Possessing Nature

Museums, Collecting, and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy

Nonfiction, History, Renaissance, European General
Cover of the book Possessing Nature by Paula Findlen, University of California Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Paula Findlen ISBN: 9780520917781
Publisher: University of California Press Publication: September 16, 1994
Imprint: University of California Press Language: English
Author: Paula Findlen
ISBN: 9780520917781
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication: September 16, 1994
Imprint: University of California Press
Language: English

In 1500 few Europeans regarded nature as a subject worthy of inquiry. Yet fifty years later the first museums of natural history had appeared in Italy, dedicated to the marvels of nature. Italian patricians, their curiosity fueled by new voyages of exploration and the humanist rediscovery of nature, created vast collections as a means of knowing the world and used this knowledge to their greater glory.

Drawing on extensive archives of visitors' books, letters, travel journals, memoirs, and pleas for patronage, Paula Findlen reconstructs the lost social world of Renaissance and Baroque museums. She follows the new study of natural history as it moved out of the universities and into sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific societies, religious orders, and princely courts. Findlen argues convincingly that natural history as a discipline blurred the border between the ancients and the moderns, between collecting in order to recover ancient wisdom and the development of new textual and experimental scholarship. Her vivid account reveals how the scientific revolution grew from the constant mediation between the old forms of knowledge and the new.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In 1500 few Europeans regarded nature as a subject worthy of inquiry. Yet fifty years later the first museums of natural history had appeared in Italy, dedicated to the marvels of nature. Italian patricians, their curiosity fueled by new voyages of exploration and the humanist rediscovery of nature, created vast collections as a means of knowing the world and used this knowledge to their greater glory.

Drawing on extensive archives of visitors' books, letters, travel journals, memoirs, and pleas for patronage, Paula Findlen reconstructs the lost social world of Renaissance and Baroque museums. She follows the new study of natural history as it moved out of the universities and into sixteenth- and seventeenth-century scientific societies, religious orders, and princely courts. Findlen argues convincingly that natural history as a discipline blurred the border between the ancients and the moderns, between collecting in order to recover ancient wisdom and the development of new textual and experimental scholarship. Her vivid account reveals how the scientific revolution grew from the constant mediation between the old forms of knowledge and the new.

More books from University of California Press

Cover of the book The Paradox of Hope by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Poetry in Pieces by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Deep Things out of Darkness by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book The New World History by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book States of Delinquency by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Boycott! by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Sustaining Conflict by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Plastic Reason by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Moral Ambition by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Hiding in Plain Sight by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Sustainability through Soccer by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book A Global History of Sexual Science, 1880–1960 by Paula Findlen
Cover of the book Reproducing Race by Paula Findlen
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy