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By Deborah E. Harkness.
349 pp, $32.50.
New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 2007.
ISBN-13 978-0-3001-1196-5.

JAMA. 2008;299(6):703.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Based on formidable research in hitherto unexplored byways of the libraries and archives of London and elsewhere, this book provides a fascinatingly rich panorama of the many students of the natural world at work in Elizabethan London. The author presents a vivid portrait of largely unknown persons, together with an account of the variety of their studies, their motivations, and their work. The result is not just impressive from the point of view of its scholarly achievement but also because it offers such a wealth of detail about generally overlooked aspects of intellectual endeavor in early modern urban life.

The book includes chapters offering new insights on the nature of natural history in the late 16th century, the practice of Paracelsian and other alchemically inspired forms of medicine, the practice of mathematics and the bourgeoning of mathematical instrumentation, patronage for broadly scientific enterprises, and the development of the experimental method. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

John Henry, PhD, Reviewer
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, Scotland
john.henry@ed.ac.uk