New Worlds, Ancient Texts
The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery
Published on 15. March 1995
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-0-674-61876-3 (ISBN)
Description
Describing an era of exploration during the Renaissance that went far beyond geographic bounds, this book shows how the evidence of the New World shook the foundations of the old, upsetting the authority of the ancient texts that had guided Europeans so far afield. What Anthony Grafton recounts is a war of ideas fought by mariners, scientists, publishers, and rulers over a period of 150 years. In colorful vignettes, published debates, and copious illustrations, we see these men and their contemporaries trying to make sense of their discoveries as they sometimes confirm, sometimes contest, and finally displace traditional notions of the world beyond Europe.
Reviews / Votes
Grafton's book is about the identity of the Americas-an identity hewn out of intellectual conflict, just as much as military or political conflict. -- David McKitterick * New York Times Book Review * In his eloquent disquisition...Grafton demonstrates his mastery of the world of the Renaissance text and his skills as a historian of scholarship, scholarly processes, and intellectual debates. -- Larry Ceplair * Los Angeles Times Book Review * Beautifully presented and delightful to read. Grafton's prose has a rare combination of qualities, smooth-flowing and hard-hitting... The concentrated power, the broad erudition, the impeccable aim which characterize Grafton's vignettes are enviable. -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto * London Review of Books * Grafton is massively erudite and scrupulous as a scholar; at the same time he has command of a relaxed narrative style: his book about the reconfiguration of knowledge in Renaissance Europe is aimed at the general reader and no doubt finds its mark. -- Mary Baine Campbell * Arion *More details
Edition
Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
Harvard University Press
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
75 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 203 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-674-61876-3 (9780674618763)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/1995
1st Edition
Harvard University Press
€102.99
Available for download
Persons
Anthony Grafton is the author of The Footnote, Defenders of the Text, Forgers and Critics, and Inky Fingers, among other books. The Henry Putnam University Professor of History and the Humanities at Princeton University, he writes regularly for the New York Review of Books. April Shelford is a graduate student in history at Princeton University. Nancy Siraisi is Distinguished Professor of History at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Content
Foreword by Timothy Healy Introduction 1. A Bound World: The Scholar's Cosmos 2. Navigators and Conquerors: The Universe of the Practical Man 3. All Coherence Gone 4. Drugs and Diseases: New World Biology and Old World Learning 5. A New World of Learning Epilogue Notes Bibliography Illustration Sources Acknowledgments Index