American baroque : pearls and the nature of empire, 1492-1700 / Molly A. Warsh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Warsh, Molly A., author.

Contributor:

Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pearl industry and trade--Caribbean Area--History--16th century.

Pearl industry and trade.

Pearl industry and trade--Caribbean Area--History--17th century.

Pearls.

History.

Colonies.

Spain--Colonies--History--16th century.

Spain.

Spain--Colonies--History--17th century.

Pearls--Political aspects--History.

Caribbean Area.

Physical Description:

xviii, 275 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Williamsburg, Virginia : Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture ; Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018]

Summary:

"American baroque charts Spain's exploitation of Caribbean pearl fisheries to trace the genesis of its maritime empire. In the 1500s, licit and illicit trade in the jewel gave rise to global networks, connecting the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean to the pearl-producing regions of the Chesapeake and northern Europe"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction : The global early Americas

Sex, death, and the sea : pearls in the early modern imagination

Pearls and a political ecology of empire, 1498-1541

"Even the black women wear strands of pearls" : assessing the worth of subjects and objects in a new era, 1540-1600

Making "a machine of pearls" in the seventeenth century : custom and innovation in Iberian pearl-fishing ventures

"Regardless of gender, class, color, or condition" : pearls in private possession around the Iberian imperial world

"A few more or less make no difference" : accounting for pearls in northern Europe in the seventeenth century

Conclusion : Rescuing "that tired, irregular pearl from such lengthy isolation."

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781469638973

1469638975

OCLC:

1004535853