A landmark history that traces the creation, management, and sharing of information through six centuries Thanks to modern technological advances, we now enjoy seemingly unlimited access to information. Yet how did information become so central to our everyday lives, and how did its processing and storage make our data-driven era possible? This volume is the first to consider these questions in comprehensive detail, tracing the global emergence of information practices, technologies, and more, from the premodern era to the present. With entries spanning archivists to algorithms and scribes to surveilling, this is the ultimate reference on how information has shaped and been shaped by societies. Written by an international team of experts, the book's inspired and original long- and short-form contributions reconstruct the rise of human approaches to creating, managing, and sharing facts and knowledge. Thirteen full-length chapters discuss the role of information in pivotal epochs and regions, with chief emphasis on Europe and North America, but also substantive treatment of other parts of the world as well as current global interconnections. More than 100 alphabetical entries follow, focusing on specific tools, methods, and concepts-from ancient coins to the office memo, and censorship to plagiarism. The result is a wide-ranging, deeply immersive collection that will appeal to anyone drawn to the story behind our modern mania for an informed existence. Tells the story of information's rise from 1450 through to today Covers a range of eras and regions, including the medieval Islamic world, late imperial East Asia, early modern and modern Europe, and modern North America Includes 100 concise articles on wide-ranging topics: Concepts: data, intellectual property, privacy Formats and genres: books, databases, maps, newspapers, scrolls and rolls, social media People: archivists, diplomats and spies, readers, secretaries, teachers Practices: censorship, forecasting, learning, political reporting, translating Processes: digitization, quantification, storage and search Systems: bureaucracy, platforms, telecommunications Technologies: cameras, computers, lithography Provides an informative glossary, suggested further reading (a short bibliography accompanies each entry), and a detailed index Written by an international team of notable contributors, including Jeremy Adelman, Lorraine Daston, Devin Fitzgerald, John-Paul Ghobrial, Lisa Gitelman, Earle Havens, Randolph C. Head, Niv Horesh, Sarah Igo, Richard R. John, Lauren Kassell, Pamela Long, Erin McGuirl, David McKitterick, Elias Muhanna, Thomas S. Mullaney, Carla Nappi, Craig Robertson, Daniel Rosenberg, Neil Safier, Haun Saussy, Will Slauter, Jacob Soll, Heidi Tworek, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Alexandra Walsham, and many more.

This book revises the picture of the teacher and educator of princes, Vittorino Rambaldoni da Feltre (c. 1378, Feltre -- 1446, Mantua), taking a completely new approach to show his work and life from the individual perspectives created by his students and contemporaries. From 1423 to 1446, Vittorino da Feltre was in charge of a school in Mantua, where his students included not only the offspring of Italy’s princes, but also the first generation of authors dealing with books in print. Among his students were historians like Bartolomeo Sacchi (named Platina), who wrote an extensive history of the popes, and mathematicians like Jacopo Cassiano (Cremonensis), who translated the work of Archimedes from Greek into Latin. Vittorino is still regarded as the educationalist of Italian Renaissance humanism per sé. This work not only contributes to the study of the history of Italian humanist institutions, it also uses available sources to demonstrate the development of a new attitude to education in Italy.

This book revises the picture of the teacher and educator of princes, Vittorino Rambaldoni da Feltre (c. 1378, Feltre -- 1446, Mantua), taking a completely new approach to show his work and life from the individual perspectives created by his students and contemporaries. From 1423 to 1446, Vittorino da Feltre was in charge of a school in Mantua, where his students included not only the offspring of Italy's princes, but also the first generation of authors dealing with books in print. Among his students were historians like Bartolomeo Sacchi (named Platina), who wrote an extensive history of the popes, and mathematicians like Jacopo Cassiano (Cremonensis), who translated the work of Archimedes from Greek into Latin. Vittorino is still regarded as the educationalist of Italian Renaissance humanism per se. This work not only contributes to the study of the history of Italian humanist institutions, it also uses available sources to demonstrate the development of a new attitude to education in Italy.

German Scholars in Exiledeals with intellectuals who fled Nazi Germany and found refuge in either the United States or in American Services in Great Britain and post-WWII Germany. The volume focuses on scholars who were outside the commonly known Max Horkheimer-Hannah Arendt circles, who are less well-known but not less important. Their experiences ranged from an outstanding career at an Ivy-League university to a return to the German Democratic Republic and a position as an economic advisor to East Berlin's party leadership. None had actual political power, but many asserted some degree of influence. Their intellecutal legacies can still be seen in today's political culture.