Laura Dierksmeier is Postdoctoral Research Assistant at University of Tuebingen, Germany. She is the co-editor of Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource (2021).Anne Mariss is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at University of Regensburg, Germany. She is the author of Johann Reinhold Forster and the Making of Natural Knowledge on Cook’s Second Voyage (2019).Philip Hahn is Chair of Early Modern History at Saarland University, Germany. He is the co-editor of Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging (2025).

This is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. It provides a highly original collection of sources and a cascade of masterclass-type essays for students to show how such sources can be contextualized and approached in methodologically sophisticated ways. It develops our understanding of the ways in which a rich cast of actors jointly produced new forms of global knowledge and substantially shaped the world across three defining centuries. A must for every reading list that covers global history and the early modern world.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of contributorsList of images Approaching and Framing Global Histories of Knowledge: An Introduction, Anne Mariss, Laura Dierksmeier, Philip HahnPart I: Natural Knowledge in Transit: Objects, Bodies, and Belief1. Timekeeping as Cosmological Knowledge: Portable Sundials in Sixteenth-Century Germany, Sky Michael Johnston2. “A Land Hot and Wet:” Maria Sibylla Merian in Suriname (1699–1701), Richard Calis3. Sleeping in a Net Between the Trees: Brazilian Hammocks at the Württemberg Court and their Transatlantic Knowledge Networks (c. 1600–1800), Ruth Egger4. Jerusalem in a Box: Protestant Uses of Loca Sancta Relics and Empirical Devotion in Eighteenth-Century Halle (1758), Anne Mariss5. When Indigenous Knowledge Challenged the Inquisition: A Priest’s Defense of Medicinal Cannabis in Colonial Mexico (1772), Laura Dierksmeier6. Sailing Directions, Literary Mysteries, and the Domestication of Newfoundland: A Maritime Commonplace Book of 1787, Lena MoserPart II: Translating the World: Moving Ideas across Cultural and Language Barriers7. Brothers in Arms? Translating Ethiopian Christianity in Reformation Germany and the Making of the Confessional Divide, Christina Brauner 8. Marcus zum Lamm’s Image of “Constantinus Magnus” and Visual Multiplicities in Reformed Heidelberg, c. 1600, Frederick Crofts9. Knowledge in Motion: The Formation of the Circular Mission of Chiloé in Chile (1609–1611), Carmen Channing10. Gesturing Words and Worlds: Translation of Indigenous Knowledge through Maps, Objects, and Bodies in New Spain (1602), Irina Saladin 11. Running like the Rarámuri? Jesuit Miracle Stories and the Appropriation of Indigenous Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Mexico, Simon Siemianowski12. They Are Like Us: Knowledge of Tibetan Religion in the Early Letters of Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733), Rafael Streib13. Researching Arabic in Eighteenth-Century Göttingen: Johann David Michaelis and the Human Sources for his Arabic Grammar (1781), Tobias P. Graf Part III: Living at a Distance: The Global Lives of Knowledge14. “To be Versed in the Greater Part of Christendom:” Two Sixteenth-Century Father-Son How-Tos for Early Modern Germany and Spain (and Beyond), Adrian Masters15. Planning the Intercontinental Circulation of Persons, Objects, and Ideas: The Formula of the Jesuit Congregation of Procurators (Rome, 1581), Fabian Fechner16. Receiving News from the World in the Moluccas in the 1620s: A German’s Report, Philip Hahn17. Overcoming Distance: Information, Environment, and Imperial Power between Spain and Charcas, 1657, Adolfo Polo y La Borda18. Moving Experts, Moving Expertise: Knowledge, Mobility, and Spanish Imperial Governance in Late Seventeenth-Century Panama, Marie C. Schreier19. A Disputed Eden: François Leguat’s Description of Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean (1691–1693), Lionel LaborieConclusion: Reframing Global Knowledge through Primary Sources, Philip Hahn, Anne Mariss, Laura DierksmeierAppendix with MapsGlossaryIndex

Laura Dierksmeier is Postdoctoral Research Assistant at University of Tuebingen, Germany. She is the co-editor of Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource (2021).Anne Mariss is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at University of Regensburg, Germany. She is the author of Johann Reinhold Forster and the Making of Natural Knowledge on Cook’s Second Voyage (2019).Philip Hahn is Chair of Early Modern History at Saarland University, Germany. He is the co-editor of Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging (2025).

