The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution
by Deborah Harkness 
On This Page
Description
Bestselling author Deborah E. Harkness explores the streets, shops, back alleys, and gardens of Elizabethan London, where a boisterous and diverse group of men and women shared a keen interest in the study of nature. These assorted merchants, gardeners, barber-surgeons, midwives, instrument makers, mathematics teachers, engineers, alchemists, and other experimenters, she contends, formed a patchwork scientific community whose practices set the stage for the Scientific Revolution. It was show more their collaborative, yet often contentious, ethos that helped to develop the ideals of modern scientific research. The Jewel House examines six particularly fascinating episodes of scientific inquiry and dispute in sixteenth-century London, bringing to life the individuals involved and the challenges they faced. These men and women experimented and invented, argued and competed, waged wars in the press, and struggled to understand the complexities of the natural world. Together, their stories illuminate the blind alleys and surprising twists and turns taken as medieval philosophy gave way to the empirical, experimental culture that became a hallmark of the Scientific Revolution. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
The communities and people of Elizabethan London's cutting-edge scientific culture come alive in this scholarly study.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
John Carey's Sunday Best
82 works; 3 members
Which house?
423 works; 16 members
Author Information
31+ Works 32,692 Members
Deborah Harkness was born in 1965. She received a B. A. from Mount Holyoke College in 1986, a M. A. from Northwestern University in 1990, and a Ph. D. from the University of California at Davis in 1994. She is a professor of history at the University of Southern California. Harkness is a well-regarded historian of science and medicine, show more specializing in the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries. Her first novel, A Discovery of Witches, was published in 2011. She is the author of the All Souls Trilogy. In 2006, she began a wine blog entitled, Good Wine Under $20. It provides an online record of her search for the best, most affordable wines. She made The New York Times Bestseller List with The Book of Life and Shadow of Night. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Deborah Harkness is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
Awards and Honors
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 320
- Popularity
- 99,633
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 4
