List of Renaissance men  

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This is a partial list of Renaissance men.

Introduction

The terms Renaissance man and, less commonly, homo universalis (Latin for "universal man" or "man of the world") are related and used to describe a person who is well educated or who excels in a wide variety of subjects or fields. The idea developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72): that “a man can do all things if he will.” It embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance Humanism which considered man empowered, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that people should embrace all knowledge and develop their capacities as fully as possible. Thus the gifted men of the Renaissance sought to develop skills in all areas of knowledge, in physical development, in social accomplishments and in the arts.

List

The following people represent prime examples of "Renaissance Men" and "universal geniuses", that is "polymaths" in the strictest interpretation of the secondary meaning of the word. The list is organized by date of birth.

• Imhotep, 2650–2600 BC, was an Egyptian polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king, Djoser, as Vizir (or Chancellor ) to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. He is considered to be the first engineer, architect and physician in history known by name. The full list of his titles is:

Chancellor of the King of Egypt, Doctor, First in line after the King of Upper Egypt, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary nobleman, High Priest of Heliopolis, Builder, Chief Carpenter, Chief Sculptor and Maker of Vases in Chief.

Imhotep was one of very few mortals to be depicted as part of a pharaoh's statue. He was one of only a few commoners ever to be accorded divine status after death.

• Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BC–43 BC, Roman statesman, lawyer, humanist, republican, letterist, constitutionalist, politician, philosopher, translator, political theorist, orator, linguist and prose stylist.<ref>"For almost two millennia Cicero has been held up as a polymath mind, translating Greek and South Italian philosophy to Latin, extending Latin's reach and style to include a philosophical vocabulary, and a successful and famous practicing lawyer. Cicero helped shape the European tradition of letter writing taking to great heights during the Republic of Letters period of the late Renaissance which emulated Cicero's 'respublica literaria' McNeely I. F. and Wolverton, L. Reinventing Knowledge. New York, WW Norton (2008).</ref>

• Abbas Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman) (810–887), an Andalusian Berber aviator, inventor, engineer, technologist, chemist, humanitarian, musician, physician and poet; "Ibn Firnas was a polymath: a physician, the first to make glass from stones (quartz?), a student of music, and inventor of some sort of metronome";<ref>Lynn Townsend White, Jr. (Spring, 1961). "Eilmer of Malmesbury, an Eleventh Century Aviator: A Case Study of Technological Innovation, Its Context and Tradition", Technology and Culture 2 (2), pp. 97–111 [100-101].</ref> "had he lived in the Florence of the Medici, [Abbas ibn Firnas] would have been a “Renaissance man”."<ref>Paul Lunde, Science in Al-Andalus, Saudi Aramco World, July 2004, pp. 20–27.</ref>

• Trotula of Salerno 11th to 12th century Salerno, south Italy. Chair of Medicine, Salerno Medical School responsible for alleviating women’s suffering in illness and the specific medical needs of women. Physician, obstetrician, gynaecologist, medical teacher, writer, health planner and experimenter, responsible for major advances in female medicine, public health, pharmacology and medical teaching methods, as well as generally in science. Trotula became famous for establishing the distinct field of women’s health, and teaching men about women’s health. She wrote books used for many centuries about this area, most significant was Passionibus Curandorum, sometimes called The Book of the Diseases of Women or Trotula Major and also De Ornatu Mulierum known as Trotula Minor. These works discuss menses, conception, pregnancy, childbirth, and general issues of illness and treatments. In Trotula’s view men also suffered fertility problems. She promoted and experimented with opiates to numb pain during childbirth.<ref>Green, Monica, 1992, Obstetrical and Gynaecological Texts in Middle English Studies in the Age of Chaucer 14: 53–88. [Reprinted Royal College of Surgeons of England Library — TRACTS D-GRE.]</ref>

• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1039), an Iraqi scientist, physicist, anatomist, physician, psychologist, astronomer, engineer inventor, mathematician, ophthalmologist, philosopher, and Ash'ari theologian; "a devout, brilliant polymath";<ref>Review of Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist, Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006.</ref> "a great man and a universal genius, long neglected even by his own people";<ref>Sami Hamarneh (March 1972). Review of Hakim Mohammed Said, Ibn al-Haitham, Isis 63 (1), p. 118–119.</ref> "Ibn al-Haytham provides us with the historical personage of a versatile universal genius."<ref>Laurence Bettany (1995). "Ibn al-Haytham: an answer to multicultural science teaching?", Physics Education 30, p. 247–252.</ref>

• Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi (Rhazes) (865–925), Persian alchemist, chemist, physician, philosopher and scholar. He is often referred as "probably the greatest and most original of all the Muslim physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author". He made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, music, and philosophy, recorded in over 184 books and articles in various fields of science. He was well-versed in Persian, Greek and Indian medical knowledge and made numerous advances in medicine through own observations and discoveries.<ref>Hakeem Abdul Hameed, Exchanges between India and Central Asia in the field of Medicine</ref>

• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), a Persian scientist, physicist, anthropologist, astronomer, astrologer, encyclopedist, geodesist, geographer, geologist, historian, mathematician, natural historian, pharmacist, physician, philosopher, scholar, teacher, Ash'ari theologian, and traveller; "al-Biruni was a polymath and traveler (to India) who introduced Indian scientific knowledge & thought to the Middle East & the West, making contributions in mathematics, geography and geology, natural history, calendars and astronomy";<ref>Paul Murdin (2000). "al-Biruni, Abu Raihan (973–1048)", Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol.</ref> "al-Biruni, a scholar in many disciplines — from linguistics to mineralogy — and perhaps medieval Uzbekistan's most universal genius."<ref>Mr Koïchiro Matsuura.

United Nations: Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.</ref>

• Abū Alī ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) (980–1037), a Persian physician, pharmacologist, philosopher, metaphysician, aromatherapist, astronomer, chemist, Hanafi jurist and theologian, physicist, scientist, and universalist; "The Persian polymath-physician Avicenna";<ref>Richard Covington, "Rediscovering Arabic Science", Saudi Aramco World, May/June 2007.</ref> "Avicenna (973–1037) was a sort of universal genius, known first as a physician. To his works on medicine he afterward added religious tracts, poems, works on philosophy, on logic, as physics, on mathematics, and on astronomy. He was also a statesman and a soldier."<ref>Charles F. Horne (1917), ed., The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East Vol. VI: Medieval Arabia, pages 90–91. Parke, Austin, & Lipscomb, New York. (cf. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (973–1037): On Medicine, c. 1020 CE, Medieval Sourcebook.)</ref>

• Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126–1198), an Andalusian Arab philosopher, doctor, physician, jurist, lawyer, astronomer, mathematician, and theologian; "Ibn-Rushd, a polymath also known as Averroes";<ref>Top 100 Events of the Millennium, Life magazine.</ref> "Doctor, Philosopher, Renaissance Man."<ref>Caroline Stone, "Doctor, Philosopher, Renaissance Man", Saudi Aramco World, May-June 2003, p. 8–15.</ref>

• Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406), an Arab social scientist, sociologist, historian, historiographer, philosopher of history, demographer, economist, linguist, philosopher, political theorist, military theorist, Islamic scholar, Ash'ari theologian, diplomat and statesman; "a still-influential polymath";<ref>Liat Radcliffe, Newsweek (cf. The Polymath by Bensalem Himmich, The Complete Review).</ref> "in any epoch ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) would deserve the accolade Renaissance man, a person of many talents and diverse interests."<ref>Marvin E. Gettleman and Stuart Schaar (2003), The Middle East and Islamic World Reader, p. 54, Grove Press, ISBN 0802139361.</ref>

• Leone Battista Alberti (1404–1472), painter, poet, medallist, philosopher, hydraulic engineer, cryptographer, including machine assisted encryption, musician, and architect, and writer-novellist.<ref name="Watson, Peter 2005, p 411">Watson, Peter. Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud. (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 2005, p 411)</ref><ref name="Burke, Peter 1540. pp 51-52">Burke, Peter. Culture and Society in the Renaissance Italy, 1420–1540. (London, Batsford, 1972, pp. 51-52.</ref>

