The Legacy of Manutius

I've blogged a lot about computer technology lately, discussing algorithmic thinking, programming languages, and metadata.   I want to take some time to tie these concepts together with the history we've been studying lately.

Aldus Manutius, the great Renaissance publisher, is well known for his preservation of Greek, Latin, and Italian texts, as well as his innovation in bringing these books to the general public in a small, portable format known as an octavo.  The modern analogue to his efforts is Project Gutenberg, which is digitizing as many books as it can and providing them for free to the public.  The latest count includes more than 33,000 free electronic books.  In many ways, this project is fulfilling Manutius' dream beyond his wildest expectations, due to the sheer volume of books being made available and the vast number of readers.  Of course, Manutius could not have forseen the digital age, when copies have become nearly free.  Nor may he have forseen an era when volunteers would donate their time and resources to provide such a large digital library.

Our Mormon Renaissance

Inspired by James Wilcox's post, "The Mormons are Renaissance Humanist" and Jeffrey Whitlock's "Humanism from a Latter-day Saint Perspective," I thought it was a fit occasion to make some parallels between the Renaissance and the predominant religion of those in this Digital Civilization course at BYU.

A few years ago I presented a paper at the Association for Mormon Letters called, "Our Mormon Renaissance." It has to do with early and ongoing aspirations of Latter-day Saints to achieve the cultural greatness largely identified with the fertile period of the Renaissance.  Hope you enjoy it.