Information Master : Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System

by Soll, Jacob

• ISBN13: 9780472116904
• ISBN10: 0472116908
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-05-11
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

"Soll contributes to a fresh and burgeoning field of scholarship that looks at information systems and the records they left as subjects of study, as well as sources of documents for modern historians. The dynamism of this field ensures that this book will receive a lively scholarly reception." ---Randolph Head, University of California at Riverside "The Information Mastermakes a major contribution to our understanding of the uses of knowledge and the mechanisms by which knowledge was harnessed by the early modern state." ---Paul Nelles, Carleton University 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. InThe 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. Jacob Soll is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University and the author ofPublishingThe Prince:Reading and the Birth of Political Criticism, 1513-1789(Michigan 2005). He is editor, along with Anthony Grafton and Ann Blair, of the series Cultures of Knowledge in the Early Modern World.

Table of Contents

Between Public and Secret Spheres The Case Of Colbert	p. 1
Colbert's Cosmos The Expert And The Rise Of The Modern State	p. 13
The Accountant and the Coups D'État	p. 34
Royal Accountability Louis Xiv and the Golden Notebooks	p. 50
The Rule of the Informers	p. 67
Managing the System Colbert Trains His Son For The Great Intendancy	p. 84
From Universal Library to State Encyclopedia Colbert's House Of Solomon	p. 94
Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Republic of Letters The State Control Of Knowledge	p. 120
The Information State in Play Archives, Erudition, and The Affair of the Régale	p. 140
The System Falls Apart, but the State Remains	p. 153
Notes	p. 169
Bibliography	p. 243
Index	p. 269
Illustrations following page	p. 146
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.