Experiencing Nature
The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution
Publication Year: 2006
Published by: University of Texas Press
Cover
Title Page, Copyright Page
Contents
Acknowledgments
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pp. ix-xi
This book grew out of my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of California at Davis under the direction of Paula Findlen, who has become a good friend over the years. I thank her for her trust, fine teachings, sharp criticisms, mentorship, and friendship. Pamela Smith became closely involved with the project, always asking questions that forced ...
Introduction
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pp. 1-12
In 1592 King Philip II of Spain received a sample of a tree with aromatic properties from Puerto Rico.1 The governor of Puerto Rico had sent the sample, suggesting that physicians study those properties to determine the tree’s economic value. Philip II ordered his physician, Doctor Mercado, to conduct tests and report back to the president ...
One: Searching the Land for Commodities
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pp. 13-28
In 1530 a new kind of balsam made its way to Spain from the New World. The crown ordered the merchants interested in exploiting balsam to send samples of it to physicians and hospitals. They, in turn, would send reports to merchants and royal officials: ...
Two: A Chamber of Knowledge: The Casa de la Contrataci�n and its Empirical Methods
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pp. 29-55
... Although the office of the chief pilot was established by Ferdinand the Catholic and not by Charles V, Hakluyt’s description captures the teaching and training activities of the “Contractation house at Sivil.” The office of the chief pilot, however, was established not only to train pilots but also to make charts. The cosmographers of the Casa were hired ...
Three: Communities of Experts: Artisans and Innovation in the New World
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pp. 56-80
In 1519 European ships arrived on Mexican shores. A man from Mictlancuauhtla who saw the ships went, of his own accord, to Motecuhzoma’s palace and told him the following: ...
Four: Circuits of Information: Reports from the New World
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pp. 81-100
The Spanish encounter with the New World not only fostered the development of empirical and collaborative practices to exploit, study, transform, and explore the New World but also shaped the methods used by the central state to control distant resources and lands. In particular, the crown demanded reports about the New World and came up with new ...
Five: Books of Nature: Scholars, Natural History, and the New World
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pp. 101-127
On March 12, 1579, bad weather hindered the Spanish fleet from leaving for the New World from the port of Sanl�car de Barrameda. The day before, the fleet had attempted to leave and was forced to return. One ship was wrecked; and forty women and ten or twelve men drowned. Another ship was damaged but able to return to port.1 The newly ...
Conclusions: the politics of knowledge
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pp. 128-134
Spain’s encounter with the New World launched Europe into the first imperial age of the modern world. By the sixteenth century, ships, charts, guns, Genesis, and the New Testament had intertwined in a Christian ideology of domination. Yet technology and God were not enough to establish an empire: an empire was and is, above all, ...
Appendix 1
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pp. 135-139
Appendix 2
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pp. 140-146
Appendix 3
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pp. 147-150
Notes
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pp. 151-187
Bibliography
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pp. 189-204
Index
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pp. 205-211
E-ISBN-13: 9780292795945
E-ISBN-10: 0292795947
Print-ISBN-13: 9780292709812
Print-ISBN-10: 0292709811
Page Count: 223
Illustrations: 10 b&w illus.
Publication Year: 2006
