Knowledge, Discovery and Imagination in Early Modern Europe: The Rise of Aesthetic Rationalism (Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture, Series Number 15) - Hardcover

Reiss, Timothy J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521582210 ISBN 13: 9780521582216

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Recent explanations of changes in early modern European thought speak much of a move from orality and emphasis on language to print culture and a "spatial" way of thinking. Timothy J. Reiss offers a more complex explanation for the massive changes in thought that occurred. He describes how, while teaching and public debate continued to be based in the language arts, scientific and artistic areas came to depend on mathematical disciplines, including music, for new means and methods of discovery, and as a basis for wider sociocultural renewal.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Recent explanations of changes in early modern European thought speak much of a move from orality and emphasis on language to print culture and a 'spatial' way of thinking. Timothy J. Reiss offers a more complex explanation for the massive changes in thought that occurred. He describes how, while the language arts continued to dominate teaching and debate, scientific and artistic areas of activity came to depend on mathematical disciplines, including music, for new means and methods of discovery, and as a basis for wider sociocultural renewal. Knowledge, discovery and imagination in early modern Europe rethinks the relationship between the arts and the sciences in western culture, and questions the now commonplace argument about novelties of print culture and 'spatial' thinking.

Review

"...the book is extremely rich in its use of often unfamiliar and uncommon primary materials, and researchers will want it in their library collections." E.D. Hill, Choice

"...Reiss has offered an informative and stimulating examination of one continuous development in the intellectual culture of early modern Europe. It is a book well worth reading." Christopher S. Celenza, Sixteenth Century Journal

"[Reiss's] study signals rich historical connections yet to be explored." Gary Tomlinson, American Historical Review

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0521582210
• ISBN 13: 9780521582216
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 262