1. Introduction: histories of philosophy between 'Renaissance' and 'Enlightenment'; 2. Ancient wisdom I: the wisdom of the East: Zoroaster, astronomy and the Chaldaeans, from Thomas Stanley to Thomas Hyde; 3. Ancient wisdom II: Moses the Egyptian?; 4. Histories of natural philosophy I. Histories of method; 5. Histories of natural philosophy II. Histories of doctrine: matter theory and animating principles; 6. Philosophy in the early church; 7. Conclusion.
A groundbreaking, revisionist account of the importance of the history of philosophy to intellectual change - scientific, philosophical and religious - in seventeenth-century England.
Dmitri Levitin is a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford. Previously, he was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and of the Centre for Research in Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities, also in Cambridge. He has also held positions at the Folger Library and at the University of Edinburgh. His research is on the intellectual, religious and cultural history of early modern Europe. Within these fields, he has published work on the history of science, philosophy, scholarship, medicine, theology, church-state relations, and political and legal thought.
'Dmitri Levitin's [book] has prodigious virtuosity. It argues that
historians of ideas are often too remote from institutional
history, and provides a vivid, enriching celebration of the
continuing vitality in seventeenth-century England of a
trans-European culture of scholarly humanism that radiated beyond
scholarly communities. There is a far-reaching discussion of
dogmatism, learned authority and experimentalism. Levitin
identifies the recession of the ideal of the philosopher-theologian
as the greatest transformation of seventeenth-century English
intellectual culture. He has an exultant joy in his sources, but
never loses mastery of them. His avid glee in reading manuscripts
and rare treatises, the insatiability of his learning, are
enthralling. I recommend the witty mischief hidden in his index.
Ancient Wisdom makes most books I have read this year look like
bankrupt stock.' Richard Davenport-Hines, 'Books of the Year 2016,'
The Times Literary Supplement
'Levitin's book is a remarkable achievement as intellectual history
precisely for taking this simple claim so seriously as to recover
the historical basis on which the scholarly argumentation of the
period rested. In so doing, he charts an entirely new landscape of
intellectual debate and exchange and undercuts received wisdoms
about the period. Taking a truism seriously, then, leads in fact to
a revolutionary change in our historical understanding.' Robert J.
Mayhew, Journal of Historical Geography
'This is a highly important, scholarly, and provocative book. It is
clearly written and impressively researched, drawing on a vast
range of manuscript and printed primary sources, as well as on
modern works about early modern intellectual history.' Johann P.
Sommerville, Renaissance Quarterly
'In this impressive book, Dmitri Levitin examines the ways in which
seventeenth-century English theologians, clerics, philosophers,
scholars, and scientists looked at Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek, and
Roman thought … this tour de force blew me away.' Dirk van Miert,
Isis
'This book offers an impressive revisionist analysis of the way in
which late humanist erudition, instead of aiming at a facile and
fruitless accumulation of historical facts, acted as an inspiring
and innovative force … I have greatly appreciated to see that the
debates and discussions in England cannot be properly studied or
contextualized without also considering influences from the
Continent … [and] appreciate the profound knowledge that has been
expounded in this monumental study.' Henk Nellen, History of
Humanities
'The author set himself a daunting task … and it is not the least
remarkable thing about this thoroughly excellent book that he
leaves the reader in no doubt of his complete mastery of the
sources, primary and secondary, and of his judicious sure-footing
in what we can safely infer from them. The result is a tour de
force of historical scholarship and it is hard to believe there is
anyone working in the early modern period who will not learn
something valuable from reading this book.' John Henry, American
Historical Review
'This well-researched and intelligently written book has all the
qualities to become a classic in the history of historical
scholarship and to appeal to experts in the field for many years to
come.' Diego Lucci, English Historical Review
'Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science is the result of
extraordinarily thorough research and a deep understanding of the
philosophical and scientific debates of the seventeenth century,
not only in England but throughout Europe. It is encyclopaedic in
its scope and will be essential for anyone who wishes to study the
countless figures whom Levitin has rescued from oblivion and who,
each in his own way, contributed to an advance to which we are all
still indebted.' Alastair Hamilton, The Times Literary
Supplement
'Dmitri Levitin's expansive study of seventeenth-century historical
scholarship is itself a deeply impressive scholarly work. It
discusses a wide range of early‐modern debates about the
development and significance of ancient philosophy and religion,
brings to life the numerous authors who took part in them, and
uncovers many interconnections between apparently disparate topics
and schools of thought. Much of the innovativeness and pleasure of
the book lies in its explorations of particular scholarly
enterprises, which in turn rest on prodigious reading, broad
learning, and enviable linguistic fluency. At the same time,
however, Levitin defends a general thesis about the place of
scholarship in seventeenth-century English culture.' Susan James,
European Journal of Philosophy
'To the extent that we might be prepared to conceive historiography
as a science rather than an art, it is difficult to imagine a more
skilful example of it than Ancient Wisdom, which makes most other
efforts seem lazy and amateurish by contrast. The result is one of
the most important and original books on early modern intellectual
history of the past thirty years.' Anthony Ossa-Richardson,
Erudition and the Republic of Letters
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