Mining Language

“Bigelow has an impressive range of historiographical influences, which includes literature on mining and metallurgy from archaeology, art history, cultural studies, geography, history, and linguistics. . . . a methodological model for reconstituting knowledge production in different imperial settings.”—William and Mary Quarterly

“An exemplary and erudite study in how deep attentiveness to language and to the challenging work of locating and comparing disparate and often fragmentary sources can yield new insights into knowledges and agencies that have been rendered invisible by colonialism.”—H-LatAm

“A remarkable achievement. . . . A novel and important contribution to our understanding of early modern science and empire.”—Hispanic American Historical Review

“An original and fascinating study that reveals the significant contributions that indigenous and African peoples have made to the emergence of new scientific ideas and technologies.”—Bulletin of Spanish Studies

“[Mining Language] contributes to many of the most important discussions currently ongoing in modern scholarship. . . . [T]he book’s methodological blueprint will prove inspirational to many young scholars.”—H-Early-America

“An insightful addition to a growing body of work on the emergence of early modern scientific and technological epistemologies.”—The Americas

“[An] inspiring study. . . . Mining Language speaks to the heart of current discussions in the field of intercultural and interlingual knowledge transformations.”—Technology and Culture

“By placing translation processes at the center, Mining Language [is a] ground-breaking historiographical [contribution] that reveal[s] the narrative-making processes of early modern European empires.”—NTM

“Allison Bigelow approaches mining as a vernacular science, and, in doing so, she has written an innovative, original history of the Atlantic world that centers Native America and the African diaspora. This important book, as erudite as it is methodologically creative, forces us to think in new ways about the relationship between colonialism, epistemology, and race.” — Marcy Norton, University of Pennsylvania

“Allison Bigelow has mined a dizzying array of early modern Iberian manuscripts and printed texts to form a lexicon centered on four ancient Western obsessions: gold, silver, iron, and copper. She demonstrates how a seemingly esoteric language of metallurgy and mining not only hides the ugly innards of empire but also contains the keys to hidden knowledge systems. In Mining Language, the hills are alive and the rocks all but squirm and copulate, anxious to reveal their colors, tastes, and smells. You will never think of these familiar substances in the same way.” — Kris Lane, Tulane University