Science in the Vanished Arcadia

Miguel de Asúa, M.D. (1976) University of Buenos Aires, Ph.D. (1992) University of Notre Dame, is a historian of science at the National Research Council for Science and Technology (Argentina). He has published extensively on Medieval and Latin American science.

"Das Buch [...] ist eine sehr detaillierte Bestandsaufnahme jesuitischer Wissensgenerierung im La Plata [...]. Die eigentlichen Stärken des Buches finden sich [...] in all den vielen, detaillierten Beschreibungen der Verwohenheit von Wissen und Praxis [...]. Eine besondere Stärke des Buches liegt [...] auch in der systematisch diskutierten Frage nach dem indigenen Anteil am jesuitischen Wissen in jedem einzelnen Kapitel. Ich wünsche dieser Studie darum eine grosse Leserschaft." - Renate Dürr, Tübingen, in: Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 39 (2016), p. 190-191"With its treatment of natural history, medicine, cartography, astronomy, and practical science, Science in the Vanished Arcadia provides a valuable overview Jesuit scientific production in Paraguay. It will most certainly be a valuable resource for scholars of Jesuit science and the Guaraní missions for years to come." - Julia Sarreal, Arizona State University, in: Journal of Jesuit Studies 2:1"De Asúa se abocó a un estudio sistemático que constituye el primer relato abarcador y moderno de la ciencia jesuítica en territorio sudamericano. [...] Mediante una revisión de manuscritos inéditos y una extensiva bibliografía de fuentes primarias, el autor argumenta con solidez la existencia de una tradición en la investigación de la naturaleza que está arraigada en la ciencia jesuítica, al mismo tiempo que es original en su articulación con el aprendizaje típico y la tradición aborigen sobre lo natural." - Alejandro Manrique, in: La Capital de Mar del Plata, 6-3-2016, p. 3"Es fácil comprender que el libro de Miguel de Asúa se transformará en el gran libro de referencia sobre la ciencia en las misiones jesuitas de Paraguay y el Río de la Plata. Una gran cantidad de información, un análisis pormenorizado, pero a la vez una lectura amena, lo transforman en un clásico instantáneo." - Adrián Viale, in: Rey Desnudo, Año IV, No. 7 (Primavera 2015), p. 49-55

• ContentsAcknowledgements xiList of Maps and Figures xvAbbreviations xviiIntroduction 11 Some Historiographical Remarks 42 The Jesuits in Paraguay and the River Plate 83 A Brief Survey of Events 134 Life in the Reductions 191 Natural Histories 251 The Jesuit Natural Histories of Paraquaria 292 Textual Organization 362.1 Organizing 362.2 Listing 402.3 Naming 463 The Natural Histories 553.1 Lozano and the Wondrous Nature of Paraguay 553.2 Paucke: “I Tell What I Have Seen” 613.3 Sánchez Labrador’s Catalogue of the Natural World ofParaquaria 684 Writing on Nature in Paraquaria 804.1 A Jesuit Genre of Writing 814.2 Theatrum naturae 864.3 The Jesuit Works and Eighteenth-Century Natural History 884.4 Native Lore on Nature 922 Herbals 961 Jesuits Medicine and Pharmacy in Eighteenth-Century Paraguay andRío de la Plata 992 The Major Works 1132.1 Montenegro 1132.2 Aperger 1152.3 A Jungle of Herbals 1172.3.1 Manuscripts Containing Montenegro’s Materia medicamisionera 1192.3.2 Manuscripts Containing Versions of Montenegro’s Materia medicamisionera attributed to Aperger 1232.3.3 Manuscript History 1252.4 Montenegro’s Herbal. European Pharmacopoeia and GuaraníPlant Lore 1262.4.1 Identification of Plants 1302.4.2 Pictures 1312.4.3 Montenegro’s Materia medica misionera, the Guaraní andthe “Galenization” of Native Herbal Lore 1342.5 Jesuits and Guaraní Healers 1382.6 A Medical Handbook for the Missions 1413 The Lost and Minor Works 1473.1 A Guaraní receptarium 1483.2 Medicinal Botany in the Paraguay Natural 1503.3 The English Surgeon 1513.4 A Book of surgery 1574 The Herbal Tradition in Paraquaria 1593 Maps 1641 Quiroga 1742 Astronomical Instruments 1773 Charting Patagonia 1793.1 Quiroga’s Maps and Observations 1814 An Expedition to the Mato Grosso 1855 The Chair of Mathematics 1876 The Sources of the Paraguay River 1897 Maps and Politics 1948 Maps and Mission 1999 Maps of the Productive Structure of the Missions 20210 Jesuits, Natives, and Maps 2044 The Heavens 2111 The Stars Lead to Kircher 2121.1 Comets and Eclipses 2131.2 The Mission by the Lake Nahuel Huapi 2192 Buenaventura Suárez S.J. 2222.1 Suárez’s Telescopes 2262.2 Observations from the Mission of San Cosme 2282.3 A Lunar Calendar 2322.4 Suárez and the Royal Society 2352.5 Longitude 2422.6 Teaching of Astronomy in Córdoba 2472.7 Theory 2512.8 The Guaraní as Instrument Makers 2533 Missionary Astronomy 2575 Science in the Italian Exile 2591 Juárez’s Vatican Garden of the Indies 2611.1 The Osservazioni 2691.2 Juárez’s Botanical Outlook 2752 Spiders and Electric Fish 2792.1 Jesuits and Electric Fish 2832.2 The Immediate Background of Termeyer’s Experiments 2852.3 A Fishy Anatomy 2882.4 Experiments among the Mocoví 2902.5 A Fluid Discussion 2922.6 An American Postscript 2953 Looking at the Heavens through Someone Else’s Eyes 2963.1 The Cádiz Quadrant 3004 The Cultural Transplant 3076 A Last Word 3101 Empirical Reference 3102 Science and Religion 3143 Science and Native Lore on Nature 315Appendix 319Bibliography 321Index 365