Le meraviglie del mondo. Mostri, prodigi e fatti strani dal Medioevo all'illuminismo

I was interested in this book largely for discussions of the fantastic in medieval perspective. I definitely got some of that--even the view of medieval life we get in fantasy, which is biased towards magical and interesting objects, seems to underplay the vivid and colorful reality of wonders in th Leggi tutto

Fascinating book - it seems everything Lorraine Daston's touches is brilliant. This was my entrée to early-modern science studies, and a compelling and engaging introduction at that. Though I may bicker with some of Park and Daston's arguments - I think they overstate the centrality of the 17th cent Leggi tutto

This is a pretty amazing book - one of my all-time favorites. It's a history of how a sense of wonder (religious, supernatural, whatever) drove scientific investigation in pre-Modern Europe. It's science writing and writing about the history of science, but it's also about the way culture is constru Leggi tutto

Heartbreakingly, this is a fascinating and beautiful book written in the driest, most un-wonderful prose. Tortured diction and syntax combined with a kind of stony, lifeless literalism on the sentence level. It's not only awful to read, it's also difficult to extract meaning and information from. St Leggi tutto

Neat concept even for someone less interested in pre-modern history. Major recommendation for anyone interested in history of science\intellectual history

The use of wonder and wonders in the shaping of ideas on natural history and natural philosophy from medieval times to the early modern era.

Interested in freaks and wonders, but also want to know how they got that way in the first place? Think about how huge the world was, when ostrich eggs and alligators inspired maps that contained dragon-like fish between continents. Read this before you even pick up a book on circuses or so-called h Leggi tutto

Fantastic pictures, in all senses of fantasy. Worth reading before any trip to the Cloisters (the met Cloisters)

Read this for a class, but really enjoyed the examples and the complex philosophy of wonder and curiosity.