Gra$on,  Anthony.  New  Worlds,  Ancient  Texts:  The  Power  of  Tradi8on  

and   the   Shock   of   Discovery.   With   April   Shelford   and   Nancy   Siraisi.  

Cambridge:  The  Belknap  Press  of  Harvard  UP,  1992.  

Context  of  producJon  

v  1492:  Quincentenary  commemoraJon  of  the  Conquest  of  America.    v  Anthony   Gra0on:   Andrew   Mellon   Professor   of   History   at   Princeton  

University  and  a  Renaissance  scholar.    v  The  New  York  Public   Library:  Organize  an  exhibiJon  and  write  a  book  

using   it   archives   on   sixteenth   and   seventeenth   century   European  thought.  

 v  Objec@ve   of   the   book:   To   “…trace   the   transforming   effects   of   the  

voyages  of  exploraJon  upon  European  scholarship,  learning,  and  culture  from  1450  to  1700.”  (“Foreword”  vii)  

Waldseemüller's  1507  Map  of  the  World.  

IntroducJon  

Ø  1550-­‐1650:  “Western  thinkers  ceased  to  believe  that  they  could  find  all  important  truths  in  ancient  books.”  (1)  

 ü           “Having  read  what  poets  and  philosophers  write  of  the  Torrid  

Zone,  I  persuaded  myself  that  when  I  came  to  the  Equator,  I  would  not   be   able   to   endure   the   violent   heat,   but   it   turned   out  otherwise.”  José  de  Acosta.  Historia  natural  y  moral  de  las  Indias  (1590).  

 Ø  “The  age  of  a  system  of  thought    became  a  sign  not  of  authority  but  of  

obsolescence,   and   many   of   those   who   insisted   on   the   aestheJc  superiority  of  classical  literature  admieed  the  substanJve  supremacy  of  modern  science.”  (5)  

 Ø  “The   discoveries   gradually   stripped   the   books   of   their   aura   of  

completeness   as   repositories   of   informaJon   and   their   appearance   of  uJlity  as  tool  for  interpretaJon.”  (5)  

New  Knowledge,  Established  System  of  Thought  

IntroducJon  

Ø  “…John  Ellioe,  Giuliano  Gliozzi,  and  Michael  Ryan  have  argued  that  in   fact   the   discoveries   had   very   liele   impact   on   European  thought.”  (6)  

 Ø  “This   is  a  story  of  Europeans,  told  from  a  European  point  of  view.  

We   seek   to   understand   the   experiences   and   visions   of   European  intellectuals   and   explorers,   not   to   recover   the  ways   in  which   the  peoples   they   conquered   understood   the   West   –much   less   what  suffering   those   people   certainly   endured   or   what   benefits   they  possibly  drew  from  the  encounters.”  (7)  

Ø  “In   the   case   of   relaJons   between   the   West   and   the   Rest,   these  polemics   have   had   a   powerful   tendency   to   sterilize   thought   and  research.”  (9)  

A    Story  of  Europeans  

Conquest   of   Mexico   by   the   Spaniards.  Ibero-­‐Amerikanisches  InsJtut,  Staatliche  Museen   zu   Ber l in.     B i ldarchiv  Preussischer   Kulturbesitz/Art   Resource,  NY  

Chapter  1.  A  Bound  World:  The  Scholar’s  Cosmos  

“But  all  them  [books]  embodied  the  assumpJon  that  a  basically  complete  and  accurate  body  of  knowledge  already  existed.”  (13)    “The   tradiJonal   arts   and   sciences   appear   as   finished,   perfect   enJJes   that   invite   study   rather  than  improvement.”  (16)    “Many  books,  prints,  and  painJngs  defined  learning  as  reading…”  (22)  

Learning  as  reading  

Humanism  Vs.  (ScholasJcs)  UniversiJes  

Humanists:  “these  men  founded  schools  where  young  men  and  a  few  young  women  could  gain  access  not  to  the  formal,  regulated,   licensed  skills  of  the  university  theologians  and  doctors  but  the  more  general,  moral  and  literary  lesson  of  the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans.”  (29)    “By   the   late   1490s,   Europe   had   not   one   but   two   canons,   each   of   which  served   a   parJcular   set   of   purposes,   gave   access   to   a   parJcular   set   of  occupaJons,  and  had  its  own  powerful  defenders.”  (29)  

1500’  

Chapter  1.  A  Bound  World:  The  Scholar’s  Cosmos  

“By  the  second  and  third  decades  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  short,  the  world  of  the  book  was  not  coherent  but  chaoJc,  not  solid  but  riven;  and  the  fissures  represented  not  only  the  quarrels  of   individuals  who   disagreed   on   specific   points   of   detail   but   also   fundamental   debates   about  intellectual  standards  and  knowledge  itself.”  (35)  

The  ChaoJc  World  of  the  Book  

1620-­‐1630  

Barsta  Agnese's  1544  world  map  

Chapter  2.  Navigators  and  Conquerors:  The  Universe  of  the  PracJcal  Man  

“A$er   all,   the   world   of   cra$   and   trade,   not   that   of   books,   produced   the   forces   that   really  revoluJonized  the  European  and  then  the  enJre  world.”  (61)  

