Blair, Ann (Author)
Bruniana & Campanelliana: Ricerche Filosofiche e Materiali Storico-testuali
Volume: 26
Issue: 2
Pages: 475-488
The ‘encyclopedia’ was not a clearly defined genre before the eighteenth century. A wide range of works of the late Renaissance have been considered encyclopedic, by historians and by authors at the time (for example in the list of antecedents cited by Johann Heinrich Alsted in his Encyclopedia of 1630). I focus on their variability in size, from short books offering definitions and diagrams of the disciplines to huge compilations of material. The former touted their orderly and methodical approach; the latter sought to offer something for everyone, often without an effective ordering system, but with an alphabetical index instead. Whereas brevity has been identified as the dominant literary virtue in the Middle Ages, learned books were typically valued for their length in the early modern period, thanks in part to the commercial benefits that some printers associated with them and to the new humanist admiration for copia. Authors of large encyclopedic works emphasized their goal of striking a balance between being too brief (at the risk of being misleading or incomplete) and too prolix (at the risk of being tedious, as exemplified in their discussions by the late medieval theologian Thomas Haselbach).
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Maria Gioia Tavoni;
(2021)
Storie di libri e tecnologie. Dall’avvento della stampa al digitale
(/isis/citation/CBB578661884/)
Book
Matteo Valleriani;
Andrea Ottone;
(2022)
Publishing Sacrobosco’s De sphaera in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB452058651/)
Article
Stouraiti, Anastasia;
(2013)
Talk, Script and Print: The Making of Island Books in Early Modern Venice
(/isis/citation/CBB001202085/)
Article
Mordechai Feingold;
Andrej Svorenčík;
(2020)
A Preliminary Census of Copies of the First Edition of Newton’s Principia (1687)
(/isis/citation/CBB500905012/)
Book
Leitão, Henrique de Sousa;
(2009)
Estrelas de Papel: Livros De Astronomia Dos Séculos XIV a XVIII
(/isis/citation/CBB001451029/)
Book
Katharina N. Piechocki;
(2019)
Cartographic Humanism: The Making of Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB530679179/)
Book
Stuckrad, Kocku von;
(2010)
Locations of Knowledge in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: Esoteric Discourse and Western Identities
(/isis/citation/CBB001201627/)
Article
Marashi, Afshin;
(2015)
Print Culture and Its Publics: A Social History of Bookstores in Tehran, 1900--1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001550590/)
Chapter
Franco Bacchelli;
(2012)
Appunti sulla prima fortuna basileese e francese dello "Zodiacus vitae" del Palingenio
(/isis/citation/CBB655068651/)
Book
Maifreda, Germano;
(2012)
From Oikonomia to Political Economy: Constructing Economic Knowledge from the Renaissance to the Scientific Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001201675/)
Book
Stefano Caroti;
Vittoria Perrone Compagni;
(2012)
Nuovi maestri e antichi testi: umanesimo e Rinascimento alle origini del pensiero moderno
(/isis/citation/CBB873381482/)
Chapter
Stedall, Jacqueline;
(2012)
Narratives of Algebra in Early Printed European Texts
(/isis/citation/CBB001200512/)
Article
Burrows, Simon;
(2013)
In Search of Enlightenment: From Mapping Books to Cultural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001421576/)
Book
Isaac, Peter C. G.;
McKay, Barry;
(2000)
Mighty Engine: The Printing Press and Its Impact
(/isis/citation/CBB000102337/)
Chapter
Maria Pia Donato;
(2012)
Anatomia, autopsia, sectio: problemi di fonti e di metodo
(/isis/citation/CBB267957700/)
Book
French, Sara L.;
Etheridge, Kay;
(2007)
Origins of Science Learning: Essays on Culture and Knowledge in Early Modern Europe
(/isis/citation/CBB000830144/)
Book
Lodovica Braida;
Silvia Tatti;
(2016)
Il libro. Editoria e pratiche di lettura nel Settecento
(/isis/citation/CBB402781484/)
Article
Surekha Davies;
(2014)
Science, New Worlds, and the Classical Tradition: An Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB682086951/)
Book
Householder, Michael;
(2011)
Inventing Americans in the Age of Discovery: Narratives of Encounter
(/isis/citation/CBB001201653/)
Book
Werrett, Simon;
(2010)
Fireworks: Pyrotechnic Arts and Sciences in European History
(/isis/citation/CBB001020053/)
Be the first to comment!