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The Science of Describing: Natural History in Renaissance Europe
Out of the diverse traditions of medical humanism, classical philology, and natural philosophy, Renaissance naturalists created a new science devoted to discovering and describing plants and animals. Drawing on published natural histories, manuscript correspondence, garden plans, travelogues, watercolors, and drawings, The Science of Describing reconstructs the evolution of this discipline of description through four generations of naturalists.
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, naturalists focused on understanding ancient and medieval descriptions of the natural world, but by the mid-sixteenth century naturalists turned toward distinguishing and cataloguing new plant and animal species. To do so, they developed new techniques of observing and recording, created botanical gardens and herbaria, and exchanged correspondence and specimens within an international community. By the early seventeenth century, naturalists began the daunting task of sorting through the wealth of information they had accumulated, putting a new emphasis on taxonomy and classification.
Illustrated with woodcuts, engravings, and photographs, The Science of Describing is the first broad interpretation of Renaissance natural history in more than a generation and will appeal widely to an interdisciplinary audience.
In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, naturalists focused on understanding ancient and medieval descriptions of the natural world, but by the mid-sixteenth century naturalists turned toward distinguishing and cataloguing new plant and animal species. To do so, they developed new techniques of observing and recording, created botanical gardens and herbaria, and exchanged correspondence and specimens within an international community. By the early seventeenth century, naturalists began the daunting task of sorting through the wealth of information they had accumulated, putting a new emphasis on taxonomy and classification.
Illustrated with woodcuts, engravings, and photographs, The Science of Describing is the first broad interpretation of Renaissance natural history in more than a generation and will appeal widely to an interdisciplinary audience.
385 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 5, 2014
El mejor capítulo: "A Science of Describing"... para todos los interesados en la Historia Natural.
March 20, 2013
Not the most exciting topic, it turns out. Ogilvie provides good solid research with plenty of examples. But unless you have a special interest in the subject, you'll probably not enjoy it.
March 14, 2026
Reads as very disorganized -- not at all chronological, and will mention certain things without going further into depth. Also a little discouraging that a book that purports to discuss the "science of describing" makes no reference to Linnaeus (granted, an Enlightenment thinker, but basically the man who inherited this whole tradition).
February 10, 2014
Un gran trabajo de investigación, la forma de narrar te mantiene involucrado con la historia y se conduce con un lógica muy bien construida.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews