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Article ID: CBB945357298

Flower Breeding in Early Modern Istanbul: A Science of Seeds (2022)

Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 113
Issue: 3
Pages: 588-596

DOI: 10.1086/721239

URI: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/721239

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Seed industry and trade Technology and environment, relationship Material culture Seeds Note-taking Encyclopedias and dictionaries Guides; handbooks Economic botany; plant cultivation; horticulture Flowers 17th century Istanbul (Turkey)

In the seventeenth century, new varieties of flowers were created in Istanbul’s many agricultural spaces. At the same time, new literary genres related to flower breeding appeared: technical “how-to” manuals, which derived from an earlier tradition of agricultural treatises; encyclopedias of the flower varieties created in Istanbul; and biographical dictionaries of Istanbul’s flower breeders. Such texts, which typically bear the designation Şükūfe-nāme (Books on Flowers), attempt to prescribe note-taking habits, agricultural timelines, and observational techniques. Varieties of flowers with various shapes, sizes, and colors are attributed to the work of individual local breeders. This essay explores the role of seeds in this rich textual production in Istanbul. As things that are mobile yet can take root, seeds became objects of study during what was an era of heightened exchange and mobility in seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul. In contrast to the view holding that the history of flower seeds unfolded primarily in Ottoman exchanges with Western Europe, the case of Şükūfe-nāme works shows that seeds were technological objects with local histories.

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Article Prakash Kumar (2022) Introduction: Seeds and the History of Science. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 581-587). unapi

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