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) <ref>p. 180.</ref> "In Leonardo Da Vinci, of course, he had as his subject not just an ordinary Italian painter, but the prototype of the universal genius, the 'Renaissance man,' …"; "prodigious polymath… Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, humanist.". Leonardo's scientific accomplishments are often reduced to inventions (of which he made very many) or to speculation, and an adventurous spirit. Recent writing shows that he was in fact a serious and brilliant scientist, concerned with what today is called 'systems theory', or complex systems; but he devised scientific reasoning models for experimentation, and conducted experiments with validation procedures, all of which qualify him as a scientist in the true sense as well.<ref>Capra, Fritjof. The Science of Leonardo. Inside the Mind of the Genius of the Renaissance. New York, Doubleday, 2007.</ref> For the extraordinary and unprecedented range of his work, of which only a minority survives, he is justly considered by many the most diversely talented person, or, as Helen Gardner says "The scope and depth of his interests were without precedent… His mind and personality seem to us superhuman".<ref> Gardner, Helen (1970), Art through the Ages, Harcourt, Brace and World</ref>

• Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), architect, sculptor, painter, poet, writer.<ref name="Watson, Peter 2005, p 411"/><ref name="Burke, Peter 1540. pp 51-52"/>

• Baha' ad-Din al-`Amili; a polymath<ref>Phyllis G. Jestice (2004), Holy People of the World: A Cross-Cultural Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, vol. 3, p. 46</ref> equally at ease in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, architecture and poetry.

• Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), "Italian scientist, mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher. He made fundamental contributions to many sciences such as motion, materials, astronomy; he adapted telescope devices to astronomical purposes. As a natural philosopher committed to accounts of the world in mathematical terms moved away from descriptive accounts of the material world to mathematical ones tested empirically by experiments devised according to scientific method and reasoning. He formulated laws on circular inertia, on falling bodies, and parabolic trajectories. Several of these launched the change in how motion was understood and studied and this was decisive in understanding the physical universe. Galileo was a true Renaissance man, excelling at many different endeavors, including lute playing and painting."<ref>Eric W. Weisstein, Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)</ref> Galileo is considered by some to have been the true revolutionary (along with Descartes) of the so-called revolution in thought often called the Copernican revolution.<ref> Van Doren, Charles. A History of Knowledge. (New York, Ballantine, 1991, p. 212).</ref>

• Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, the first constructor of mechanical calculators, philosopher, theologian, and one of the greatest masters of French prose. Not frequently described as polymath, as the word doesn't exist in French, he was, for instance, praised by Chateaubriand, who said "There was a man who, aged 12, had rediscovered mathematics using rounds and bars; aged 16, written the deepest book on conics seen since Antiquity; aged 19, reduced to mechanical means a science which exists only in the mind; aged 23, found the weight of air, (…), then turned his thoughts towards God (…) giving its definitive shape to the language used later by Bossuet and Racine (…) This frightening genius was named Blaise Pascal" <ref>Chateaubriand, Génie du Christianisme, III,2,ch.6</ref>

• Robert Hooke (1635–1703) was an English natural philosopher, architect and the foremost experimental scientist of the English Restoration. He was at one point simultaneously Gresham Professor of Geometry, curator of experiments to the Royal Society and surveyor to the City of London after the great fire of 1666. In addition to the law of elasticity for which he is primarily known he is regarded as the founder of the science of microscopy, has a justifiable claim to have invented the pocket watch balance spring (also attributed to Christiaan Huygens), developed the world's first set of building controls, designed The Monument, the Royal College of Surgeons, Bethlehem Hospital and many of the City churches rebuilt by the Wren partnership, helped Robert Boyle to develop his gas law and deduced that fossils were petrified organic matter and that gravity follows an inverse square law.

