| Description |
1 online resource (xiv, 562 pages) : illustrations, maps, portraits |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Description |
text file |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 473-535) and index. |
| Contents |
Worldly Goods and the Transformations of Objectivity -- An Information Economy -- Reformations Tempered: In Pursuit of Natural Facts -- Commerce and Medicine in Amsterdam -- Truths and Untruths from the Indies -- Medicine and Materialism: Descartes in the Republic -- Industry and Analysis -- Gardens of the Indies Transported --e Translating What Works: The Medicine of East Asia -- The Refusal to Speculate: Sticking to Simple Things. |
| Summary |
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 Harold Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands, Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh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 theatres, 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. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Subject |
History of Medicine. |
|
Commerce -- history. |
|
Science -- history. |
|
Netherlands. |
| Chronological Term |
1600-1699 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
|
History.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Cook, Harold John. Matters of exchange. New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, ©2007 9780300117967 (DLC) 2006026973 (OCoLC)71006718 |
| ISBN |
9780300134926 (electronic book) |
|
0300134924 (electronic book) |
|
0300117965 (clothbound ; alkaline paper) |
|
9780300117967 (clothbound ; alkaline paper) |
|
9780300117967 (clothbound ; alkaline paper) |
|
1281734772 |
|
9781281734778 |
|
