Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- List of Illustrations -- Chapter One Introduction -- 'Of this Book we can tell many a wonder . . .' -- Cartesianism as benchmark? -- Citations from the Book of Nature -- The study of the Book of Nature -- Chapter Two The Interpretation of the Book of Nature Down to Around 1660 -- 1. The strength of tradition -- Liber, theatrum, speculum -- The heritage of the Reformation -- The Book of Nature in Dutch religious writings -- 2. Two books up for discussion -- The decomposition of the classical corpus -- Rewriting the Book of Nature -- The Bible as a problematic text -- An interim balance -- Chapter Three Comets: The Debate on the 'Wonders in the Heavens' -- 1. Introduction -- Cometae, monstra, prodigia -- Comets in the Christian tradition -- 2. Dutch views on comets down to around 1660 -- The 1577 comet -- The 1618 comet -- The Further Reformation versus superstitious practices -- Humanists and prodigia -- Developments in natural philosophy: Descartes -- 3. From ominous to glorious signs: the comet of 1664 -- A 'new saddening night light' -- Johannes Graevius and the Collège de Sçavants -- Natural laws and exegesis -- 4. Conceptions of comets around 1700 -- Voetians on the Book of Nature -- Balthasar Bekker -- 'Expressions of God's glory' -- 5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter Four Insects: 'The Wonders of God in the Humblest Creatures' -- 1. Introduction -- Classical conceptions of insects -- Insects in early modern Europe -- 2. The study of Insects in the Dutch Republic down to ca. 1660 -- The humanist tradition (I): insects as emblems -- Clutius senior and junior -- Johannes Goedaert and Johannes de Mey -- The humanist tradition (II): insects under the magnifying glass -- 3. Swammerdam and the transformation of the Book of Nature -- A biographical sketch -- Historia insectorum generalis.

The study of the Bible of Nature -- The influence of Swammerdam -- 4. The insect bug around 1700 -- Antoni van Leeuwenhoek -- Stephan Blankaart -- Collectors and insects -- 5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter Five Collections of Curiosities: 'A Book in which God has Gloriously Described Himself' -- 1. Introduction -- Musaeum, library, microcosm -- Italian examples -- 2. Collections of curiosities in the Netherlands down to ca. 1660 -- Bernardus Paludanus -- Collections of curiosities in Leiden -- Humanist collectors: Brinck, Colvius and De Laet -- Remote countries, ancient languages and biblical chronology -- 3. From collection of curiosities to cabinet of naturalia -- The cabinet of Swammerdam senior -- Johannes Swammerdam: the order and structure of God's works -- Frederik Ruysch: monsters in the margin -- 4. Dutch collections around 1700 -- Nicolaes Witsen: between the Flood and Babel -- Albertus Seba: merchant or minister? -- Levinus Vincent: the collection as Wondertoneel -- 5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter Six Books of Wonders: From Rarity to Regularity -- 1. Introduction -- Classical and Christian heritage -- Sixteenth-century works -- 2. Books of Wonders in the Dutch Republic down to around 1660 -- Boaistuau's Wonderlijcke Schadt-boeck and Dutch followers -- Popular theological works -- 3. Johannes de Mey: between exegesis and experiment -- The Sacra physiologia -- Halelu-jah, of lof de Heeren verbreydt op het natuer-toneel -- The work of De Mey in a wider perspective -- 4. Books of wonders around 1700 -- Jan van Westerhoven -- 5. Concluding remarks -- Chapter Seven The Book of Nature: From Axiom to Metaphor -- The atheist convinced -- The Book of Nature and the Holy Scripture -- Concluding Remarks on the Book of Nature -- Bibliography -- Index of Names.