Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Secret Science : Spanish Cosmography and the New World - Maria M. Portuondo
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Secret Science

Spanish Cosmography and the New World

By: Maria M. Portuondo

Paperback | 18 April 2013 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$103.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $25.94 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

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 Maria 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.

Industry Reviews
"Maria M. Portuondo's interpretation places Spain within larger European patterns, including inquiries into the role of empire in the development of the Scientific Revolution. Secret Science makes substantial contributions to the history of early modern science and of early modern Spain." (Jorge Canizares-Esguerra, University of Texas, Austin)"

More in History

Looking from the North : Australian history from the top down - Henry Reynolds
Henry V : The Astonishing Rise of England's Greatest Warrior King - Dan Jones
Call the Midwife : A True Story of the East End in the 1950s - Jennifer Worth
The Great Transformation : China's Road from Revolution to Reform - Odd Arne Westad
The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective - Sara Lodge
100 Diaries That Chronicled World Events - Colin Salter

RRP $44.99

$35.75

21%
OFF
Forgotten Peoples of the Ancient World - Philip Matyszak
HOT ROD Magazine : 75 Years - Drew Hardin

RRP $85.00

$70.75

17%
OFF
On My Watch : Leading NATO in a Time of War - Jens Stoltenberg

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
The Shortest History of the United States of America - Don Watson
The Breath of the Gods : The History and Future of the Wind - Simon Winchester
Japanese Haiku for Cat Lovers - William Scott Wilson

RRP $29.99

$26.75

11%
OFF