Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic

Nature and culture in the sixteenth-century Atlantic world produced fantastic images, with Europeans and Native Americans thinking about a natural world undergoing rapid change. Peter C. Mancall's work reveals how the encounter between the old and new changed the fate of millions of individuals, inspired by medieval concepts of nature and ending in an age when the printed book became the primary avenue for the dissemination of scientific information. Native Americans and Europeans alike thought about monsters, spirits, and insects in considerable depth, and the modern world emerged as a result of the myriad encounters between peoples who inhabited the Atlantic basin.

Format: Hardback
Length: 212 pages
Publication date: 06 December 2017
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

In the sixteenth-century Atlantic world, nature and culture intertwined to create awe-inspiring images. In the South of France, a cloister's painted wooden panels depicted unicorns, dragons, and centaurs, while the Mayans in the Yucatan created serpent-column portals in their buildings. Historian Peter C. Mancall's book, "Nature and Culture in the Early Modern Atlantic," explores how Europeans and Native Americans perceived a rapidly changing natural world in the century following Christopher Columbus' historic voyages. Through innovative use of oral history and folklore, original manuscript atlases, paintings, and texts, Mancall reveals how the encounter between the old and new worlds transformed the lives of millions. This work of Atlantic, European, and American history begins with medieval concepts of nature and ends in an age when the printed book became the primary avenue for scientific information dissemination. During the sixteenth century, the boundaries between the natural and supernatural were more permeable than modern readers might imagine. Both Native Americans and Europeans pondered monsters, spirits, and insects in great detail. Mancall's narrative highlights how the modern world emerged through the numerous interactions between the diverse peoples inhabiting the Atlantic basin during this period. The centuries that followed can only be fully understood by examining how culture, in various forms such as stories, paintings, and books, shaped human understanding.

Weight: 702g
Dimension: 189 x 262 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780812249668