This is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. It provides a highly original collection of sources and a cascade of masterclass-type essays for students to show how such sources can be contextualized and approached in methodologically sophisticated ways. It develops our understanding of the ways in which a rich cast of actors jointly produced new forms of global knowledge and substantially shaped the world across three defining centuries. A must for every reading list that covers global history and the early modern world.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of contributorsList of images Approaching and Framing Global Histories of Knowledge: An Introduction, Anne Mariss, Laura Dierksmeier, Philip HahnPart I: Natural Knowledge in Transit: Objects, Bodies, and Belief1. Timekeeping as Cosmological Knowledge: Portable Sundials in Sixteenth-Century Germany, Sky Michael Johnston2. “A Land Hot and Wet:” Maria Sibylla Merian in Suriname (1699–1701), Richard Calis3. Sleeping in a Net Between the Trees: Brazilian Hammocks at the Württemberg Court and their Transatlantic Knowledge Networks (c. 1600–1800), Ruth Egger4. Jerusalem in a Box: Protestant Uses of Loca Sancta Relics and Empirical Devotion in Eighteenth-Century Halle (1758), Anne Mariss5. When Indigenous Knowledge Challenged the Inquisition: A Priest’s Defense of Medicinal Cannabis in Colonial Mexico (1772), Laura Dierksmeier6. Sailing Directions, Literary Mysteries, and the Domestication of Newfoundland: A Maritime Commonplace Book of 1787, Lena MoserPart II: Translating the World: Moving Ideas across Cultural and Language Barriers7. Brothers in Arms? Translating Ethiopian Christianity in Reformation Germany and the Making of the Confessional Divide, Christina Brauner 8. Marcus zum Lamm’s Image of “Constantinus Magnus” and Visual Multiplicities in Reformed Heidelberg, c. 1600, Frederick Crofts9. Knowledge in Motion: The Formation of the Circular Mission of Chiloé in Chile (1609–1611), Carmen Channing10. Gesturing Words and Worlds: Translation of Indigenous Knowledge through Maps, Objects, and Bodies in New Spain (1602), Irina Saladin 11. Running like the Rarámuri? Jesuit Miracle Stories and the Appropriation of Indigenous Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Mexico, Simon Siemianowski12. They Are Like Us: Knowledge of Tibetan Religion in the Early Letters of Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733), Rafael Streib13. Researching Arabic in Eighteenth-Century Göttingen: Johann David Michaelis and the Human Sources for his Arabic Grammar (1781), Tobias P. Graf Part III: Living at a Distance: The Global Lives of Knowledge14. “To be Versed in the Greater Part of Christendom:” Two Sixteenth-Century Father-Son How-Tos for Early Modern Germany and Spain (and Beyond), Adrian Masters15. Planning the Intercontinental Circulation of Persons, Objects, and Ideas: The Formula of the Jesuit Congregation of Procurators (Rome, 1581), Fabian Fechner16. Receiving News from the World in the Moluccas in the 1620s: A German’s Report, Philip Hahn17. Overcoming Distance: Information, Environment, and Imperial Power between Spain and Charcas, 1657, Adolfo Polo y La Borda18. Moving Experts, Moving Expertise: Knowledge, Mobility, and Spanish Imperial Governance in Late Seventeenth-Century Panama, Marie C. Schreier19. A Disputed Eden: François Leguat’s Description of Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean (1691–1693), Lionel LaborieConclusion: Reframing Global Knowledge through Primary Sources, Philip Hahn, Anne Mariss, Laura DierksmeierAppendix with MapsGlossaryIndex

Laura Dierksmeier is Postdoctoral Research Assistant at University of Tuebingen, Germany. She is the co-editor of Indigenous Knowledge as a Resource (2021).Anne Mariss is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at University of Regensburg, Germany. She is the author of Johann Reinhold Forster and the Making of Natural Knowledge on Cook’s Second Voyage (2019).Philip Hahn is Chair of Early Modern History at Saarland University, Germany. He is the co-editor of Encountering the Global in Early Modern Germany: Microhistories of Mobility, Materiality, and Belonging (2025).

