Title: The information master
First published: 2009
Description: "Jean-Baptiste Colbert saw governance of the state not as the inherent ability of the king, but as a form of mechanical mastery of subjects such as medieval legal history, physics, navigation, and the price lists of nails, sails, and gunpowder. In The Information Master, Jacob Soll shows how the legacy of Colbert's encyclopedic tradition lies at the very center of the rise of the modern state. This innovative book argues that Colbert's practice of collecting knowledge originated in Renaissance Italy, where merchants recognized the power to be gained from merging scholarship and trade. By connecting historical literatures -- archives, libraries, merchant techniques, and humanist pedagogy -- that have usually remained separate, Soll has created an imaginative and refreshing work."--Jacket.
Subjects: Archives, Biography, Government information, History, Intellectual life, Knowledge management, Political and social views, Political aspects, Political aspects of Archives, Political aspects of Records, Politics and government, Public administration, Records, Statesmen
Places: France
People: Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683)
Time periods: 1643-1715, 17th century
LC classification: DC130.C6 S68 2009