Introduction

This chapter introduces the main topic and the seven chapters of the edited volume Toward an Intercultural Natural History of Brazil: The Historia Naturalis Brasiliae Reconsidered. First, it situates the publication of Piso and Marcgraf's treatise in the context of the Dutch Republic and its global economic ambitions in the mid-seventeenth century. It then briefly reviews its reception history and its impact on science in order to explain the need and importance of yet another scholarly publication about the Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Despite Piso's effort to replicate the success of the HNB, it was the original edition that made history, partially due to the patronage of Johan Maurits and the strategic editorship and distribution by De Laet and the Elzevier publishing house. Up until the present day, scholars continue to discuss the HNB from diverse disciplinary angles.