Dangerous Drugs

The Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620-1695)
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-041-17790-6
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 456 Seiten, Format (B × H): 174 mm x 246 mm

Reihe: Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age

In the 17th century, the Dutch Republic was the centre of the world trade in exotic drugs and spices. They were sought after both as medicines, and as luxury objects for the bourgeois class, giving rise to a medical and moral anxiety in the Republic. This ambivalent view on exotic drugs is the theme of the poetry of Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620-1695). Six, who himself ran the drug shop 'The Gilded Unicorn' in Amsterdam, addresses a number of exotic medicines in his poems, such as musk, incense, the miracle drug theriac, Egyptian mumia, and even the blood of Charles I of England. In Dangerous Drugs, these texts are studied for the first time. The study shows how Six, through a process of self-presentation as a sober and restrained merchant, but also as a penitent sinner, thirsting for God's grace, links early modern drug abuse to different desires, such as lust, avarice, pride and curiosity. The book shows also how an early modern debate on exotic drugs contributed to an important shift in early modern natural science, from a drug lore based on mythical and fabulous concepts, to a botany based on observation and systematic examination.

Zielgruppe

Academic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Spaans, Ronny

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Geschichte der Medizin
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Weltgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literarische Strömungen & Epochen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements, Part I: Introduction, Part II: Medicinal and sacred drugs, Part III: Divine Blood for Sale, Appendix I, Appendix II, Bibliography, Index

Über Autor(innen)

Ronny Spaans is Professor of Nordic Literature at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo, Norway. His research focuses on literary history, literary historiography, and early modern literature, as well as poetry, new Norse literary history, and Norwegian-Dutch relations.