Reflections on the history of information in early modern Europe

Abstract

SUMMARY: This paper offers an outline for a possible history of information and its communication in early modern Europe. Noting the vast size of the topic, the problematic nature of the concept 'information', and the need to avoid a 'triumphalist' account of intellectual progress, the author concentrates on the consequences of the invention of printing and takes three soundings in the sea of information, viz. concerning the development libraries, encyclopaedias and journals. The conclusion suggests that the organization of knowledge in the West was relatively ‘entrepreneurial’, in contrast to its more 'bureaucratic' organization in Ming and Qing China.