The Man or Woman of Letters

By the early 19th century a second crisis of knowledge was becoming visible. The problem once again was that of overload, as scientific expeditions brought back more and more information. Other individuals were still able to master a wide range of disciplines, even if they did not make original contributions to many or even to any. A famous example of the man of letters is Dunny Diderot. He edited the famous Ausiclopede precisely because his interests were encyclopedic.