Columbus  and  Vespucci  reporJng  the  discovery    

“As  Columbus  observed  and  reported  on  the  New  World,  he  naturally  turned  to  his  reading   –and   extended   it-­‐   as   he   looked  for   a   framework   in  which   to   insert  what  he   saw.   SomeJmes   the   confronta@on  between  eye  and  text  refuted  the  books;  he   found   none   of   the   monstrosiJes,   he  announced   in   his   first   leeer,   that   many  had  expected  to  exist  in  the  far  places  of  the  world.”  (77,  79)  

Carlo  Verardi.  “De  insulis  nuper  in  Mari  Indico  reperJs  [and]  de  insulis  nuper  invenJs”  [1494]  

 

Chapter  2.  Navigators  and  Conquerors:  The  Universe  of  the  PracJcal  Man  

Vespucci:  A  Man  of  the  Book  

“…Vespucci  proved  to  be  a  man  of  the  book.  His  own  achievements   as   a   sailor   did   nothing   to   merit   the  naming  of   the  Americas   a$er  him.  But   the  brilliant  pamphlets   that   circulated   about   his   adventures   in  the   West   made   him   the   reputa@on   that   his  voyaging   could   not.   Even   more   vividly   than  Columbus,   the   texts   aeributed   to   Vespucci   reveal  the  weight  and  impact  of  tradiJons.”  (83)  

“Columbus   Discovering   America”,   plate   2   from   Nova   Reperta  New  Discoveries,  engraved  by  Theodor  Galle  (1571-­‐1633)  c.1600.  By  (a$er)  Straet,  Jan  van  der  (Giovanni  Stradano)  (1523-­‐1605).  

“As   reports  proliferated,   so  did  interpretaJons,   and   tradiJons  o f   l e a r n i n g   a n d   n e w  experiences   intersected.   The  canon   underwent   new   stresses  and  performed  new  services  as  s cho l a r s   i n   Eu rope   and  elsewhere  tried  to  fit  masses  of  difficult   data   to   the   inherited  shapes  of  learning.”  (93)  

Chapter  3.  All  Coherence  Gone  

SebasJan  Münster.  Cosmographia  (1550)  

“Like  Ptolemy’s  map  of  the  world,  on  which  it   was   based,   Münter’s   made   no   effort   to  assert  European  superiority  or  power  by  its  ordering  of  the  data.  The  center  of  the  map  lay   not   in   ChrisJan   territory   but   near  Mecca,   Europe   sJll   appeared   as   a   spit   of  land   of   the   west   of   Asia,   and   was   now  dwarfed   by   Africa   as   well.     But   the  convenJons  also   imprisoned  him.  He  could  portray   the   inhabitants   of   the   New  World  only  as  naked  Europeans,  their  naughty  bits  aestheJcally  concealed  by  draped  cloths,  or  as   cannibals   energeJcally   sawing   another  human   into   loin   chops.   He   could   imagine  strange   races   only   in   terms   of   the   ancient  opposiJons   between   gentleness,   nudity,  and   the   Golden   Age   and   savagery,  monstrosity,  and  murder.”  (107-­‐111)  

“A  map  of  Asia   from  Münster’s   1542  Basel   ediJon  of  Ptolemy’s   Geography.   The   mpnstruos   races     occupy  the  map’s  edges,  cannibals,  who  had  always  according  to   legend   inhabited   Scythia,   are   shown   top  center.”  (104)  

Chapter  3.  All  Coherence  Gone  

“The   discovery   of   the   non-­‐European   world   and   the  discovery   that   the   ancients   were   not   wiser   than   the  moderns   seem   indissolubly   linked   (…)   Surely   the  discovery  of  real  savages   in  a  real  wilderness   inspired  the   drama   and   pathos   of   his   vision   of   Ancient  Europeans  living  a  savage  life…”  (126)    “The  intellectuals  of  the  Hispanic  world  were  of  course  the   first   ones   to   confront   the   necessity   of   describing  and   explaining   new   socieJes,   flora,   and   fauna.   But  their   problem  was   not   simply   an   intellectual   one   (…)  From  the  first,  church  and  government  worried  about  the   vast   human   cost   of   the   new   system   and   tried   to  regulate  it.”  (132)    

A   Brief   Account   of   the   Destruc8on   of  the   Indies,   by  Bartolome  de   las  Casas  (Italian  translaJon,  1643).  

