise of commerce also laid the groundwork for the rise of science globally, wherever the Dutch engaged in trade. Medicine and natural history were fundamental aspects of this new science, as reflected in the development of gardens for both pleasure and botanical study, anatomical theaters, curiosity cabinets, and richly illustrated books about nature. Sweeping in scope and original in its insights, this book revises previous understandings of the history of science and ideas. |
From inside the book
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... Chinese knowledge of how to examine the pulse; it emphasizes the difficulties of transmitting some kinds of knowledge across cultural barriers whereas other kinds of information could flow easily. The penultimate chapter, focusing ...
... China.) The three remaining exotic spices on which European medicine and cooking depended came from even farther away: the spiky one, named after the Latin word clavus (nail) and metamorphosed to the English ''clove'' and the more ...
... China, and Japan, connecting places like Zanzibar and Basra to the Coromandel coast, Java, the Banda Islands, Indochina, and the east China seas. Vasco da Gama depended on North African merchants to act as his intermediaries, but the ...
... Chinese ships, ''junk,'' derives from the Javanese jong, a word dating to at least the ninth century), and produced ... China and south Asia, and between the Spice Islands and the western destinations of India, Ceylon, Arabia, Africa ...
... China root (a medicine), 30,000 pounds, but ''fresh and scentless'' benjamin (a gum from styrax benzoïn, used in medicines), 20,000 pounds of the best that can be found musk, ''none'' dragon's blood (a red resin from an ancient tree ...
Contents
1 | |
42 | |
82 | |
Four Commerce and Medicine in Amsterdam | 133 |
Five Truths and Untruths from the Indies | 175 |
Descartes in the Republic | 226 |
Seven Industry and Analysis | 267 |
Eight Gardens of the Indies Transported | 304 |
The Medicine of East Asia | 339 |
Sticking to Simple Things | 378 |
Eleven Conclusions and Comparisons | 410 |
Notes | 417 |
Bibliography | 473 |
Index | 537 |
Other editions - View all
Matters of Exchange: Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age Harold John Cook No preview available - 2007 |