The Renaissance

I've been reading a Modern Library Chronicles book: The Renaissance. It is a pretty accessible and conversational read; I'm thinking I may order the series for our library.

In only a few pages, the author prefaces the era itself with a recap of a few technology developments that paved the way for the study of classics and the subsequent sharing of information: paper and printing. I realized that the 15th century was also a very entrepreneurial time, as the proliferation of business opportunities proliferated with the rise and adaptation of inventions. In less than half a century after the first printed book, there were printing firms in Poland, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Spain; including over 60 in Germany and 150 in Venice, Italy alone! Zoom.

He also mention the Complutensian Polyglot Bible (ever hear of it?). It is as good an example of the ambition, skill, and intellectual surge of the age as any artwork; comprising in 5 columns per page, the text of the bible in five language of antiquity. Amazing.

So the next day I read in the Smithsonian magazine that Thomas Jefferson, cutting and pasting, created his own "bible" with clippings from the original, in 4-columns: Greek and Latin on the left, French and English on the right!