the universal man

Well, that’s more than enough on Wittgenstein. I mentioned some time ago that I would discuss the concepts of the Renaissance man and the universal man. Let’s start with the universal man, which actually predates the Renaissance man.

Although the Renaissance popularized the concept of the universal man, the idea of the universal man is an old concept that actually predated the Renaissance man by several centuries in both English and Italian. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a universal man as one who is:

Instructed or learned in all or many subjects; having an extensive knowledge or experience; widely accomplished; interested in or devoted to a great variety of subjects; having a wide range of interests or activities. Also of the mind or disposition.

The OED tracked the appearance of the term in the English language to 1520, when William Caxton’s Chronicles of England referred to Roman Emperor Adrian (Hadrian) as “an vnyuersall man almost in all sciences.”

However, the Italian phrase is even older. The Italian version of the OED, the Grande Dizionario Della Lingua Italiana, traced the first usage of uomo universale to the 14^th century Italian writer Antonio Pucci, who used the phrase in his 1373 poem Centiloquio. The phrase was not at all uncommon in English at least until the 19^th century, but was then surpassed by the entry of the Renaissance man in the late nineteenth century, and is rarely used today.

The Renaissance and the universal man became connected, at least in English (and German), by the nineteenth century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt. In his seminal work of Renaissance history, The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, he wrote that the Renaissance era gave rise to what he called the “all-sided man – l’uomo universale.” He actually used the Italian phrase in his original German book.

Burckhardt felt that these universal men with “encyclopedic knowledge” were “masters of a vast circle of spiritual interests.” He described the universal man as a man who combined “comprehensive learning with the practice of one or more of the arts or professions.”

His archetype of the “universal man” was the 15^th century architect, artist, musician, and writer, Leon Battista Alberti (a clear polymath who we will get to eventually), who was known for saying, “Men can do all things if they will.”

But many centuries later, the English-speaking world replaced the earlier term “universal man,” and settled upon the term “Renaissance man” to describe this ideal person.

More tomorrow.