The initial goal of Renaissance humanism, to create virtuous rulers by studying classical texts, largely failed. However, the methodology it developed—treating history as a casebook of examples—was repurposed by thinkers like Machiavelli and later applied to the natural world by Bacon and Galileo, leading to the scientific method.
The invention of the printing press was not immediately successful; Gutenberg and his apprentices went bankrupt. The technology only became economically viable after the development of effective distribution networks, such as Venice's shipping hub and the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The episode draws a direct parallel between the print and digital revolutions. Both are characterized not by a single event, but by a core technology that unleashes decades of successive, disruptive applications (e.g., pamphlets and newspapers for print; PCs and social media for digital).
Attempts by authorities like the Inquisition and 18th-century French censors to control information were often ineffective. They consistently misjudged which ideas were truly dangerous and, in the case of the Inquisition, even became patrons of the scientific method by creating labs to verify or debunk new findings.
Upstart rulers in Renaissance Italy, particularly the Medici family in Florence, used patronage of art and classical learning as a powerful propaganda tool. By associating themselves with the grandeur of antiquity, these 'merchant scum' manufactured the legitimacy and social standing they lacked by birth.
Keep pulling the thread on Ada Palmer.