Richard Yeo

The eighteenth-century English dictionaries of arts and sciences claimed to contain all knowledge that a person of education should possess. Richard Yeo places these scientific dictionaries in a rich cultural framework of debate that includes the classification of knowledge, the tradition of commonplaces, the Republic of Letters, the Enlightenment public sphere, copyright issues, and the specialization of science. He examines assumptions about the organization, communication, and control of knowledge in these works. Elegantly illustrated and clearly written, Encyclopaedic Visions provides a major contribution to Enlightenment studies, the history of science, and the history of ideas in general.

Scientific Dictionaries and Enlightenment Culture

Encyclopaedic Visions

David Brewster

Edinburgh Ency

In Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science, Richard Yeo interprets a relatively unexplored set of primary archival sources: the notes and notebooks of some of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution. Notebooks were important to several key members of the Royal Society of London, including Robert Boyle, John Evelyn, Robert Hooke, John Locke, and others, who drew on Renaissance humanist techniques of excerpting from texts to build storehouses of proverbs, maxims, quotations, and other material in personal notebooks, or commonplace books. Yeo shows that these men appreciated the value of their own notes both as powerful tools for personal recollection, and, following Francis Bacon, as a system of precise record keeping from which they could retrieve large quantities of detailed information for collaboration. The virtuosi of the seventeenth century were also able to reach beyond Bacon and the humanists, drawing inspiration from the ancient Hippocratic medical tradition and its emphasis on the gradual accumulation of information over time. By reflecting on the interaction of memory, notebooks, and other records, Yeo argues, the English virtuosi shaped an ethos of long-term empirical scientific inquiry.

Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science

Kathleen Norris

Patrick Barry

For all who are on a spiritual journey or starting out on a search for meaning in their lives, there is a vast array of competing belief systems, therapies, and guides available. Above the noise and clamor of this busy marketplace, a centuries-old voice speaks words of invitation: Who is there with a love of true life and a longing for days of real fulfillment? If you should hear that call and answer 'I, ' this is the answer that you will receive from God. . . . So begins the ancient Rule of St. Benedict, written fifteen hundred years ago as a simple manual for monks living in community together. Because of its gentle wisdom, realism, and depth, the Rule has always stretched beyond the walls of monasteries. Today, growing numbers of men and women are discovering that it can teach them something invaluable about themselves and how to live meaningful lives. Wisdom from the Monastery contains a contemporary translation of the Rule of St. Benedict and short reflections on the seven basic elements of Benedictine spirituality that are a tried and true recipe for healthy, balanced, and purposeful living. An ideal place to begin a lifetime of exploration and discovery, Wisdom from the Monastery is an excerpt from The Benedictine Handbook, also available from Liturgical Press.

The Rule of St. Benedict for Everyday Life

Wisdom from the Monastery

A Juridical Study, with Particular Regard to the Practice of the English Benedictine Congregation Since the French Revolution

The Structure and Content of Monastic Profession

Robert Yeo

The eighteenth-century English dictionaries of arts and sciences claimed to contain all knowledge that a person of education should possess. These early encyclopaedias responded to the explosion of information by reducing knowledge to essentials, stressing the need for a coherent account of the sciences, and for some time excluding biography and history. Richard Yeo places these scientific dictionaries in a rich cultural framework of debate that includes the arrangement of knowledge, the Republic of Letters, the Enlightenment public sphere, copyright issues and the specialisation of science. He discusses dilemmas involved in the quest for knowledge to be both organised and readily available, examining assumptions about the organisation, communication and control of knowledge in these works. Elegantly illustrated and accessibly written, Encyclopaedic Visions provides a major contribution to Enlightenment studies and the history of ideas in general.

Lucius is a young Centurion in the time of Hadrian, serving at Trimontium, modern-day Melrose in southern Scotland. Trista is a Roman patrician girl, living in Gaul. She is orphaned and becomes a vagrant when her parents are killed by traitors plotting to overthrow the emperor. Following the death of his wife, Lucius becomes an imperial agent, operating beyond the borders of the Empire as a trader, seeking signs of invasion. He meets Trista who is under threat of assassination. The story follows their flight across Gaul, pursued by evil forces, to the German forests in a race to avert invasion and the death of the emperor.

Hadrian's Trader

This was edited by the scientist Sir David Brewster (1781-1868) and published in 1830 by William Blackwood (1808-1830). Organised alphabetically, with more than 150 contributors and 360 copperplate illustrations, the encyclopedia was particularly notable for its scientific articles - such as those on electromagnetism and the polarization of light - many of which were written by Brewster himself. Brewster's efforts meant that Scotland had produced a worthy complement, or even rival, to the original Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Edinburgh encyclopaedia

A 1993 assessment of the role of the historian and philosopher of science, William Whewell, in early Victorian debates about the nature of science.

William Whewell, Natural Knowledge and Public Debate in Early Victorian Britain

Defining Science

The Rule of St Benedict, just 9000 words long and written 1500 years ago, has proved to be one of the most timeless, influential and lasting of all texts. Its realism about human character, its extraordinary practical wisdom and its original recipe for creating a work/life balance have made it famous way beyond the monastic communities whose lives it has shaped for centuries. Today many secular people are finding that the Rule makes sense of their lives too. This book simply consists of the Rule in a modern language and an introduction to the seven basic elements of Benedictine spirituality.

Richard Yeo

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