The related term, polyhistor, is an ancient term with similar meaning. The term is often used to describe those great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, each of whom excelled at several fields in science and the arts, including such individuals as Imhotep, Aristotle, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Hildegard von Bingen, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Benjamin Franklin, Rabindranath Tagore, Paolo Sarpi,[2] Nicolaus Copernicus, Francis Bacon, Walter Russell, Thomas Browne, Jose Rizal, Michael Servetus,[3] Ibn Khaldun, Ibn al-Haytham,[4] Avicenna, and Omar Khayyám.[5] In Renaissance Italy, the idea of the polymath was expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–1472), in the statement that a man can do all things if he will.[6] Embodying a basic tenet of Renaissance humanism that humans are limitless in their capacity for development, the concept led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. This was expressed in the term Renaissance man which is often applied to the gifted people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment: intellectual, artistic, social and physical. This term entered the lexicon during the twentieth century and has now been applied to great thinkers living before and after the Renaissance.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 21:22:59 +0000
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