Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe
Between Market and Laboratory
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Acknowledgments
1 Introduction: Why Materials?
Ursula Klein and E. C. Spary
Part 1 The Production of Materials
Introduction to Part 1
Ursula Klein
2 Vermilion, Mercury, Blood, and Lizards: Matter and Meaning in Metalworking
Pamela H. Smith
3 Ceramic Nature
Hanna Rose Shell
4 The Production of Silver, Copper, and Lead in the Harz Mountains from Late Medieval Times to the Onset of Industrialization
Christoph Bartels
5 Ink
Adrian Johns
6 Blending Technical Innovation and Learned Natural Knowledge: The Making of Ethers
Ursula Klein
Part 2 Materials in the Market Sphere
Introduction to Part 2
Ursula Klein
7 Enlightened Milk: Reshaping a Bodily Substance into a Chemical Object
Barbara Orland
8 The Sparkling Nectar of Spas; or, Mineral Water as a Medically Commodifiable Material in the Province, 1770–1805
Matthew D. Eddy
9 Liqueurs and the Luxury Marketplace in Eighteenth-Century Paris
E. C. Spary
Part 3 State Interventions
Introduction to Part 3
Ursula Klein
10 Economizing Agricultural Resources in the German Economic Enlightenment
Marcus Popplow
11 The Crisis of English Gunpowder in the Eighteenth Century
Seymour H. Mauskopf
12 Between Craft Routines and Academic Rules: Natural Dyestuffs and the “Art” of Dyeing in the Eighteenth Century
Agustí Nieto-Galan
Secondary Sources
Contributors
Index
“A very valuable addition to the history of matter. A fascinating and thought-provoking range of studies of mundane substances as lures to consumption, commerce, warfare and science.”
Biological Sciences: Natural History
Earth Sciences: History of Earth Sciences
Economics and Business: Economics--History
History: British and Irish History | European History | General History | History of Ideas | History of Technology
Physical Sciences: History and Philosophy of Physical Sciences
Sociology: Social History
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