Description

Book Synopsis
Drawing on published natural histories, manuscript correspondence, garden plans, travelogues, watercolors, and drawings, this book reconstructs the evolution of this discipline of description through four generations of naturalists.

Trade Review
"In this beautifully illustrated, fascinating book, Brian Ogilvie shows how the natural sciences developed in a vigorous and quite different way to the experimentalism of the 'hard' sciences." - Adrian Barnett, New Scientist "Ogilvie shows that history has much to teach us.... [He] has done more than just write about the Renaissance science of describing; he has written the story of how science constantly reinvents itself, seen through the lens of the pre-Linnaeans." - Sandra Knapp, Nature "A book that... breaks with tradition even as it builds on it. Brian Ogilvie argues convincingly that we need to discard, once and for all, the idea that natural history remained largely static from the era of Aristotle until the birth of the modern world." - Jim Endersby, Times Literary Supplement"

The Science of Describing

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    A Paperback / softback by Brian W Ogilvie

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      Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
      Publication Date: 01/03/2008
      ISBN13: 9780226620886, 978-0226620886
      ISBN10: 0226620883
      Also in:
      The arts: general topics

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Drawing on published natural histories, manuscript correspondence, garden plans, travelogues, watercolors, and drawings, this book reconstructs the evolution of this discipline of description through four generations of naturalists.

      Trade Review
      "In this beautifully illustrated, fascinating book, Brian Ogilvie shows how the natural sciences developed in a vigorous and quite different way to the experimentalism of the 'hard' sciences." - Adrian Barnett, New Scientist "Ogilvie shows that history has much to teach us.... [He] has done more than just write about the Renaissance science of describing; he has written the story of how science constantly reinvents itself, seen through the lens of the pre-Linnaeans." - Sandra Knapp, Nature "A book that... breaks with tradition even as it builds on it. Brian Ogilvie argues convincingly that we need to discard, once and for all, the idea that natural history remained largely static from the era of Aristotle until the birth of the modern world." - Jim Endersby, Times Literary Supplement"

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