STRANGER IN A FOREIGN LAND: AN ANALYSIS OF JOSE DE ACOSTA’S SCIENTIFIC REALIZATIONS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PERU

Authors

Thayne R. Ford, Brigham Young University
Lee Butler, Brigham Young University

Keywords

foreign land, Jose de Acosta, sixteenth-century, Peru

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

Jose de Acosta’s Historia Natural y Moral de Las Indias 1 is both a reflection of and a response to the scientific turmoil that the New World had caused in Renaissance Europe. While Italy and France were overtaken by the Scientific Revolution, Spain was left stewing in its religious orthodoxy, wondering how to incorporate the innovations and breakthroughs of sixteenth-century science. Yet in Acosta’s writings there is no hesitation; rather a scientific fervor is revealed, illustrating that perhaps within certain religious circles empirical sentiments were becoming prevalent. Spain was not the sixteenth-century scientific quagmire that some have purported it to be; rather it was full of “intellectual excitement … of observation and perception.”2 In this sense, Acosta’s ideas are a reflection of his time.

Recommended Citation

Ford, Thayne R. and Butler, Lee (2013) "STRANGER IN A FOREIGN LAND: AN ANALYSIS OF JOSE DE ACOSTA’S SCIENTIFIC REALIZATIONS IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PERU," Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 2013: Iss. 1, Article 333.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/jur/vol2013/iss1/333