An interdisciplinary study of the rise of empirical observation in the Spanish arts and sciences as the principle vehicle for acquiring knowledge about the natural world.

Claudia Schaefer is Rush Rhees Chair, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature, and Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Rochester. She is the author of several books, including Bored to Distraction: Cinema of Excess in End-of-the-Century Mexico and Spain, also published by SUNY Press.