This volume investigates processes of knowledge formation in the Iberian colonies by attempting to understand the Spanish and Portuguese contribution to the European scientific tradition, and by tracing the origins and history of this knowledge to find out how it was gained. The studies in this volume reconsider our understanding of what scientific knowledge is and introduce a variety of scientific cultures of European and non-European origin. They examine the mixing processes of scientific cultures and the role these cultures played in the colonial situation at the intersection of non-human processes and human action. The volume brings together contributions in the history of botany, art, materia medica, translation in the religious sphere of colonial missions as well as mining as a scientific, juridical and industrial endeavor.

Helge Wendt received his PhD in history at Mannheim University in 2009. He worked on the history of Christian missions in the context of different European colonial powers. He has worked since 2011 as a research scholar at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in the project "Globalization of Knowledge in History." He also undertakes research in the framework of the project "The Finale of Antiquity. The Analytic Turn of Mechanics between Traditional Models of Thought and Claims of Autonomy," which is funded by The Collaborative Research Centre "Transformations of Antiquity."