17. The Spread of Learning and the Rise of Accuracy
Abbot Suger and the innovations at St Denis – God is light – cathedral schools – Paris schools – how they differed from monasteries – Aristotle and the rediscovery of logic – Abelard – the seven liberal arts – trivium and quadrivium – the ban on Aristotle – the ‘double truth’ theory – studium generale – earliest universities – Salerno (medicine) – Bologna (law) – Paris (theology) – Oxford (mathematics, science) – the rise in quantification – measurement, counting, dating, punctuation, musical notation, double-entry book-keeping – the surge in literacy – the invention of printing – italic and roman type – edition sizes – spelling
18. The Arrival of the Secular: Capitalism, Humanism, Individualism
The changing concept of the Renaissance – the role of the Black Death – why the Renaissance began in Italy – schooling in Italy – the crucial role of the abbaco schools – life in Renaissance Florence – the woollen industry, international trade, banking and the origins of capitalism – the marriage of aristocratic and bourgeois values – the change from ecclesiastical to secular patronage in the arts – the improved status of the artist – the rediscovery of classical antiquity and the emphasis on this life – Petrarch and the rediscovery of Plato – the aesthetic aristocracy – pagan values – Erasmus – humanism and the growth of religious tolerance – Vasari – secular art – the humanities in Florence
19. The Explosion of Imagination
Bonfires of the Vanities – the invention of oil painting – perspective – greater realism – allegory – pagan mythology – universalism – universal men – pre-eminence of architecture – painting v. sculpture – Veronese before the Inquisition – opera – ‘imitation’ in music – Willaert – Gabrieli – origins of the orchestra – rabab and lura – gittern – monacordys – Amati’s viols and violins – madrigals – canzon francese – sonatas – concertos – sinfonia – recitativo – harmonic (vertical) music – Monteverdi and the Lament of Arianna – the oratorio – the explosion of London theatres – reasons for it – the Mermaid Tavern – the earliest plays – James Burbage – orators become actors – repertory – Shakespeare – King Lear and Falstaff – Don Quixote
20. The Mental Horizon of Christopher Columbus
The Greeks discover the Atlantic – Pytheas and Ultima Thule – Alexander in the East – Eratosthenes and the circumference of the earth – Ptolemy – St Brendan – the Land of Promise – Vinland – John of Plano Carpinis – William of Rusbruck – Marco Polo and Kublai Khan – Ibn Battuta – mappae mundi – the monstrous races – T-O maps – Columbus’ known reading – Henry the Navigator – the compass – portolan charts – magnetic north and true north – terra incognita – Mercator and ‘waxing latitudes’ – tillers and rudders – lead and line – pilot books – quadrants – almanacs – lateen- and square-rigged ships – the exploration of the west African coast – Vasco da Gama reaches India via the Cape of Good Hope – Columbus finds the Bahamas
21. The ‘Indian’ Mind: Ideas in the New World
America unknown to the scriptures – reactions to Columbus’ discoveries – explanations for the origin of the ‘Indians’ – early anthropology – the Spanish ‘encomienda’ – rationality of the Indians and their ability to receive the faith – descendants of Noah? – dimensions of New World peoples in 1492 – customs and beliefs – food-sharing – tobacco – marriage – agriculture – longhouses – cannibalism – languages (different concepts of nouns and verbs) – different sense of self – different concepts of male and female – the very different economics of death – counting and time – writing and textiles – medical ideas – different ideas about art – effects of the New World on Old World thinking
22. History Heads North: the Intellectual Impact of Protestantism
The sale of indulgences – Johann Tetzel – differences between northern and southern Catholicism – Martin Luther – nails his theses to Wittenberg church – the Knights’ War – the Peasants’ Revolt – Anabaptists – German character of the Reformation – Calvin – Puritan ethic – sack of Rome – book censorship and the Index – the Tyndale affair – Council of Trent – Loyola and the Jesuits – Jesuits in the East – varieties of Protestantism – the cult of the sermon – Protestantism’s effects on literacy, discipline and marriage – Counter-Reformation art – the Baroque style – Bernini
23. The Genius of the Experiment
Was there a scientific revolution? – why the Muslims and Chinese never developed modern science – understanding the heavens as the most important aim of science – Copernicus – Brahe – Kepler – elliptical orbits – Galileo – the telescope – Newton – decimals – logarithms and the calculus – Leibniz – Principia Mathematica – gravity – optics – speed of light – Vesalius – Harvey – Kircher, Leeuwenhoek and microscopic life – Bacon and the philosophy of science – Descartes’ method – the Royal Society and the experiment – universities and science – the rise of scientific instrumentation
24. Liberty, Property and Community: Origins of Conservatism and Liberalism
The rise of the nation-state – absolute monarchy – Machiavelli – The Prince – Mariana and Suárez – Bodin – Hobbes – Leviathan – Locke – Two Treatises of Government – Spinoza – Tractatus Theologico-Politicus – Vico – Scienza Nuova – the invention of ‘the public’
25. The ‘Atheist Scare’ and the Advent of Doubt
The effect of Copernicus’ discovery on belief – vernacular translations of the Bible – discrepancies revealed – atheism in Greece, Rome and medieval Europe – the alternative tradition of unbelievers – Montaigne and the secular world – Galileo and the moons of Jupiter – four stages of doubt – rationalistic supernaturalism – deism – scepticism – atheism – the attack on miracles – second thoughts on the soul – the attack on Jesus – the attack on prophecy – Hobbes – Hume – Bayle – Vanini the first modern atheist – the attack on the Old Testament – the attack on Genesis – the attack on biblical chronology
26. From Soul to Mind: the Search for the Laws of Human Nature
Voltaire in England – Diderot and the Encyclopédie – formation of the French language – rise of reading – rise of middle-class taste – rise of periodical publishing – nature’s harmony = God’s benevolence – the soul reconceived as mind – Locke, language and psychology – ‘neurosis’ – new ideas about the self – Edinburgh – Hume – Ferguson, Robert Adam and civil society – the idea of the economy – Colbert – Petty – cameralistics – Adam Smith – The Wealth of Nations – commercial society – Malthus – Bentham – Linnaeus – Rousseau – Montesquieu – the idea of progress – ancients v. moderns – Condorcet – Godwin – Kant – Hegel – Saint-Simon – Comte
27. The Idea of the Factory and Its Consequences
Hard Times – the first Derbyshire factories – spinning machines – child labour – the steam engine – Watt and Boulton – iron technology – the agricultural revolution – changes in organisation – cotton industry transformed – the factory city and the change in the experience of work – gap between rich and poor – advances in electricity – advances in chemistry – oxygen – Dalton’s atomic theory – crystallography – Lavoisier – Warrington Academy and the Lunar Society of Birmingham – Priestley and Wedgwood – the making of the working class – Smith, Ricardo, Malthus and Bentham – Robert Owen – the Hungry Forties – Engels – Marx – Capital – alienation – the Great Divergence – the hundred years peace