Curiosity and wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

Author(s)

Bibliographic Information

Curiosity and wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment

edited by R.J.W. Evans and Alexander Marr

Routledge, 2016, c2006

  • : hbk

Available at  / 1 libraries

Search this Book/Journal

Note

"First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing"--T.p. verso

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

'Curiosity' and 'wonder' are topics of increasing interest and importance to Renaissance and Enlightenment historians. Conspicuous in a host of disciplines from history of science and technology to history of art, literature, and society, both have assumed a prominent place in studies of the Early Modern period. This volume brings together an international group of scholars to investigate the various manifestations of, and relationships between, 'curiosity' and 'wonder' from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Focused case studies on texts, objects and individuals explore the multifaceted natures of these themes, highlighting the intense fascination and continuing scrutiny to which each has been subjected over three centuries. From instances of curiosity in New World exploration to the natural wonders of 18th-century Italy, Curiosity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment locates its subjects in a broad geographical and disciplinary terrain. Taken together, the essays presented here construct a detailed picture of two complex themes, demonstrating the extent to which both have been transformed and reconstituted, often with dramatic results.

Table of Contents

  • Contents: Preface
  • Introduction, Alexander Marr
  • 'Out of the frying pan...': curiosity, danger, and the poetics of witness in the Renaissance traveller's tale, Wes Williams
  • The metaphorical collecting of curiosities in early modern France and Germany, Neil Kenny
  • The New World collections of Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and their role in the creation of a Kunst- and Wunderkammer in the Palazzo Vecchio, Adriana Turpin
  • The jocund cabinet and the melancholy museum in 17th-century English literature, Claire Preston
  • Curious knowledge and wonder-working wisdom in the Occult Works of Heinrich Khunrath, Peter Forshaw
  • Enthusiasm and 'damnable curiosity': Meric Casaubon and John Dee, Stephen Clucas
  • Gentille curiosite: wonder-working and the culture of automata in the late Renaissance, Alexander Marr
  • Nosce teipsum: curiosity, the humoural body, and the culture of therapeutics in late 16th- and early 17th-century England, Deborah Harkness
  • Back from wonderland: Jean Antoine Nollet's Italian tour (1749), Paola Bertucci
  • Curiosity and the lusus naturae: the case of 'Proteus' Hill, George Rousseau
  • Epilogue, George Rousseau
  • Index.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

Page Top