Enlightenment: Discovering The World In The 18th Century

The Enlightenment was a period of intense activity devoted to discovery and learning about the natural world, the past and other civilizations. Classification, collecting and deciphering were all important stages on the way to understanding the world. The King's Library was built to house the books donated from the royal libraries of King George II and King George III and they epitomize the interest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in scholarship and study. Aimed at the general reader and relevant to many academic disciplines, this book explores the ways people acquired new information, organized their ideas and reached their conclusions. Review: ''Affirmative and enjoyable' The Art Newspaper; 'Visually and textually stunning...' The Good Book Guide' Table of Contents: Preface by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum; Part I: The 'Universal' Museum; 1 'Aimed at universality and belonging to the nation': The Enlightenment and the British Museum; 2 Collectors and commemoration: portrait sculpture and paintings in the British Museum; 3 'Most curious, splendid and useful': the King's Library of George III; 4 The King's Library and its architectural genesis; 5 Ancient glory and modern learning: the sculpture-decorated library; Part II: The Natural World; 6 Challenging the dogma: classifying and describing the natural world; 7 Natural history collectors and their collections: 'simpling macaronis' and instruments of empire; 8 The nature of the earth and the fossil debate; 9 Rocks, fossils and the emergence of palaeontology; Part III: The Artificial World; 10 The ordering of the artificial world: collecting, classification and progress; 11 'The King loves medals': the study of coins in Europe and Britain; 12 Engraved gems: the lost art of antiquity; 13 Words and pictures: Greek vases and their classification; 14 Between antiquarianism and experiment: Hans Sloane, George III and collecting science; 15 King George III's topographical collection: a Georglan view of Britain and the world; Part IV: Ancient Civilizations: New Interpretations; 16 Ideas of antiquity: classical and other ancient civilizations in the age of Enlightenment; 17 The discovery of British antiquity; 18 From Persepolis to Babylon and Nineveh: the rediscovery of the ancient Near East; 19 'The curse of Babel': the Enlightenment and the study of writing; 20 Sacred history? The difficult subject of religion; Part V: Voyages of Discovery; 21 Venture to the exterior; 22 Romancing the Americas: public expeditions and private research c. 1778-1827; 23 Irresistible objects: collecting in the Pacific and Australia in the reign of George III; 24 Trade and learning: the European 'discovery' of the East; 25 Africa: in the shadow of the Enlightenment Author Biography: Kim Sloan is an Assistant Keeper in the Department of Prints & Drawings In the British Museum and lead curator of the new Enlightenment Gallery in the King's Library. The other contributors are drawn from The British Museum, British Library, Science Museum and Natural History Museum.