Ideas: A History from Fire to Freud

Bonfires of the Vanities – the invention of oil painting – perspective – greater realism – allegory – pagan mythology – universalism – universal men – pre-eminence of architecture – painting v. sculpture – Veronese before the Inquisition – opera – ‘imitation’ in music – Willaert – Gabrieli – origins of the orchestra – rabab and lura – gittern – monacordys – Amati’s viols and violins – madrigals – canzon francese – sonatas – concertos – sinfonia – recitativo – harmonic (vertical) music – Monteverdi and the Lament of Arianna – the oratorio – the explosion of London theatres – reasons for it – the Mermaid Tavern – the earliest plays – James Burbage – orators become actors – repertory – Shakespeare – King Lear and Falstaff – Don Quixote

20. The Mental Horizon of Christopher Columbus

The Greeks discover the Atlantic – Pytheas and Ultima Thule – Alexander in the East – Eratosthenes and the circumference of the earth – Ptolemy – St Brendan – the Land of Promise – Vinland – John of Plano Carpinis – William of Rusbruck – Marco Polo and Kublai Khan – Ibn Battuta – mappae mundi – the monstrous races – T-O maps – Columbus’ known reading – Henry the Navigator – the compass – portolan charts – magnetic north and true north – terra incognita – Mercator and ‘waxing latitudes’ – tillers and rudders – lead and line – pilot books – quadrants – almanacs – lateen- and square-rigged ships – the exploration of the west African coast – Vasco da Gama reaches India via the Cape of Good Hope – Columbus finds the Bahamas

21. The ‘Indian’ Mind: Ideas in the New World

America unknown to the scriptures – reactions to Columbus’ discoveries – explanations for the origin of the ‘Indians’ – early anthropology – the Spanish ‘encomienda’ – rationality of the Indians and their ability to receive the faith – descendants of Noah? – dimensions of New World peoples in 1492 – customs and beliefs – food-sharing – tobacco – marriage – agriculture – longhouses – cannibalism – languages (different concepts of nouns and verbs) – different sense of self – different concepts of male and female – the very different economics of death – counting and time – writing and textiles – medical ideas – different ideas about art – effects of the New World on Old World thinking

22. History Heads North: the Intellectual Impact of Protestantism