Experiencing Nature: The Spanish American Empir. Barrera-Osorio<|

Experiencing NatureThe Spanish American Empire and the Early Scientific Revolution\nAuthor(s): Antonio Barrera-Osorio\nFormat: Paperback\nPublisher: University of Texas Press, United States\nImprint: University of Texas Press\nISBN-13: 9780292725942, 978-0292725942\nSynopsis\nAs Spain colonized the Americas during the sixteenth century, Spanish soldiers, bureaucrats, merchants, adventurers, physicians, ship pilots, and friars explored the natural world, gathered data, drew maps, and sent home specimens of America's vast resources of animals, plants, and minerals. This amassing of empirical knowledge about Spain's American possessions had two far-reaching effects. It overturned the medieval understanding of nature derived from Classical texts and helped initiate the modern scientific revolution. And it allowed Spain to commodify and control the natural resources upon which it built its American empire. \n\n In this book, Antonio Barrera-Osorio investigates how Spain's need for accurat.