Polymath
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A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific cont
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin by David Martin, 1767. Benjamin Franklin is one of the foremost polymaths in US history. Franklin was a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer and political philosopher. He further attained a legacy as one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren by Godfrey Kneller, 1711. Best known as an architect, Christopher Wren was also an astronomer, mathematician and physicist.
Renaissance humanism
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Renaissance humanism is a worldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity that emerged from the study of classical antiquity.
Polymath
…prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, but some are gifted at explaining abstractly and creatively. 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…
Leonardo da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) shows the correlations of ideal human body proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his De Architectura. In his explicit turn back to an ancient model in search of knowledge and wisdom, Leonardo follows early humanist practice. What he finds in Vitruvius is a mathematical formula for the proportions of all parts of the human body, which results in its idealized representation as the true microcosmic measure of all things. [...]The perfection of this ideal human form corresponds visually to the early humanist belief in the unique central placement of human beings within the divine universal order and their consequent human grandeur and dignity, expressed in the philosopher
Medieval and Renaissance Italian writers portrayed by Giorgio Vasari in Six Tuscan Poets (1544). From left to right: Cristoforo Landino, Marsilio Ficino, Francesco Petrarca, Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante Alighieri, and Guido Cavalcanti.
Frontispiece depicting Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, and Francesco Petrarca with the coat of arms of the Medici–Toledo family on top