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Acknowledgments 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 me to think beyond Spain. Chuck Walker and Arnie Bauer were also part of my dissertation committee and, as such, part of this book. From them I learned about Colonial Latin America, archives, and the joys of learning about other cultures. I had two dear professors, Tom Brady and Betty Jo Dobbs, who taught me their love for history with a sense of humor and human compassion. I thank all of them for their comments and support over the years. Many other friends and colleagues will recognize their marks, and I thank them again here. At the dissertation stage I received support from the Fulbright Commission as well as the University of California at Davis. I also received financial help from the Research Council of Colgate University. I thank these institutions as well. The book took me from Seville to Providence, where I began and ended the research for it. I went to Seville to pursue a project on natural history and came back with a completely different project on empirical practices. I went to Providence to research a new project, which I did, but ended up collecting new information (especially the illustrations) for this book as well. Seville and Providence have one element in common, apart from people like me: they belong to the Atlantic world. Both Seville and Providence hold stories about each other and about the larger world of the x experiencing nature Atlantic. Both house great archives, the Archivo General de Indias (AGI) and the John Carter Brown Library (JCB), each distinctive yet so similar in their Atlanticism, scope, and unpredictability. I thank the archivists and librarians at the AGI and the JCB: in Seville, Jesús Camargo, Magdalena Canilla, Isabel Ceballos, María Antonia Colomar , Belén García, Pedro González, Rafaela González, Pilar Lázaro de la Escosura, Purificación Medina, Blanca Yrazusta, Antonio López, María Teresa Molina, and Socorro Prous. Socorro not only helped me understand the archive; she and her family adopted my family and supported my research, and us, in countless ways. In Providence, I thank the director Norman Fiering as well as the librarians, especially Susan Danforth, Denis Landis, Richard Ring, and Valeria Gauz, for their suggestions and help with my projects. Nan Summer-Mack, Adelina Axelrod, Valerie Andrews, Jennifer Gage, Abigail Harkey, Lynne Harrell, Richard Hurley, Heather Jespersen, Valerie Andrews, Valerie Krasko, and Susan Newbury made me feel welcome and at home in Providence. Thanks for your good work and good sense of reality. I owe thanks as well to the archivists and librarians at the Archivo Nacional de Madrid, the Biblioteca Nacional de Madrid, the Biblioteca Colombina in Seville, the Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla, the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, and the Library of Congress in Washington. Talks based on the book were presented at the History of Science Society in Denver, Milwaukee, and Boston as well as in the Colloquium in the History of Science at the University of California, Berkeley. I am grateful to the members of these audiences for their comments and questions. I am also grateful for the encouragement and support of my colleagues in the History Department at Colgate University. Two copyeditors, Lauren Osborne and Rebecca Costello, helped me with the manuscript: Lauren in the early phases of the manuscript project and Rebecca in the final stage. I thank them for their wonderful and well-crafted work. Kathy Lewis did an excellent job with the final manuscript for the University of Texas Press in both English and Spanish—muchas gracias. I want to acknowledge as well the careful reports of the readers for the University of Texas Press; and I wish to express a personal note of appreciation to Theresa May and Allison Faust, who supported this project from the very beginning. After so many years of research, readings, conversations, and talks, this project is now a book, thanks to your trust and support: I am profoundly grateful to you. Finally, thanks to my family and friends. I have been dreaming about this thank-you letter to them for a while. I am pleased it is part of this...

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