Claudine Cohen is professor of the history of science at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris, and the author of The Fate of the Mammoth: Fossils, Myth, and History, also published by the University of Chicago Press. Andre Wakefield is associate professor of history at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and the author of The Disordered Police State: German Cameralism as Science and Practice, also recently published by the University of Chicago Press.

"Historically, this is a very influential book that has finally been brought out of obscurity for readers of English. Essential." - Choice "Protogaea gives us a much fuller picture of science and culture in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire at a crucial time in its history. Cohen and Wakefield are to be commended for their hard work in making it possible for the Protogaea to reach the audience it deserves." - H-Net Review.