The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism : The Early Modern Origins of the Intellectual Ideal

The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism challenges our most basic assumptions about the history of an ideal at the heart of modernity. Beginning in antiquity and continuing through to today, Leigh T.I. Penman examines how European thinkers have understood words like 'kosmopolites', 'cosmopolite', 'cosmopolitan' and its cognates. The debates over their meanings show that there has never been a single, stable cosmopolitan concept, but rather a range of concepts-sacred and secular, inclusive and exclusive-all described with the cosmopolitan vocabulary. While most scholarly attention in the history of cosmopolitanism has focussed on Greek and Roman antiquity or the Enlightenments of the 18th century, this book shows that the crucial period in the evolution of modern cosmopolitanism was early modernity. Between 1500 and 1800 philosophers, theologians, cartographers, jurists, politicians, alchemists and heretics all used this vocabulary, shedding ancient associations, and adding new ones at will. The chaos of discourses prompted thinkers to reflect on the nature of the cosmopolitan ideal, and to conceive of an abstract 'cosmopolitanism' for the first time. This meticulously researched book provides the first intellectual history of an overlooked period in the evolution of a core ideal. As such, The Lost History of Cosmopolitanism is an essential work for anyone seeking a contextualised understanding of cosmopolitanism today. To find out more about our authors and books visit www.bloomsbury.com and sign up for our newsletters. ideal. There it might still languish were it not for Ian Hesketh and Knox Peden, then fellow postdoctoral fellows at the Centre for the History of European Discourses at the University of Queensland, who in 2014 invited me to contribute a talk on the history of cosmopolitan ideas to their seminar series, ' Aesthetics of Scale' . This invitation jump-started this book by prompting its (initially) reluctant author to stop collating references, and start ordering his thoughts. Many people have helped this project along the way. Ian Coller and Charles Zika encouraged my initial explorations of early-modern cosmopolitan expressions when I was still at the University of Melbourne. James Brown, Howard Hotson and Lyndal Roper, all at the University of Oxford, provided references and advice. At the University of Queensland, attendees of the regular WIP seminars at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities read parts of this work, and without exception provided valuable feedback. Ian Hunter, in particular, offered incisive comments on an early version of the first chapter, which helped refine the direction and arguments of the book as a whole. Otherwise I thank "This book provides the first intellectual history of cosmopolitan ideas in the early modern age. The roots of modern cosmopolitanism can be traced back to as early as the 1500s when a meta-narrative and awareness of the cosmopolitan idea came into existence. Unearthing occurrences of cosmopolitan language in popular media and analysing the writings of leading thinkers, Leigh T.I. Penman illustrates how cosmopolitanism was not, as previously thought, purely secular and inclusive but could be sacred and exclusive too. And, significantly, this book reveals the extent to which these contesting ideas of cosmopolitanism influenced the modern concept of the cosmopolitan"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half title Title Copyright Dedication Contents List of illustrations Acknowledgements 1 Strangers, citizens and sojourners: towards a vocabulary of the cosmopolitan 2 Hieroglyphics of empire 3 Theatres of the world 4 The cosmopolitan inversion 5 Sharing Diogenes’s tub 6 Heavenly cities of the eighteenth-century philosophers Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index Citizens, strangers and sojourners : towards a vocabulary of the cosmopolitan -- Hieroglyphics of empire -- Theatres of the world -- The cosmopolitan inversion -- Sharing Diogenes's tub -- Heavenly cities of the eighteenth-century philosophers