Cultures of Natural HistoryNicholas Jardine, J. A. Secord, E. C. Spary This copiously illustrated volume is the first systematic general work to do justice to the fruits of recent scholarship in the history of natural history. Public interest in this lively field has been stimulated by environmental concerns and through links with the histories of art, collecting and gardening. The centrality of the development of natural history for other branches of history - medical, colonial, gender, economic, ecological - is increasingly recognized. Twenty-four specially commissioned essays cover the period from the sixteenth century, when the first institutions of natural history were created, to its late nineteenth-century transformation by practitioners of the new biological sciences. An introduction discusses novel approaches that have made this a major focus for research in cultural history. The essays, which include suggestions for further reading, offer a coherent and accessible overview of a fascinating subject. An epilogue highlights the relevance of this wide-ranging survey for current debates on museum practice, the display of ecological diversity and concerns about the environment. |
Contents
The natures of cultural history | 3 |
CURIOSITY ERUDITION AND UTILITY | 15 |
Emblematic natural history of the Renaissance | 17 |
The culture of gardens | 38 |
Courting nature | 57 |
The culture of curiosity | 75 |
Physicians and natural history | 91 |
Natural history as print culture | 106 |
New spaces in natural history | 249 |
Minerals strata and fossils | 266 |
Humboldtian science | 287 |
Biogeography and empire | 305 |
Travelling the other way | 322 |
Ethnological encounters | 338 |
Equipment for the field | 358 |
Artisan botany | 378 |
VIRTUOSITY IMPROVEMENT AND SENSIBILITY | 125 |
Natural history in the academies | 127 |
Carl Linnaeus in his time and place | 145 |
Gender and natural history | 163 |
Political natural and bodily economies | 178 |
The science of man | 197 |
The natural history of the earth | 211 |
Naturphilosophie and the kingdoms of nature | 230 |
DISCIPLINE DISCOVERY AND DISPLAY | 247 |
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Abraham Gottlob Werner Academy Aldrovandi Alexander von Humboldt anatomy ancient animals artisans biology botanical garden botanists botany British Buffon Cambridge University Library Carl Linnaeus Carl von Linné claimed classification collections colonial culture curiosities Darwin early modern earth eighteenth century emblem England English Enlightenment essay Europe European example experience Figure formation fossils France French Fuegians geographical geology Georges Cuvier German Gesner Heylyn historians history of natural History of Science human Humboldt Humboldtian science important institutions Jardin Jemmy Button John Journal knowledge Linnaean Linnaeus Linnaeus's living London medicine mineral moral Museum names nations natural history naturalists naturelle Naturphilosophie nineteenth century observations organic origin Oxford Paris philosophy physical physicians plant sexuality plants political popular practices printed Ralph Thoresby Renaissance rocks Royal scientific sexual social Society space species specimens structure Syndics of Cambridge tory voyage William wonder zoology