eBook - PDF

Secret Science

Name: Secret Science
ISBN: 9780226675374

Spanish Cosmography and the New World

María M. Portuondo,

English
PDF
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - PDF

Secret Science

Spanish Cosmography and the New World

María M. Portuondo,

About this book

The discovery of the New World raised many questions for early modern scientists: What did these lands contain? Where did they lie in relation to Europe? Who lived there, and what were their inhabitants like? Imperial expansion necessitated changes in the way scientific knowledge was gathered, and Spanish cosmographers in particular were charged with turning their observations of the New World into a body of knowledge that could be used for governing the largest empire the world had ever known.

As María M. Portuondo here shows, this cosmographic knowledge had considerable strategic, defensive, and monetary value that royal scientists were charged with safeguarding from foreign and internal enemies. Cosmography was thus a secret science, but despite the limited dissemination of this body of knowledge, royal cosmographers applied alternative epistemologies and new methodologies that changed the discipline, and, in the process, how Europeans understood the natural world.

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Yes, you can access Secret Science by María M. Portuondo in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & European History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.