Knowledge Lost: A New View of Early Modern Intellectual History

Knowledge can be lost through burning manuscripts, oral learning, and censorship, but Martin Mulsow's Knowledge Lost offers a different narrative of efforts to counter this loss from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment. It focuses on forgotten or half-forgotten members of the "knowledge underclass," such as Pietro della Vecchia, Charles-César Baudelot, and Johann Christoph Wolf, and rethinks the concept of knowledge.

Format: Hardback
Length: 456 pages
Publication date: 01 November 2022
Publisher: Princeton University Press

Knowledge has traditionally been understood as a formal and documented accumulation, focusing on systems, collections, academies, and institutions. The central narrative has been one of advancement, refinement, and expansion. However, Martin Mulsow presents a different perspective. Knowledge can be lost through the destruction of manuscripts, the passing of oral learning with its bearers, and the suppression of new ideas by censors.

Knowledge Lost: A History of Efforts to Counter Knowledge Loss is a book that explores the efforts made from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment to counter such loss. It delves into the tactics employed by critics of ruling political and religious regimes to preserve their views, the ways in which they buried their ideas in footnotes and allusions, the circulation of their tracts and treatises in handwritten copies, and the commissioning of younger scholars to spread their writings after their deaths.

The book is filled with exciting stories that follow the trail of precarious knowledge through a series of richly detailed episodes. It focuses on interpretations of the Bible, Orientalism, and marginal zones such as magic, rather than the major themes of metaphysics and epistemology. Moreover, it highlights the contributions of forgotten or half-forgotten members of the "knowledge underclass," such as Pietro della Vecchia, Charles-César Baudelot, and Johann Christoph Wolf, who were libertine painters, antiquarian scholars, and witnesses to the persecution of heretics.

Knowledge Lost offers a fascinating new approach to the intellectual history of early modern Europe. It challenges the traditional understanding of knowledge as a static and cumulative accumulation and instead emphasizes the dynamic and fragile nature of knowledge. The book is an ambitious attempt to rethink the very concept of knowledge and explore its multifaceted dimensions.

In conclusion, Knowledge Lost: A History of Efforts to Counter Knowledge Loss is a valuable contribution to the field of intellectual history. It provides a fresh perspective on the history of knowledge, highlighting the ways in which knowledge can be lost and the efforts made to preserve it. Through its engaging stories and innovative approach, the book offers a valuable insight into the complex and dynamic nature of knowledge and its role in shaping the intellectual landscape of early modern Europe.

Weight: 800g
Dimension: 163 x 244 x 35 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780691208657