Umfang:
1 Online-Ressource (XI, 328 Seiten)
ISBN:
9780300252088
Inhalt:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- List of Plates -- Preface and Acknowledgements -- Introduction: What is a Polymath? -- 1. East and West -- 2. The Age of the ‘Renaissance Man’, 1400–1600 -- 3. The Age of ‘Monsters of Erudition’, 1600–1700 -- 4. The Age of the ‘Man of Letters’, 1700–1850 -- 5. The Age of Territoriality, 1850–2000 -- 6. A Group Portrait -- 7. Habitats -- 8. The Age of Interdisciplinarity -- Coda: Towards a Third Crisis -- Appendix: 500 Western Polymaths -- Notes -- Further Reading -- Index
Inhalt:
The first history of the western polymath, from the fifteenth century to the present day From Leonardo Da Vinci to John Dee and Comenius, from George Eliot to Oliver Sacks and Susan Sontag, polymaths have moved the frontiers of knowledge in countless ways. But history can be unkind to scholars with such encyclopaedic interests. All too often these individuals are remembered for just one part of their valuable achievements. In this engaging, erudite account, renowned cultural historian Peter Burke argues for a more rounded view. Identifying 500 western polymaths, Burke explores their wide-ranging successes and shows how their rise matched a rapid growth of knowledge in the age of the invention of printing, the discovery of the New World and the Scientific Revolution. It is only more recently that the further acceleration of knowledge has led to increased specialisation and to an environment that is less supportive of wide-ranging scholars and scientists. Spanning the Renaissance to the present day, Burke changes our understanding of this remarkable intellectual species
Anmerkung:
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
,
In English
Sprache:
Englisch
DOI:
10.12987/9780300252088
Mehr zum Autor:
Burke, Peter 1937-
