Dangerous Drugs : : The Self-Presentation of the Merchant-Poet Joannes Six van Chandelier (1620-1695) / / Ronny Spaans.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Amsterdam University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Spaans, Ronny,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam : : Amsterdam University Press, , [2020]; ©2020
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (456 p.) :; 3 color plates

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Table of Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgements -- Part I. Introduction -- 1. Theory and reception -- Part II. Medicinal and Sacred Drugs -- 2. The sober druggist -- 3. Drugs in the Wunderkammer -- 4. Drugs as remedies -- 5. Drugs as material and linguistic cosmetics -- 6. Drugs as explosives -- 7. Drugs as Sacred Offerings -- 8. Drugs as intoxicants -- Part III. Divine Blood for Sale -- 9. The human body as a drug -- 10. Conclusion -- Appendix I: ‘Rariteiten te koop’ -- Appendix II: Family and business network of Joannes Six van Chandelier -- Bibliography -- General index -- Index of poems