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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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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... period would look like were they depicted, not as a kind of mind-body dualism, with the history of ''ideas'' affecting the history of ''society'' or vice versa, but as an integrated whole that represented united lives. My first attempt ...
... period rests on trying to understand how passions for goods shaped collective behavior and belief even more than the moral pursuit of the good. But this does not mean that I consider everything people are driven to do or to think are ...
... period preoccupied with university service and academic administration, first in Madison, Wisconsin, and then in London, England, which kept me from libraries and archives far more than I would have liked. At the same time, such work ...
... period. The following chapter shows just how much the new understanding of animal and human bodies depended on exacting methods for manipulating objects that were imported from other technical activities. The powerful and continuing ...
... period called the Renaissance. Throughout the growing networks of urban commerce that linked the most populated regions of western Eurasia monied contemporaries experienced an expansion in disposable income—what is sometimes termed a ...
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 |