Chapter 1 Comparisons Compared: A Study in the Early Modern Roots of Cultural History
In: Regimes of ComparatismSearch for other papers by Anthony Grafton in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract: Histories of the modern regime of comparison—of systematic comparison of societies and cultures—often locate its origins in the European Enlightenment. Some argue that its underwent a crisis in the nineteenth-century heyday of comparison. This article argues that such regimes have taken many forms in historical and social thought. Some Renaissance comparatists did fasten on small details rather than larger structures, and some nineteenth-century savants insisted on the uniqueness of every culture and society. But a rich comparative literature of law flourished in the sixteenth century, and a rich comparative literature on language in the nineteenth century. The history of comparison remains to be written, and different domains of comparison await comparison with one another.