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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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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... remained a text much mined by authors of medieval encyclopedias, bestiaries, herbals, and other works that touched on natural things, with a few authors adding their own new investigations to it.52 By the mid-fifteenth century, about ...
... remained those of the Islamic world, at Persian cities like Isfahan or Iberian ones such as Cordova and Granada or, after the conquest of Constantinople, in the Ottoman Empire. Sultan Mehmed II built the ''abode of bliss,'' Topkapi ...
... remained almost too numerous to notice. Just beneath the surface of this excitement about the diversity of the world lay theological problems, but they had mainly been tamed. Simply reveling in the particularities of nature echoed the ...
... commodities and exchanges worldwide, helping to stimulate collective decisions by merchants on the allocation of capital.44 Access to precise and up-to-date information remained fundamental to business An Information Economy 51.
... remained fundamental to business practice.45 Amsterdam set up a direct postal exchange with Antwerp in 1568 to facilitate the exchange of business information and within a few decades had established four postal centers, one for ...
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 |