Mary Terrall’s new book is a beautifully-written, carefully-researched, and compellingly-argued account of the practices of natural history in the eighteenth-century francophone world. It is a must-read for historians of science, and as a bonus it also includes descriptions of frog pants, chickens wearing stockings, and mittens made of spider silk. You can find our conversation about it here. Continue reading Catching Nature in the Act: An Interview
Janice Neri and I recently talked about her beautiful new book on the imaging of insects in early modernity and its surprisingly wide-ranging consequences for understanding the history of science, art, and global exchange. You can find our conversation here. Continue reading The Insect and the Image: An Interview
Daniela Bleichmar and I recently spoke about her beautiful new book on botany and the imaging of empire in the eighteenth-century Hispanic world. This is likely to be of interest to historians of science, of empire, and of art. You can find our conversation here. Continue reading Visible Empire: An Interview
The Monkey and the Inkpot: Natural History and its Transformations in Early Modern China (Harvard University Press, 2009) The Monkey and the Inkpot introduces natural history in sixteenth century China through the iconic Bencao gangmu (Systematic materia medica) of Li Shizhen (1518–1593). The encyclopedic Bencao gangmu is widely lauded as a classic embodiment of pre-modern Chinese medical thought. This first book-length study in English of Li’s text reveals a “cabinet of curiosities” of … Continue reading The Monkey And the Inkpot
Carla Nappi 