The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System (Cultures of Knowledge in the Early Modern World) - Tapa dura

"Soll's study is a major piece of scholarship, based on a wide knowledge of primary archival and contemporary printed material and secondary literature...and I commend Soll for his fascinating investigation of Colbert's mastery over information."--Christopher J./i>--Christopher J. Napier, University of London"Business History" (04/01/2010) ""The Information Master" is well researched and an intriguing read, and by bringing together diverse strands of research from humanism to enlightened despotism adds much to the ongoing debates about the nature of royal absolutism in early modern France."--Jonathan Spangler, "Renaissance Quarterly"--Jonathan Spangler, Manchester Metropolitan University"Renaissance Quarterly" (07/01/2010) ."..this slender volume is an engaging case study of the interactions between information and government in early-modern Europe."--Toby Osborne, "French History"--Toby Osborne"French History" (11/27/2012)

This title offers a fascinating inquiry into Jean-Baptiste Colbert's collection of knowledge. 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. His actions at the French Royal Library managed to create a revolution in the content of civic learning. In "The Information Master", Jacob Soll explores Colbert's accomplishments, showing how the legacy of Colbert's encyclopedic tradition lies at the very center of the rise of the modern state.Soll's 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. With his connection of historical literatures - regarding archives, libraries, merchant techniques, and humanist pedagogy - that have usually remained separate, Soll has created an imaginative and refreshing work.