New Worlds, Ancient Texts

The Power of Tradition and the Shock of Discovery

Anthony Grafton

With April Shelford

With Nancy Siraisi

  • Winner of a 1993 Los Angeles Times Book Prize
  • 1992 Winner of the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Award of the Association of American Publishers, History Category

Grafton's book is about the identity of the Americas--an identity hewn out of intellectual conflict, just as much as military or political conflict.
   --David McKitterick, New York Times Book Review

In his eloquent disquisition...Grafton demonstrates his mastery of the world of the Renaissance text and his skills as a historian of scholarship, scholarly processes, and intellectual debates.
   --Larry Ceplair, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Beautifully presented and delightful to read. Grafton's prose has a rare combination of qualities, smooth-flowing and hard-hitting...The concentrated power, the broad erudition, the impeccable aim which characterize Grafton's vignettes are enviable.
   --Felipe Fernández-Armesto, London Review of Books

Grafton is massively erudite and scrupulous as a scholar; at the same time he has command of a relaxed narrative style: his book about the reconfiguration of knowledge in Renaissance Europe is aimed at the general reader and no doubt finds its mark.
   --Mary Baine Campbell, Arion

  • Cover: New Worlds, Ancient Texts
  • A photo of the author

photo of Anthony Grafton

Anthony Grafton is Henry Putnam University Professor of History and Chair of the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University.

April Shelford is a graduate student in history at Princeton University.

Nancy Siraisi is Distinguished Professor of History at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.