The  PercepJon  of  Ancient  and  non-­‐European,  by  Modern  

Chapter  3.  All  Coherence  Gone  

“Individual  ancient  texts  and  theories  proved  surprisingly  resilient,  yielding  soluJons  to  agonizing  historical,  ethical,   and   religious   problems.   The   discovery   of   human   beings   in   the   Americas,   a$er   all,   posed   a   hard  quesJon  to  scholars  who  believed  that  the  world  had  a  seamless  and  coherent  history:  were  did  they  come  from?  Neither  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  nor  the  Jews  had  known  of  their  existence.  How,  then,  could  Greco-­‐Roman  and  Hebrew  texts  be  complete  and  authoritaJve?  (148-­‐149)      “The  authority  of  ancient  texts  –of  books  themselves-­‐  was  clearly  shaken.  But  their  own  proliferaJon  and  combat  did  more  of  the  damage  than  their  conflict  with  an  extratextual  world  of  inexplicable  data  (…)  The  discoveries  provided  a  clinching  piece  of  evidence  to  those  who  wished  to  argue  for  a  new  vision  of  history,  for  the  superiority  of  modern  to  ancient  culture.”  (157)  

“[E]xtratextual  world  of  inexplicable  data”  

Benito   Arias   Montano.   An8quitatum  iudaicarum  libri  ix  (Leiden,  1593)  (150).  

Chapter  4.  Drugs  and  Diseases:    New  World  Biology  and  Old  World  Learning  

PLANTS:   “…  Nicolas  Monardes,   the  Spanish  physician  who  authored     Joyfull  Newes  out  of   the  Newe  Founde  Worlde  (1577),  judged  the  discovery  of  America  far  more  valuable  for  its  plants  than  for  its  mineral  wealth  because  health  was  ulJmately  more  precious  than  riches.”  (162)    TOBACCO:  “In  a  pithy  couplet  he  [Joshua  Sylvester]  grasps  how,  in  tobacco’s  transportaJon  from  one  cultural  context  to  another,  it  passed  from  use  to  abuse,  a  paeern  that  would  be  repeated  as  other  nonnaJve  drugs   came   to  Europe:   ‘For,  what   to   them   [the  naJve  Americans]   is  Meat  and  Med’cinable,  /  Is  turned  to  us  a  Plague  intolerable.’”  (176)    DISEASES:  “…the  effects  of  contact  on  the  health  of  the  peoples  of  the  Old  World  and  the  New  were  far  more  devastaJng  for  the  laeer,  with  uncounted  deaths  resulJng  from  conquest,  forced  labor,  and  epidemics  of  diseases  brought  Europe.”  (179)  

Chapter  5.  A  New  World  of  Learning  

“Both   the   New   World   and   ancient   texts   played   key   roles   in   Bacon’s   dramas   of   scien@fic  discovery,  but  their  parts  contrasted  as  radically  as  those  of  HoraJo  and  Iago.  From  the  start,  he  took    the  discovery  of  the  New  World  by  Europeans  as  the  model  for  all  intelligent  efforts  to  obtain  new  knowledge.  The  Jtle  page  of  the  Great  Instaura8on  [Instaura8o  magna]  shows  a  ship  sailing  past  classical  columns  that  represent  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  the  ancient  limits  of  naviga@on  and  knowledge.  The  scene  deliberately   reuses  –  and  subverts-­‐   tradiJonal   images  and  values.  The  emperor  Charles  V  had  taken  the  pillars  as  his  symbol,  glossing  them  with  the  cauJous  humanist  moeo  Ne  plus  ultra,  “Do  not  go  too  far.”  Bacon  kept  the  pillars  but  sent  his  ship  past  them  and  lopped  a  vital  word  from  the  accompanying  LaJn  tag.  Plus  ultra,  he  urged  his  readers:  “Too  far  is  not  enough.”  Discovery,  not  reading,  has  become  the  central  mode  of  obtaining  important  knowledge.”  (198)  

“Across  Europe,  intellectuals  moved  into  new  habitats.  In  courts  and  ciJes   from   Prague   to   Copenhagen,   monarchs,   scienJsts,   and  amateurs  were  studying    in  an  environment  as  remarkable  for  its  lack  of  books  as  the  tradiJonal  scholar’s  study  had  been  defined  by  their  presence.  Variously  called  the  museum,  the  cabinet  of  curiosiJes,  the  Kunst-­‐und  Wunderkammer,   the  new   locale  was   furnished  not  with  texts   but   with   exactly   the   sort   of   natural   objects   that   Bacon   had  demanded  that  scholars  study.”  (217)  

Discovery,  Reading  and  Knowledge  

Chapter  5.  A  New  World  of  Learning  

“The   a$erlife   of   the   ancients   certainly   did   not   end   in  the   mid-­‐seventeenth   century.   The   educaJon   of  European  aristocrats  and  state  officials  conJnued  to  be  classical   for   centuries   to   come.   The   ancient   text  conJnued   to   be   read,   translated,   and   admired,   to  provide   the   model   genres   for   ambiJous   modern  writers:   epic,   history,   tragedy.   And   belief   in   progress  would  not  become  universal  in  the  West  for  a  very  long  Jme,   not   even   in   the   Enlightenment   would   it   find  universal  assent.”  (248)  

“Rhetorically,  the  New  World  had  replaced  the  ancient  texts.   It  had  become  the  prime  metaphor   for   the  right  way   to   discover   new   facts   about   the   world   and   the  prime   source   for   new   theories   about   human  society.”  (252)  

New  World  Vs.  Ancient  Texts  

Personal  Conclusions  and  Discussion