Wonders and the Order of Nature 1150–1750

This text explores ways in which European naturalists from the High Middle ages through to the Enlightenment used wonder and wonders, the passion and its objects, to envision themselves and the natural world. Monsters, gems that shone in the dark and celestial apparitions adorned romances and puzzled philosophers. Drawing on the histories of art, science, philosophy and literature, this book explores and explains how wonder and wonders fortified princely power, rewove the texture of scientific experience and shaped the sensibility of intellectuals.