Pearls have enthralled global consumers since antiquity, and the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella explicitly charged Columbus with finding pearls, as well as gold and silver, when he sailed westward in 1492. 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. ...
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Pearls have enthralled global consumers since antiquity, and the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella explicitly charged Columbus with finding pearls, as well as gold and silver, when he sailed westward in 1492. 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. Pearls-a unique source of wealth because of their renewable, fungible, and portable nature-defied easy categorization. Their value was highly subjective and determined more by the individuals, free and enslaved, who produced, carried, traded, wore, and painted them than by imperial decrees and tax-related assessments. The irregular baroque pearl, often transformed by the imagination of a skilled artisan into a fantastical jewel, embodied this subjective appeal. Warsh blends environmental, social, and cultural history to construct microhistories of peoples' wide-ranging engagement with this deceptively simple jewel. Pearls facilitated imperial fantasy and personal ambition, adorned the wardrobes of monarchs and financed their wars, and played a crucial part in the survival strategies of diverse people of humble means. These stories, taken together, uncover early modern conceptions of wealth, from the hardscrabble shores of Caribbean islands to the lavish rooms of Mediterranean palaces.
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Add this copy of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492 to cart. $16.53, very good condition, Sold by BooksRun rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Philadelphia, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Omohundro Institute and UNC Press.
Add this copy of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492 to cart. $25.02, good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Omohundro Institute and Universi.
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Seller's Description:
Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD PAPERBACK Standard-sized.
Add this copy of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492 to cart. $45.15, very good condition, Sold by Mullen Books, Inc. ABAA / ILAB rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Marietta, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture / Univ. of....
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VG+/VG. Blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Blue and color-illustrated dust jacket, pale yellow and pink lettering. xviii; 275 pp. 30 BW figures, 13 color plates, and 6 BW maps. "Among the first forms of material wealth extracted from America, pearls are important to our understanding of how contact with the New World transformed the economic and cultural milieu of early modern Europe. In this impeccably researched book, Warsh illuminates the diverse participants--from enslaved pearl divers in Venezuela to European merchants, jewelers, and customers--of the newly global pearl trade. A fascinating read for anyone interested in the complex nuances of world history during this formative period."--Back cover.
Add this copy of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492 to cart. $47.14, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by The University of North Caroli.
Add this copy of American Baroque: Pearls and the Nature of Empire, 1492 to cart. $52.02, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2021 by Omohundro Institute and UNC Pr.
