American baroque: pearls and the nature of empire, 1492-1700

Abstract

"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"--Amazon.com.

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.