ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with “knowledge” in the sense both of ideas and ofinformation. It will include the knowledge of techniques and styles that wasso important in the movement we call the “Renaissance,” the increasing knowledge of other cultures in the “age of discovery,” and the great debate about religion now described as “the Reformation.” A short study needs a sharp focus. I have chosen circulation in the geographical sense, from place to place, rather than the movement of information and ideas between social groups. This chapter in the historical geography of knowledge will concentrate on circulation over long distances and over the long term, distinguishing where necessary between different circuits (art and humanism, religion and politics, north and south, east and west) as well as different media of communication (oral and visual, manuscript and print). This was the age of the so-called “print revolution,” but, as scholars have increasingly emphasized in the last generation, oral transmission remained important at this time, and so did other traditional media such as communication through images and the circulation of manuscripts.1
