Juan Pimentel

• Professor at Institute of History, Spanish National Research Council

In this article, we try to explain the origin of a disagreement; the sort that often arises when the subject is the history of early modern Spanish science. In the decades between 1970 and 1990, while some historians were trying to include Spain in the grand narrative of the rise of modern science, the very historical category of the Scientific Rev...

This article opens with a review of Isaac Newton’s theory of light, focusing on the controversial character of his crucial experiment. It then proceeds to examine certain aspects of his legacy in a century that was perhaps more Newtonian than his own optics. We analyse some of the metaphors connected with light and the symbolic role of light as the...

This paper explores the endeavours of José Celestino Mutis before and during his directorship of the Royal Botanical Expedition to the New Kingdom of Granada (1783-1816). Firstly, it will consider various aspects of Mutis’ activities as a naturalist and entrepreneur, in particular his efforts to promote the identification and commercial exploitatio...

This article aims to reassess the figure of Garcia da Orta and his work, Colóquios dos simples e drogas da Índia (Goa, 1563), a dialogue between Oriental and Western knowledge, by addressing aspects of the author’s origins and education in the Iberian Peninsula. As a member of the Jewish community and the son of refugees, Garcia da Orta was accusto...

This essay examines what the cultural history of science is, and points out some of the problems with regard to its correct definition and demarcation. It emphasizes some key concepts (practices and representations) and some significant approaches (the visual, the material, the symbolic) in the development of this line of inquiry that may contribut...

If travel has been one of the leitmotifs of Western imagination, Robinson Crusoe has certainly been one of its foremost incarnations. This British Ulysses foretold the global village, but also its problems. He predicted the end of distance, but also the triumph of isolation and anaesthetized loneliness. This paper provides an overview of the connec...

The main square of Mexico City, known as the Zocalo, occupies a central place in the make-up of the city, the nation, and even the national identity of Mexico. As we all know, the conquistadors built Mexico City on the site of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. Indeed, the ruins of the Great Temple of the old city lie hidden under the s...

This chapter examines seventeenth-century American nature and the discipline of natural history, focusing on the ascetic Jesuit writer, Juan E. Nieremberg. It examines Nieremberg's works on natural philosophy and natural history: the Curiosa y oculta filosofía (Curious and Obscure Philosophy, 1649), which deals with wonders and curiosities of natur...

This book provides a survey of the practices of science in the Spanish and Portuguese empires from 1500 to 1800. Authored by an interdisciplinary team of specialists from the United States, Latin America, and Europe, it consists of fifteen chapters, as well as an introduction and an afterword by scholars in the field. The topics discussed include n...

To conmemorate Humboldt return journey to Europe means that of a double transference: we also celebrate how the New World was back to the Old, and how Nature back to the Book. Our focus is representation, an sphere where humboldtian descriptive literature plays a basic role. Here we study the relation between images and words, between Humboldt visu...

To conmemorate Humboldt return journey to Europe means that of a double transference: we also celebrate how the New World was back to the Old, and how Nature back to the Book. Our focus is representation, an sphere where humboldtian descriptive literature plays a basic role. Here we study the relation between images and words, between Humboldt visu...

Este documento trata de las aportaciones españolas a las Ciencias de la Naturaleza en el siglo XVIII, centrándose en la vida y la obra de tres importantes científicos y viajeros: Jorge Juan, José Celestino Mutis y Alejandro Malaspina. Los tres tuvieron una gran vocación política, ya que fueron conscientes del papel de la ciencia en la educación de...

Nuestra investigación ha tenido por objeto el pensamiento colonial de Alejandro Malaspina, protagonista de la mayor expedición científica a ultramar en el setecientos español. Es el análisis de los orígenes, la forma, los contenidos y el destino de unas ideas, así como una biografía del hombre que las soporta: biografia e historia intelectual. Nues...

Libro no venal diseñado por Montse Lago. El libro presenta dos textos inéditos en castellano y claves de la producción científica de Isaac Newton. Contiene una extensa introducción que contextualiza el interés de Newton por la óptica y la teoría de la luz. Los dos textos mencionados fueron "La nueva teoría de la luz y los colores" y "El nuevo teles...

Peer reviewed