TULIPOMANIA THE STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST COVERED FLOWER DASH M. Księgarnia

In the 1630s, visitors to the prosperous trading cities of the Netherlands couldn't help but notice that thousands of normally sober, hardworking Dutch citizens from every walk of life were caught up in an extraordinary frenzy of buying and selling. The object of this unprecedented speculation was the tulip, a delicate and exotic Eastern import that had bewitched horticulturists, noblemen, and tavern owners alike. For almost a year rare bulbs changed hands for incredible and ever-increasing sums, until single flowers were being sold for more than the cost of a house. Historians would come to call it tulipomania. It was the first futures market in history, and like so many of the ones that would follow, it crashed spectacularly, plunging speculators and investors into economic ruin and despair.

This is the history of the tulip, from its origins on the barren, windswept steppes of central Asia to its place of honor in the lush imperial gardens of Constantinople, to its starring moment as the most coveted -- and beautiful -- commodity in Europe. Historian Mike Dash vividly narrates the story of this amazing flower and the colorful cast of characters -- Turkish sultans, Yugoslav soldiers, French botanists, and Dutch tavern keepers -- who were centuries apart historically and worlds apart culturally, but who all had one thing in common: tulipomania.

Table of Contents

Map of the United Provinces of the Netherlands
    A Note on Prices    ix
1    A Mania for Tulips    1
2    The Valleys of Tien Shan    4
3    Within the Abode of Bliss    12
4    Stranger from the East    27
5    Clusius    36
6    Leiden    46
7    An Adornment to the Cleavage    64
8    The Tulip in the Mirror    78
9    Florists    96
10    Boom    106
11    At the Sign of The Golden Grape    130
12    The Orphans of Wouter Winkel    146
13    Bust    162
14    Goddess of Whores    175
15    At the Court of the Tulip King    196
16    Late Flowering    208
    Notes    221
    Bibliography    253
    Acknowledgments    261
    Index    263

288 pages, Paperback

Księgarnia nie działa. Nie odpowiadamy na pytania i nie realizujemy zamówien. Do odwolania !.