Incluye bibliografía: páginas 473-535 e índice: páginas 537-562

Preface.. One Worldly Goods and the Transformations of Objectivity.. Two An Information Economy.. Three Reformations Tempered: In Pursuit of Natural Facts.. Four Commerce and Medicine in Amsterdam.. Five Truths and Untruths from the Indies.. Six Medicine and Materialism: Descartes in the Republic.. Seven Industry and Analysis.. Eight Gardens of the Indies Transported.. Nine Translating What Works: The Medicine of East Asia.. Ten The Refusal to Speculate: Sticking to Simple Things.. Eleven Conclusions and Comparisons.. Notes.. Bibliography.. Index

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 Harold J. Cook scrutinizes a wealth of historical documents relating to the study of medicine and natural history in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe, Brazil, South Africa, and Asia during this era, and his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 theaters, 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. Inglés