Many are familiar with the ideas of Copernicus, Descartes, and Galileo. But here the reader is also introduced to lesser known ideas and contributors to the Scientific Revolution, such as the mathematical Bernoulli Family and Andreas Vesalius, whose anatomical charts revolutionized the study of the human body. More marginal characters include the magician Robert Fludd. The encyclopedia also discusses subjects like Arabic science and the bizarre history of blood transfusions, and institutions like the Universities of Padua and Leiden, which were dominant forces in academic medicine and...

Empires of Knowledge engages with the ongoing conversation among historians of science and medicine, what is a scientific network, how does it form and what work does it do in making knowledge? Building on over two decades of work on the republic of letters and long-distance networks this collection juxtaposes case studies of well-known intelligencers who operated in various locations in Europe and Britain with the far newer, more global history of brokers, or 'go-betweens. This collection moves the debate beyond Europe into the Ottoman Empire, Asia, and the Atlantic World....

Empires of Knowledge engages with the ongoing conversation among historians of science and medicine, what is a scientific network, how does it form and what work does it do in making knowledge? Building on over two decades of work on the republic of letters and long-distance networks this collection juxtaposes case studies of well-known intelligencers who operated in various locations in Europe and Britain with the far newer, more global history of brokers, or 'go-betweens. This collection moves the debate beyond Europe into the Ottoman Empire, Asia, and the Atlantic World....