Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age, 1575-1715

Eric Jorink (1963), Ph.D. in History cum laude, University of Groningen, is researcher at the Huygens Institute (Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences), The Hague. The Dutch edition of this book was granted a research award by the prestigious Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.

"Jorink's deeply grounded, expressly Dutch account charts the main intellectual shift from wonder to observational science, as recounted by Daston and Park (1998), but also complements that rich pictorial record of visual knowledge, epitomized now by the imagery within Dackerman's exhibition." – Larry Silver, in: HNA Review of Books, April 2012Unpublished endorsements:"Erudite and elegant" – Anthony Grafton, Princeton University"Reading the Book of Nature is clearly a new standard work for all those interested in Early Modern intellectual history." – Wiep van Bunge, Erasmus University Rotterdam"Reading the Book of Nature in the Dutch Golden Age makes an important and timely contribution to the history of science and to European intellectual history more generally. Jorink successfully shows not only how fruitful was the prevailing conception of nature as God's second Book to the emergence of a vibrant discipline of natural history, but how relevant was humanist culture to the formulation of new scientific methodologies and practices. Given the centrality of Dutch intellectual life to early modern European culture, this rich and nuanced understanding of Dutch science should appeal to a broad readership." – Mordechai Feingold, California Institute of Technology"Eric Jorink's marvellous study of the role of the wonders of nature in the learned culture of the Dutch Republic provides us with an original and fascinating insight into the mentality of the Golden Age. Jorink traces the religious, cultural and social contexts for observation, collecting, and study of the manifestations of nature with a sensitive eye and a fluent pen. His book will change the understanding of historians of the Netherlands concerning the role played by religious belief in the science of the seventeenth century and will amaze historians of science who have hitherto ignored the mainstream of Dutch discussion of the natural world in that period." – Scott Mandelbrote, University of Cambridge

• PrefaceAbbreviationsList of Illustrations1. Introduction2. The Interpretation of the Book of Nature down to around 16602.1.The Strength of Tradition2.2 Two Books up for Discussion 3. Comets: The Debates on the ‘Wonders in the Heavens’3.1. Introduction3.2. Dutch views on Comets down to around 16603.3. From Ominous to Glorious Signs: the Comet of 16643.4. Conceptions of Comets around 17003.5. Concluding Remarks4. Insects: ‘The Wonders of God in the Humblest Creatures’4.1. Introduction.4.2. The Study of Insects in the Dutch Republic down to ca. 16604.3. Swammerdam and the Transformation of the Book of Nature4.4. The Insect Bug around 17004.5. Concluding Remarks5. Collections of Curiosities: ‘A Book in which God has gloriously described Himself’5.1. Introduction5.2. Collections of Curiosities in the Netherlands down to ca. 16605.3. From Collection of Curiosities to Cabinet of Naturalia5.4. Dutch Collections around 17005.5. Concluding Remarks6. Books of Wonders: from Rarity to Regularity6.1. Introduction6.2. Books of Wonders in the Dutch Republic down to around 16606.3. Johannes de Mey: Between Exegesis and Experiment6.4. Books of Wonders around 17006.5. Concluding Remarks7. The Book of Nature: from Axiom to MetaphorBibliographyIndex of Names