Product Description

This text explores ways in which European naturalists from the High Middle ages through to the Enlightenment used wonder and wonders, the passion and its objects, to envision themselves and the natural world. Monsters, gems that shone in the dark and celestial apparitions adorned romances and puzzled philosophers. Drawing on the histories of art, science, philosophy and literature, this book explores and explains how wonder and wonders fortified princely power, rewove the texture of scientific experience and shaped the sensibility of intellectuals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210277 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Review
"Marvelous is the best way to describe this work - in both senses of the term - for it is both a marvel of scholarship and filled with marvels and wonders." - Dan Burton, Science Books & Films; "... a dazzling book..." - Stephen Greenblatt, London Review of Books; "Splendid." - Anthony Grafton, New York Review of Books

About the Author
Lorraine Daston is Director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. Her Classical Probability in the Enlightenment was also awarded the Pfizer Prize. Katharine Park is the Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science and Women's Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of Doctors and Medicine in Early Renaissance Florence.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous Resource, Easy Read
I had to order this book for an assignment but ended up reading the rest of the chapters just because it was so interesting. It is well organized and that made it easy to find the information I needed for my essay. It is clearly written and that made it easy to read. The hardcover version is also a beautiful, high quality book; very nice cover.