Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie Recent documents in Brian W. Ogilvie en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 04:04:12 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/3 http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/3 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:12:22 PST This paper explores the uses of published illustrations of coins in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century antiquarian works, relating them to the shift in the affective value of classical antiquity from the late Renaissance to the early Enlightenment. Brian W. Ogilvie Antiquity and antiquarianism http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/2 http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/2 Wed, 13 Feb 2008 09:03:46 PST This paper explores Erasmus's creative response to the tension between his idealization of antiquity and his Christian commitments. Because he did not distinguish ethical judgments from taste, Erasmus contradicted himself on the value of antiquity and hedged it about with many restrictions. Brian W. Ogilvie Antiquity and antiquarianism http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/1 http://works.bepress.com/brian_ogilvie/1 Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:30:48 PST Out of the diverse traditions of medical humanism, classical philology, and natural philosophy, Renaissance naturalists created a new science devoted to discovering and describing plants and animals. Drawing on published natural histories, manuscript correspondence, garden plans, travelogues, watercolors, and drawings, The Science of Describing reconstructs the evolution of this discipline of description through four generations of naturalists. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, naturalists focused on understanding ancient and medieval descriptions of the natural world, but by the mid-sixteenth century naturalists turned toward distinguishing and cataloguing new plant and animal species. To do so, they developed new techniques of observing and recording, created botanical gardens and herbaria, and exchanged correspondence and specimens within an international community. By the early seventeenth century, naturalists began the daunting task of sorting through the wealth of information they had accumulated, putting a new emphasis on taxonomy and classification. Illustrated with woodcuts, engravings, and photographs, The Science of Describing is the first broad interpretation of Renaissance natural history in more than a generation and will appeal widely to an interdisciplinary audience. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures Preface and Acknowledgments Conventions 1. Introduction 2. The World of Renaissance Natural History 3. The Humanist Invention of Natural History 4. A Science of Describing 5. Common Sense, Classification, and the Catalogue of Nature 6. Conclusion: What Was "Renaissance Natural History"? Notes Bibliography Index [Source: Publisher's catalogue copy] Brian W. Ogilvie History of natural history