Introduction

Abstract

This chapter introduces the main topic and the seven chapters of the edited volume Toward an Intercultural Natural History of Brazil: The Historia Naturalis Brasiliae Reconsidered. First, it situates the publication of Piso and Marcgraf's treatise in the context of the Dutch Republic and its global economic ambitions in the mid-seventeenth century. It then briefly reviews its reception history and its impact on science in order to explain the need and importance of yet another scholarly publication about the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Each one of the seven chapters is thus briefly summarized. This introductory chapter argues that a rich, multi-layered, and novel interpretation of this book can emerge from the interdisciplinary set of research questions and methodologies used in this volume's reconsideration of the treatise.