Léonard de Vinci et L'Expérience Scientifique Au XVI^e SiècleReview by: Lynn White, Jr.The American Historical Review, Vol. 60, No. 1 (Oct., 1954), pp. 59-60Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Historical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1842750 .

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Leonard de Vinci 59

The section on the seventeenth century in general develops the thesis that there emerged in every phase of men's lives new ideas and patterns of action that were in conflict with the traditional culture of Europe. The baroque artists who rejected rules, the Jansenists as well as the theocentric Berullian Catholic reformers who wished to purify ideas about God and salvation, the libertin philosophers who rejected Christianity, the scientists who discovered the helio- centric universe, the great magnates and princes who refused to accept the authority of kings-these and others were creating diversity, irregularity, and disorder that demanded new responses from men. The tentatives to adjust to these new patterns (Cartesianism, absolutism, mercantilism, classicism in art, etc.) proved to be inadequate responses. Thus at the end of the period the moral, political, intel- lectual, and economic crises were assuming critical proportions. This section is very ably written; the ideas are not new, but the presentation includes the results of the most recent research; it is also lively, vigorous, and, unlike many general studies, it rarely soars beyond factual evidence.

In some ways the last section is the most suggestive. The part dealing with the New World is adequate; the emphasis upon the fact that there were Indian societies in both North and South America may be a springboard for a more catholic understanding of the problems of the New World. The short section on black African societies is extremely informative; one often forgets that Negro Africa also has a history. The section analyzing Islam approaches brilliance. Neither the reviewer nor Professor Mousnier would claim originality for the idea that the world conflict of these centuries was between Islam and Christendom, and that the West made great efforts to turn Islam's flank. This thesis, however, is presented with a calm objectivity that should be instructive to the drumbeaters of our era, were they able to read and understand it. Professor Mousnier has come closer than any general historian known to this reviewer to making sense out of the problem of world history in these centuries.

Like the other two volumes of the series that have appeared, this book is artistically printed and the illustrations are beautifully reproduced. One wishes that the American market (some four times the size of the French!) were such that our publishers of sober histories could produce books like this one.

University of Minnesota JOHN B. WOLF

LE-ONARD DE VINCI ET L'EXPItRIENCE SCIENTIFIQUE AU XVIe SItCLE. [Colloques internationaux du Centre national de la recherche scien- tifique, Paris, 4-7 juillet 1952. Sciences humaines.] (Paris: Presses univer- sitaires de France. 1953. Pp. Viii, 273. 1500 fr.)

IN his brilliant summary of the sixteen papers of this symposium, Alexandre

Koyre points out that, at least tacitly, they all revolve about the validity of the

thesis propounded in I906 by Pierre Duhem's Etudes sur Le'onard de Vinci, ceux

qu'il a lus et ceux qui l'ont lu that Leonardo was both the culmination of the

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6o Reviews of Books

scientific lore of the Parisian and Pavian nominalists and influential on his suc- cessors. Heresy in its youth, Duhem's view is now orthodoxy and is here ably sustained, particularly by Andre Chastel. But the contrary position seems victorious, despite Koyre's effort to synthesize the opposing views. George de Santillana's paper "Ceux qu'il n'a pas lus" shows that Leonardo's Latin was got after forty and that he could perhaps never read it without assistance. Moreover his Italian remained that of a Tuscan peasant. Lucien Febvre insists, and several contributors sustain him, that in Leonardo's time listening was at least as important as reading. In Florence and Milan, Rome and Paris, ideas of every sort were buzzing. In the relatively few instances where Leonardo notes a source, it often appears to be hearsay rather than written. He read little, and for practical purposes was forgotten as engineer and scientist until the late eighteenth century.

Then is Leonardo (save as a painter) so isolated from the stream of history- a Robinson Crusoe among geniuses-that the review of a book about him is an intrusion upon this journal? Yes, if, as many historians seem to believe, history is the study of the human past solely in terms of written documents and continuities between them. But much of life never got into writing, yet to some extent it can be recovered in a variety of ways. George Sarton rightly asserts that all Leonardo's ideas had medieval roots but that "la tradition qu'il a recueillie ne fut pas une tradition litteraire mais plut6t une tradition orale et manuelle." It is academic snobbism to try to make a professor out of Leonardo, and he would not approve: he was suspicious of the abstractions of the faculties. He is historically significant less as a force than as a symptom of the originality and innovative drive of the voiceless world of late medieval craftsmen, uomini senza lettere even more than he, out of whose strivings, far more than from the books of scholars, emerged modern technology and experimental science.

Mills College LYNN WHITE, JR.

THE HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF CALVINISM. By John T. McNeill. (New York: Oxford University Press. I954. Pp. x, 466. $6.oo.)

As Professor McNeill points out, all modern history would be "unrecognizably different" without Calvin (p. 234). He has therefore done a great service in presenting in one volume not only an account of the life and teaching of Calvin but a survey of Calvinism down to our own day.

The book is divided into four parts. Part I deals with Zwingli and the Re- formation in German Switzerland, because this movement, and the one led by Calvin, "formed one communion and passed on to later generations a common heritage" (p. viii).

Part II is devoted to the life and work of Calvin, and, as Professor McNeill says, amounts to a monograph on the subject. It will be welcomed as one of the best short accounts of Calvin available, based on a thorough knowledge both of his life and writings and of modern scholarship. To Professor McNeill, Calvin

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