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Sabina Brevaglieri, Mackenzie Cooley. The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance. , The American Historical Review, Volume 129, Issue 3, September 2024, Pages 1333–1334, https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhae319
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Over the long sixteenth century, an increasing desire to perfect nature permeated human-animal relations within the differentiated geography of the Spanish Empire. Mackenzie Cooley’s compelling book engages with the quest to enhance nature amid colonial domination and courtly cultures. It argues for breeding as a pivotal arena where understanding and intervention in animal diversity took shape. Long before the language of race became an Enlightenment concern, discussions about selective reproduction and different concepts of animal razza raised inquiries on non-human and human difference. Avoiding anachronism, Cooley offers a nuanced conception of controlled mating and production of offspring. To be sure, Renaissance breeders cannot be reduced to “matchmaker for specific creatures” (24). A decisive emic perspective, which takes stock of a remarkable configuration of sources, draws on an expanded definition of philosophy and a refined approach to artisanal knowledge. Thus, the book addresses a dynamic aggregation and continuous differentiation of multiple breeding projects, exploring a palimpsest of competing ideas of animality, inheritance, generation, and the human race.
