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Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume II

A Century of Wonder. Book 3: The Scholarly Disciplines

Praised for its scope and depth, Asia in the Making of Europe is the first comprehensive study of Asian influences on Western culture. For volumes I and II, the author has sifted through virtually every European reference to Asia published in the sixteenth-century; he surveys a vast array of writings describing Asian life and society, the images of Asia that emerge from those writings, and, in turn, the reflections of those images in European literature and art. This monumental achievement reveals profound and pervasive influences of Asian societies on developing Western culture; in doing so, it provides a perspective necessary for a balanced view of world history.

Volume I: The Century of Discovery brings together "everything that a European could know of India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, from printed books, missionary reports, traders’ accounts and maps" (The New York Review of Books). Volume II: A Century of Wonder examines the influence of that vast new body of information about Asia on the arts, institutions, literatures, and ideas of sixteenth-century Europe.

440 pages | 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 | © 1994

Asian Studies: General Asian Studies

History: European History

Table of Contents

Book Two

List of Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

Part I - Portugal and the Learned Community of Europe

Introduction

1. Heralds of Empire

1. Portuguese Students and Diplomats Abroad

2. Damião de Góis, Publicist of Empire

3. Foreigners, Returnees, and Jesuits in Portugal

2. Books, Libraries, and Reading

1. Portugal and Spain

2. Italy

3. The Germanies

4. The Low Countries, France, and England

Appendix: Books on Asia in Sixty Sixteenth-Century Collections

Part II - The National Literatures

Introduction

3. The Inherited Themes

1. Antiquity

2. The Romance of Alexander

3. The Westward Migration of Story

4. Renaissance Forms and Fashions

4. Portuguese Literature

1. Glory and Disillusionment

2. Maritime Tragedies and Siege Triumphs

3. The Chronicle-Narrative

4. The Epic Synthesis

4. Spanish Literature

1. Curiousity, Hope, and Frustration

2. Universal Empire in Romance and Poetry

3. New Historical Genres

6. Italian Literature

1. Realism in Romantic Poetry

2. Popular and Didactic Literature

3. History and Cosmography

4. The Political Thought of Giovanni Botero

7. French Literature

1. The Challenge of Asia

2. The "New World" of the Poets

3. Cultural Relativism in Popular and Didactic Prose

4. From Cosmography to Universal History

8. The Germanic Literatures

1. German Literature

A. First Reactions

B. Protestants versus Catholics

2. Netherlandish Literature

3. English Literature

A. From Humanism to Cosmography

B. The Art of Poesy

C. Drama and Satire

Book Three

Part III - The Scholarly Disciplines

Introduction

9. Technology and the Natural Sciences

1. Technology and Engineering

2. Mathematics and Astronomy

3. Nautics and Navigation

4. Alchemy and Chemistry

5. Botany

10. Cartography and Geography

1. The Eclipse of Ptolemy

2. The New Cartography

3. Atlases, Patronage, and Geographical Learning

11. Language and Linguistics

1. Sources

2. Renaissance Linguistic Ideas

3. Classification and Comparison

4. Harmony and Universality

5. Rebabelization

Appendix: Words of Asiatic Origin Introduced into the European Vocabulary

7. Epilogue

General Bibliography

Chapter Bibliographies

Index

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