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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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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... wrote: ''The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.'' The differences are often surprising. No guidebook can fully prepare travelers for the people and events encountered in the past. On first impression, many ...
... wrote or spoke or thought as they did. Yet the material constraints on our mortal condition are real, the goads and shackles of economic life not least among them. Despite the fall of the Berlin Wall two decades ago, then, the ...
... wrote about curiosity for conflicting purposes, and that they could do so because there was an enduring lack of consensus about what exactly curiosity was.'' The term ''often came to encompass not only people's desire to know or possess ...
... wrote works on medical diagnosis and materia medica, although he is most famous for his publication on fish (Libri de piscibus marinis, 1554–55). In England, William Turner published a well-known work of botany in the middle of the ...
... wrote about how the book of scripture could be heard by the learned, who could read its words, while the book of nature could be seen by anyone.100 Created things therefore expressed the nature of God quite as much as did his word, and ...
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 |