Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution (review)

Experiencing Nature is a significant contribution to recent scholarship on the history of science and technology during the early period of transatlantic imperial expansion. From the first pages of his book, Antonio Barrera-Osorio addresses the inexplicable silence in critical studies regarding the Iberian world and its contribution to the development of science during the sixteenth century. He makes the compelling argument that the history of the Scientific Revolution is incomplete without an understanding of Spain and the New World's distinct role in the development and institutionalization of empirical practices.

Drawing from close readings of archival documents, manuscripts, and visual records, Barrera-Osorio contends that the Scientific Revolution got under way in the 1520s in Spain, when officials, explorers, merchants, and entrepreneurs came into contact with New World plants, animals, and commodities that had not been described previously by traditional authorities of natural history. The discovery of heretofore unknown specimens required new procedures for gathering information about their use and potential for commercial exploitation. Barrera-Osorio thus investigates the epistemological shift that occurred as personal experience became the cornerstone of a new, practical approach to the study of nature and the acquisition of knowledge.

Each of the five chapters takes up one part of the story of the development and institutionalization of empirical practices, beginning with early, individual discoveries and ending with the configuration of far-flung, international communities of experts and professionals. The first chapter is a case study of the discovery of balsam in Santo Domingo, noteworthy because it illustrates how the crown gathered information about new products from explorers, merchants, physicians, and indigenous peoples. It was this firsthand inquiry that provided the determining evidence of the product's potential value. Importantly, by controlling knowledge about the product, the crown was also able to control the prospect of its commercialization.

Next, Barrera-Osorio examines the prominent role played by the Spanish House of Trade in the economic development and political control of the New World. Its primary responsibilities included the training and examination of pilots. Heated disputes took place frequently between pilots and cosmographers over the value of experience versus the knowledge of classical authorities. The House of Trade also produced charts and compasses, as well as other navigational instruments. Information about the innovative work taking place there circulated widely throughout the rest of Europe, attracting foreign professionals to Spain and the New World. In addition to navigational instruments, other devices were developed to foster the expansion of commercial interests in the New World, devices for the exploitation of metallic resources, for example, and for assisting in the retrieval of pearl oysters from the ocean. The accumulation of experience and theory created ties between local experts living in Spain and the New World. Barrera-Osorio notes that "the common ground for these actors was a commodified understanding of nature and an empirical and practical approach to its exploitation" (p. 67).

Long-distance management of these natural resources became an increasing preoccupation with royal authorities, which had to devise more formal methods of collecting and administering information. By dispatching lengthy questionnaires and commissioning expeditions, the crown began to solicit detailed reports from individuals describing all aspects of the New World. Viceroys, archbishops, governors, and other officials, along with indigenous peoples, were charged with providing information for this large-scale bureaucratic enterprise. At the same time, in places like Seville, communities of experts were formed among physicians, natural historians, merchants, and royal officials. The rapid dissemination of their publications created international networks of information and a more uniform perception of nature.

Barrera-Osorio's study is well researched and well argued. It will clearly be of interest to scholars in a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, ranging from intellectual history to the history of science and technology to cultural studies. The main chapters are followed by three appendixes that provide further information on the pilots and cosmographers who worked at the...