Bring out your dead. The past as revelation

Defines the current state of the art of scholarship on early modern European cultural and intellectual history. The work of the Renaissance humanists comes to life in Anthony Grafton´s exploration of the primary sources and modern scholarship, classical and modern elements in the world of European letters from the 15th to the 19th century. Tracing the ties that bound the world of humanistic learning in early modern Europe to other social and cultural spheres, Grafton defines the contemporary state of the art of scholarship on early modern European cultural and intellectual history while simultaneously demonstrating how entertaining, enlightening, and relevant that history can be . Covering a variety of topics and authors as different as Alberti and Descartes, Grafton maps the grand and meticulous efforts of the past to connect the realm of nature with that of books, the realm of everyday experience with that of passionate reading in massive tomes, and the realm of codes of etiquette and institutions with that of extravagant and joyous erudition - efforts that this book itself aims to carry on.