El polímata

The polymaths are the wise or scholars in different subjects, who have made innovative or relevant contributions in different fields. From Leonardo da Vinci to John Dee and Comenius, from George Eliot to Oliver Sacks and Susan Sontag, polymaths have pushed the frontiers of learning in countless ways. But history can be ungrateful to scholars who display such encyclopedic interests. Too often these people are remembered for their valuable achievements in only one field. Renowned cultural historian Peter Burke presents his arguments for a more balanced view. Burke identifies 500 Western polymaths, including Spaniards, explores their successes in a wide range of fields, and shows how their rise coincided with a rapid growth in learning at the time of the invention of the printing press, the discovery of the New World and the Scientific Revolution. The further acceleration of learning, which has led to an increase in specialization and an environment that does not encourage the existence of scholars and multifaceted scientists, has not taken place until fairly recently. From the Renaissance to the present, Burke changes our way of understanding this extraordinary intellectual species; launching a song to interdisciplinarity, to how knowledge improves when we are able to escape the narrow limits of each discipline and avoid the excessive specialization of the modern world, trying to connect different knowledge and subjects.