Martin Folkes (1690-1754): Newtonian, Antiquary, Connoisseur is a
cultural and intellectual biography of the only President of both the
Royal Society and the Society of Antiquaries. Sir Isaac Newton's
prot?g?, astronomer, mathematician, freemason, art connoisseur,
Voltaire's friend and Hogarth's patron, his was an intellectually
vibrant world. Folkes was possibly the best-connected natural
philosopher and antiquary of his age, an epitome of Enlightenment
sociability, and yet he was a surprisingly neglected figure, the long
shadow of Newton eclipsing his brilliant disciple. A complex figure,
Folkes edited Newton's posthumous works in biblical chronology, yet
was a religious skeptic and one of the first members of the gentry to
marry an actress. His interests were multidisciplinary, from his
authorship of the first complete history of the English coinage, to
works concerning ancient architecture, statistical probability, and
astronomy. Rich archival material, including Folkes's travel diary,
correspondence, and his library and art collections permit
reconstruction through Folkes's eyes of what it was like to be a
collector and patron, a Masonic freethinker, and antiquarian and
virtuoso in the days before 'science' became sub-specialised. Folkes's
virtuosic sensibility and possible role in the unification of the
Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society tells against the
historiographical assumption that this was the age in which the 'two
cultures' of the humanities and sciences split apart, never to be
reunited. In Georgian England, antiquarianism and 'science' were
considered largely part of the same endeavour.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780192565655
Publisert
2021
Utgiver
Vendor
OUP Oxford
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter