The Art of Discovery - by Maren Elisabeth Schwab & Anthony Grafton (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A panoramic history of the antiquarians whose discoveries transformed Renaissance culture and gave rise to new forms of art and knowledge

In the early fifteenth century, a casket containing the remains of the Roman historian Livy was unearthed at a Benedictine abbey in Padua. The find was greeted with the same enthusiasm as the bones of a Christian saint, and established a pattern that antiquarians would follow for centuries to come. The Art of Discovery tells the stories of the Renaissance antiquarians who turned material remains of the ancient world into sources for scholars and artists, inspirations for palaces and churches, and objects of pilgrimage and devotion.

Maren Elisabeth Schwab and Anthony Grafton bring to life some of the most spectacular finds of the age, such as Nero's Golden House and the wooden placard that was supposedly nailed to the True Cross. They take readers into basements, caves, and cisterns, explaining how digs were undertaken and shedding light on the methods antiquarians--and the alchemists and craftspeople they consulted--used to interpret them. What emerges is not an origin story for modern archaeology or art history but rather an account of how early modern artisanal skills and technical expertise were used to create new knowledge about the past and inspire new forms of art, scholarship, and devotion in the present.

The Art of Discovery challenges the notion that Renaissance antiquarianism was strictly a secular enterprise, revealing how the rediscovery of Christian relics and the bones of martyrs helped give rise to highly interdisciplinary ways of examining and authenticating objects of all kinds.

Review Quotes

"Clear and engaging. . . . [T]he blend of wit and finesse, along with the authors' noticeable enthusiasm, makes for an enjoyable reading experience."---Clément Godbarge, Journal of Modern History

"[A] fine-grained study. . . . the kinds of questions asked--what is true and authentic and how can we know it--have particular relevance for our own contemporary world."---Pamela O. Long, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

"[E]nchanting."---Shami Ghosh, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Schwab and Grafton . . . make a book that is as beautiful as it is informative, intriguing, and judicious. This is one way humanists or scholars in the humanities can and should work. This is a learned volume that tells a story of stories, a story of the past, as history is meant to do, bringing together style and matter, narrative and analysis."---Jonathan Locke Hart, Renaissance and Reformation

About the Author

Maren Elisabeth Schwab teaches postclassical Latin and history of knowledge at the University of Kiel. She is the author of Antike begreifen. Anthony Grafton is the Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University. His books include Inky Fingers: The Making of Books in Early Modern Europe and Information: A Historical Companion (Princeton).