This is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. It provides a highly original collection of sources and a cascade of masterclass-type essays for students to show how such sources can be contextualized and approached in methodologically sophisticated ways. It develops our understanding of the ways in which a rich cast of actors jointly produced new forms of global knowledge and substantially shaped the world across three defining centuries. A must for every reading list that covers global history and the early modern world.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsList of contributorsList of images Approaching and Framing Global Histories of Knowledge: An Introduction, Anne Mariss, Laura Dierksmeier, Philip HahnPart I: Natural Knowledge in Transit: Objects, Bodies, and Belief1. Timekeeping as Cosmological Knowledge: Portable Sundials in Sixteenth-Century Germany, Sky Michael Johnston2. “A Land Hot and Wet:” Maria Sibylla Merian in Suriname (1699–1701), Richard Calis3. Sleeping in a Net Between the Trees: Brazilian Hammocks at the Württemberg Court and their Transatlantic Knowledge Networks (c. 1600–1800), Ruth Egger4. Jerusalem in a Box: Protestant Uses of Loca Sancta Relics and Empirical Devotion in Eighteenth-Century Halle (1758), Anne Mariss5. When Indigenous Knowledge Challenged the Inquisition: A Priest’s Defense of Medicinal Cannabis in Colonial Mexico (1772), Laura Dierksmeier6. Sailing Directions, Literary Mysteries, and the Domestication of Newfoundland: A Maritime Commonplace Book of 1787, Lena MoserPart II: Translating the World: Moving Ideas across Cultural and Language Barriers7. Brothers in Arms? Translating Ethiopian Christianity in Reformation Germany and the Making of the Confessional Divide, Christina Brauner 8. Marcus zum Lamm’s Image of “Constantinus Magnus” and Visual Multiplicities in Reformed Heidelberg, c. 1600, Frederick Crofts9. Knowledge in Motion: The Formation of the Circular Mission of Chiloé in Chile (1609–1611), Carmen Channing10. Gesturing Words and Worlds: Translation of Indigenous Knowledge through Maps, Objects, and Bodies in New Spain (1602), Irina Saladin 11. Running like the Rarámuri? Jesuit Miracle Stories and the Appropriation of Indigenous Knowledge in Eighteenth-Century Mexico, Simon Siemianowski12. They Are Like Us: Knowledge of Tibetan Religion in the Early Letters of Ippolito Desideri (1684–1733), Rafael Streib13. Researching Arabic in Eighteenth-Century Göttingen: Johann David Michaelis and the Human Sources for his Arabic Grammar (1781), Tobias P. Graf Part III: Living at a Distance: The Global Lives of Knowledge14. “To be Versed in the Greater Part of Christendom:” Two Sixteenth-Century Father-Son How-Tos for Early Modern Germany and Spain (and Beyond), Adrian Masters15. Planning the Intercontinental Circulation of Persons, Objects, and Ideas: The Formula of the Jesuit Congregation of Procurators (Rome, 1581), Fabian Fechner16. Receiving News from the World in the Moluccas in the 1620s: A German’s Report, Philip Hahn17. Overcoming Distance: Information, Environment, and Imperial Power between Spain and Charcas, 1657, Adolfo Polo y La Borda18. Moving Experts, Moving Expertise: Knowledge, Mobility, and Spanish Imperial Governance in Late Seventeenth-Century Panama, Marie C. Schreier19. A Disputed Eden: François Leguat’s Description of Rodrigues Island in the Indian Ocean (1691–1693), Lionel LaborieConclusion: Reframing Global Knowledge through Primary Sources, Philip Hahn, Anne Mariss, Laura DierksmeierAppendix with MapsGlossaryIndex