A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject
areas; such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.
The term was first used in the seventeenth century but the related term, polyhistor,
is an ancient term with similar meaning.
The term is often used to describe those great thinkers of the Renaissance and the Golden
Age of Islam, each of whom excelled at several fields in science and the arts, including
such individuals as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo Galilei, Paolo Sarpi, Nicolaus Copernicus,
Francis Bacon, Thomas Browne, Michael Servetus, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn Sina, and Omar Khayyám.
In Renaissance Italy, the idea of the polymath was expressed by one of its most accomplished
representatives, Leon Battista Alberti, in the statement that "a man can do all things
if he will."
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 capacities as fully as possible.
This was expressed in the term "Renaissance man" which is often applied to the gifted
people of that age who sought to develop their abilities in all areas of accomplishment:
intellectual, artistic, social and physical.
This term entered the lexicon during the twentieth century and has now been applied to great
thinkers living before and after the Renaissance.
Renaissance ideal Many notable polymaths lived during the Renaissance
period, a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th through to the 17th century and that
began in Italy in the late Middle Ages and later spread to the rest of Europe.
These polymaths had a rounded approach to education that reflected the ideals of the
humanists of the time.
A gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical
instrument, write poetry, and so on, thus fulfilling the Renaissance ideal.
The idea of a universal education was essential to achieving polymath ability, hence the word
university was used to describe a seat of learning.
At this time universities did not specialize in specific areas but rather trained students
in a broad array of science, philosophy and theology.
This universal education gave them a grounding from which they could continue into apprenticeship
toward becoming a Master of a specific field.
During the Renaissance, Baldassare Castiglione, in his guide The Book of the Courtier, described
how an ideal courtier should have polymathic traits.
Castiglione's guide stressed the kind of attitude that should accompany the many talents of
a polymath, an attitude he called sprezzatura.
A courtier should have a detached, cool, nonchalant attitude, and speak well, sing, recite poetry,
have proper bearing, be athletic, know the humanities and classics, paint and draw and
possess many other skills, always without showy or boastful behavior, in short, with
"sprezzatura".
The many talents of the polymath should appear to others to be performed without effort,
in an unstrained way, almost without thought.
In some ways, the gentlemanly requirements of Castiglione recall the Chinese sage, Confucius,
who far earlier depicted the courtly behavior, piety and obligations of service required
of a gentleman.
The easy facility in difficult tasks also resembles the effortlessness inculcated by
Zen, such as in archery where no conscious attention, but pure spontaneity, produces
better and more noble skill.
For Castiglione, the attitude of apparent effortlessness should accompany great skill
in many separate fields.
In word or deed the courtier should "avoid affectation ... ... practice ... a certain
sprezzatura ... conceal all art and make whatever is done or said appear to be without effort
and almost without any thought about it".
This Renaissance ideal differed slightly from the "polymath" in that it involved more than
just intellectual advancement.
Historically it represented a person who endeavored to "develop his capacities as fully as possible"
both mentally and physically, and, as Castiglione suggests, without "affectation".
Related terms A different term for polymath is Renaissance
man, which was first recorded in written English in the early 20th century.
Other similar terms in use are Homo Universalis and Uomo Universale, which translate to "universal
person" or "universal man".
When someone is called a "Renaissance man" or "Renaissance woman" today, it is meant
that, rather than simply having broad interests or superficial knowledge in several fields,
he or she possesses a more profound knowledge and a proficiency, or even an expertise, in
at least some of those fields.
The related term generalist – contrasted with a specialist – is used to describe
a person with a general approach to knowledge.
Today, the expression "Renaissance man" is usually used to describe a person with intellectual
or scholastic proficiency and not necessarily the more universal learning implied by Renaissance
humanism.
Some dictionaries use the term "Renaissance man" to describe someone with many interests
or talents, while others give a meaning restricted to the Renaissance and more closely related
to Renaissance ideals.
The term Universal Genius is also used, with Leonardo da Vinci as the prime example again.
The term seems to be used especially when a person has made lasting contributions in
at least one of the fields in which he was actively involved, and when he had a universality
of approach.
When a person is described as having encyclopedic knowledge, he or she exhibits a vast scope
of knowledge.
This designation may be anachronistic, however, in the case of persons such as Eratosthenes
whose reputation for having encyclopedic knowledge pre-dates the existence of any encyclopedic
object.
Polymath and polyhistor compared Many dictionaries of word origins list these
words as synonyms or as words with very similar meanings.
Thomas Moore took the words as corresponding to similarly erudite "polys" in his poem "The
Devil Among Scholars":
Off I fly, careering far In chase of Pollys, prettier farThan any of
their namesakes are—The Polymaths and Polyhistors, Polyglots and all their sisters.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the words mean practically the same; "the
classical Latin word polyhistor was used exclusively, and the Greek word frequently, of Alexander
Polyhistor", but polymathist appeared later, and then polymath.
Thus today, regardless of any differentiation they may have had when originally coined,
they are often taken to mean the same thing.
Other uses of 'polymath'
In Britain, phrases such as "polymath sportsman", "sporting polymath", or simply "polymath"
are occasionally used in a restricted sense to refer to athletes who have performed at
a high level in several very different sports, rather than to those gifted in many fields
of study.
One whose accomplishments are limited to athletics would not be considered a "polymath" in the
usual sense of the word.
Examples would include: Howard Baker – "Similar claims to the title
of sporting polymath could be made for Howard Baker".
Maxwell Woosnam – "Sporting polymath is a full-time post..."
The term can also be used loosely in other curious ways, for example, Rolf Harris has
also been described by the Daily Mail as "the People's Polymath".
See also Creative class
Competent man Opsimath
Philomath Polyglot
Polymath Polymatheia — a muse of knowledge in Greek
mythology References and notes
Further reading Frost, Martin, "Polymath: A Renaissance Man"
Mirchandani, Vinnie, The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations", John
Wiley & Sons, 2010 Grafton, A, 'The World of the Polyhistors:
Humanism and Encyclopedism’, Central European History, 18: 31–47.
Waquet, F, 'Mapping the World of Learning: The ‘Polyhistor’ of Daniel Georg Morhof'
Herbert Jaumann, "Was ist ein Polyhistor?
Gehversuche auf einem verlassenen Terrain," Studia Leibnitiana, 22, 76-89