Renaissance Considered as a Creative Phenomenon: Explorations in Cognitive History

This book explores the Renaissance as a creative phenomenon, using the methods of cognitive science and historical inquiry to consider it as a cognitive process that occurs in individual minds and produces new and consequential artifacts. It covers a variety of inventions and discoveries in the 14th-16th centuries, mainly in Italy, in humanities, painting, architecture, craft technology, anatomy, natural science, and engineering.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 330 pages
\n Publication date: 31 December 2021
\n Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
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The Renaissance has been a subject of fascination for distinguished scholars from various perspectives, including political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural. In this volume, Subrata Dasgupta offers an alternative perspective on the Renaissance by viewing it as a creative phenomenon. To be creative is to create history by producing material and/or abstract artifacts that are both novel and significant, while also drawing on history and the culture of the time. Importantly, the creative process occurs within individual minds, representing a cognitive process of a unique nature. This book begins with a "prehistory" set in classical Greece and medieval Islam, exploring a range of inventions and discoveries during the 14th to 16th centuries, primarily in Italy, in the fields of humanities, painting, architecture, craft technology, anatomy, natural science, and engineering.

This book will appeal to Renaissance scholars as well as students interested in Renaissance history and the essence of the creative tradition. By employing the fresh investigative language of cognitive history, a symbiosis of the methods of cognitive science and historical inquiry, this book departs from almost all previous approaches to Renaissance studies. The Renaissance has attracted the attention of distinguished scholars from many different vantage points – political, social, economic, intellectual, and cultural. In this volume, Subrata Dasgupta sheds an alternative light on the Renaissance by considering it as a creative phenomenon. To be creative is to make history by producing material and/or abstract artifacts that are both new and consequential; to be creative also entails drawing on history and on the culture of the time. Most significantly, the creative process occurs in individual minds: it is a cognitive process of a very special kind. Beginning with a 'prehistory set in classical Greece and medieval Islam, this book explores a variety of inventions and discoveries through the 14th–16th centuries, mainly in Italy, in the fields of humanities, painting, architecture, craft technology, anatomy, natural science, and engineering.

This book will be of interest not only to Renaissance scholars but also to students interested in Renaissance history and the nature of the creative tradition.

\n Weight: 526g\n
Dimension: 235 x 236 x 28 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781032146843\n \n