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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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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... Harold John Cook. Matters of Exchange Commerce, Medicine, and Science in the Dutch Golden Age Harold J. Cook Yale University Press New Haven & London Published with assistance from the foundation established in memory of.
... , I have had the chance to get the advice and criticism of different academic audiences, to whom I extend my thanks; some of these lectures became published articles: I therefore also thank the editors, publishers, Preface xiii.
... published articles: I therefore also thank the editors, publishers, and ref- erees of my published articles since 1990 (included in the Bibliography) for their help. Since my arrival in London, colleagues and associates in The Wellcome ...
... published as Centuries. The German physician Guilhelmus Fabricius Hildanus, for instance, was only one of the many who published ''Centuriae'' of observations in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a practice he probably ...
... published on botany: Otho Brunfels's Herbarum vivae icones (''Illustrations of plants done from nature'') printed at Strasbourg from 1530 to 1536, and the even more impressive illustrated work of Leonhard Fuchs, De historia stirpium ...
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 |