• Isaac Newton (1643–1727) was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, theologian, natural philosopher and alchemist. His treatise Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, published in 1687, described universal gravitation and the three laws of motion, laying the groundwork for classical mechanics, which dominated the scientific view of the physical universe for the next three centuries and is the basis for modern engineering. In a 2005 poll of the Royal Society of who had the greatest effect on the history of science, Newton was deemed more influential than Albert Einstein. "When we see Newton as a late Renaissance man, his particular addiction to classical geometry as ancient wisdom and the most reliable way of unveiling the secrets of nature, seems natural."<ref>Alan Cook (2000), Review of Niccolo Guicciardini, Reading the Principia; The Debate on Newton's Mathematical Methods for Natural Philosophy from 1687 to 1736, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 54 (1), p. 109–113.</ref>

• Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716); "Leibniz was a polymath who made significant contributions in many areas of physics, logic, mathematics, history, librarianship, and of course philosophy and theology, while also working on ideal languages, mechanical clocks, mining machinery…" "A universal genius if ever there was one, and an inexhaustible source of original and fertile ideas, Leibniz was all the more interested in logic because it …"<ref name="autogenerated3">Google books</ref> "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was maybe the last Universal Genius incessantly active in the fields of theology, philosophy, mathematics, physics, …"<ref name="autogenerated3" /> "Leibniz was perhaps the last great Renaissance man who in Bacon's words took all knowledge to be his province."<ref>Google books</ref>

• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790); "The ultimate creole intellectual… A true polymath of the Enlightenment style, he distinguished himself on both sides of the Atlantic by researches in natural sciences as well as politics and literature." He was a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, publisher and diplomat.

• Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (1711–1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important contributions to literature, education, and science. His spheres of interest were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, history, art, philology, optical devices and others. He discovered the atmosphere of Venus during its transit<ref>Menshutkin, Boris N. Russia's Lomonosov, Chemist Courtier, Physicist Poet. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1952.</ref> and proposed the idea of conservation of matter.<ref>Loren R. Graham. Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: a short history Cambridge University Press, 1993, ISBN 0521287898, 9780521287890. p 23</ref> Lomonosov was also a poet, who created the basis of the modern Russian literary language.

• Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718–1799) a great female polymath. Born in Milan, Italy, she was only the second ever female university professor, a brilliant linguist, geometer, theology, logician, algebraist, mathematician and philosopher.<ref> Anzoletti, Luisa. Maria Gaetane Agnesi. Milan: L.F. Cogliati, 1990.</ref>. She wrote a book discussing differential and integral calculus. A child prodigy she spoke French as well as her native Italian from five years of age and in childhood also acquired Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, German and Latin. From age nine, she was delivering educated talks and later lectures, including a famous logical claim for the right of women to a full and equal education with men. Appointed by Pope Benedict XIV to Bologna University chair of mathematics.<ref>Truesdell, C. "Maria Gaetana Agnesi." Archive for History of Exact Sciences. 1989, 40: 433, pp. 113–142.</ref><ref> Mazzotti, Massimo. "Maria Gaetana Agnesi: Mathematics and the Making of the Catholic Enlightenment," Isis, 92(4) (December 2001), pp. 657–683.</ref>

• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was "the walking, talking embodiment of the Enlightenment, a polymath whose list of achievements is as long as it is incredibly varied.". He was a philosopher, author, lawyer, architect, musician, naturalist, botanist, inventor, engineer, statesman, diplomat, and political theorist. At a dinner honoring Nobel laureates, John F. Kennedy famously said "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together in the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) was a German poet, novelist, playwright, natural philosopher, diplomat, civil servant. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust. "Goethe comes as close to deserving the title of a universal genius as any man who has ever lived".<ref name="Google books">Google books.</ref> "He was essentially the last great European Renaissance man."<ref name="books.google.com">Google books.</ref> His gifts included incalculable contributions to the areas of German literature and the natural sciences. He is credited with discovery of a bone in the human jaw, and proposed a theory of colors. He has a mineral named in his honor, goethite. He molded the aesthetic properties of the Alps to poetry, thus, changing the local belief from "perfectly hideous" and an "unavoidable misery," to grandeur of the finest most brilliant creation.

• Thomas Young (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829) was an English polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony and Egyptology.<ref>Andrew Robinson, The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained how we see, Cured the Sick and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone. Oneworld Publications, 2006. ISBN 978-1851684946.</ref>

• Jose Rizal (1861–1896), a Filipino patriot, an ophthalmologist, poet, journalist, novelist, volcanologist, biologist, political scientist, painter and polyglot.

See also

• List of polymaths