Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Cook, Harold John, author

Title Matters of exchange : commerce, medicine, and science in the Dutch Golden Age / Harold J. Cook
Published New Haven ; London : Yale University Press, [2007]
©2007

Copies

Description 1 online resource (xiv, 562 pages) : illustrations, maps, portraits
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 -- Translating what works : the medicine of East Asia -- The refusal to speculate : sticking to simple things -- Conclusions and comparisons
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 Harold Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands, Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his conclusions are fresh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
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 473-535) and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Science -- Netherlands -- History -- 17th century
Medicine -- Netherlands -- History -- 17th century
Medicine -- History.
Medicine -- History -- 17th century.
History of Medicine
Commerce -- history
History, 17th Century
Science -- history
history of medicine.
SCIENCE -- History.
SCIENCE -- General.
Commerce
Medicine
Science
Handel.
Geneeskunde.
Wetenschap.
SUBJECT Netherlands -- Commerce -- History -- 17th century
Netherlands
Subject Netherlands
Nederland.
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780300134926
0300134924
1281734772
9781281734778
9786611734770
6611734775