This volume is a comprehensive account of knowledge of the natural world in Europe, ca. 1500-1700. Often referred to as the Scientific Revolution, this period saw major transformations in fields as diverse as anatomy and astronomy, natural history and mathematics. Articles by leading specialists describe in clear, accessible prose supplemented by extensive bibliographies, how new ideas, discoveries, and institutions shaped the ways in which nature came to be studied, understood, and used.

This volume offers to general and specialist readers alike the fullest and most complete survey of the development of science in the eighteenth century. It is designed to be read as both a narrative and an interpretation, and also to be used as a work of reference. While prime attention is paid to Western science, space is also given to science in traditional cultures and to colonial science. The contributors, world leaders in their respective specialties, engage with current historiographical and methodological controversies and strike out positions of their own.