List of people who have been called "polymaths"

The following is a list of people who have been described as a "polymath" by reliable sources.

The list below is organized by date of birth year.

• Imhotep (fl. 2650–2611 BC); Egyptian chancellor, physician, and architect; "Imhotep, circa 2650 BCE (who was revered as being at least semi-divine until the Late Period, although some of this reverence may be due to his status as physician and all-round polymath)."

• Pythagoras (c.580–c.490 BC), a Greek mathematician and philosopher of 6th century BC who founded a school in Crotone in south Italy and a philosophical system, Pythagoreanism, named after him. Pythagoras was thought to be a polymath by his contemporaries. He is sometimes credited with coining the term "philosopher", literally a "lover of wisdom," and considered among the first to follow this vocation.

• Aristotle (384–322 BC); a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology. He numbers among the greatest polymaths of all time. "Aristotle was an extraordinary polymath…"

• Archimedes (c.287–c.212 BC); a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Lived in Sicilian Greek town of Syracuse. Often considered one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Archimedes is noted for several advancements in almost every relevant field in his era.

• Zhang Heng (78-139); a Han Dynasty Chinese official, scholar of history and philosophy, poet, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, geographer, cartographer, painter, and sculptor who invented the world's first water-powered armillary sphere and the world's first seismometer to detect the cardinal direction of distant earthquakes; he is often described as a polymath.

• Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan) (721–815); born in Tus in Persia a Persian (or Arab) Muslim chemist, alchemist, astrologer, astronomer, engineer, pharmacist, physician, philosopher, physicist and scientist; "Jabir was a polymath who wrote 300 books on philosophy, 1,300 books on mechanical devices and military machinery, and hundreds of books on alchemy."

• Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–850); "… a persian mathematician, astronomer, and geographer, was the greatest polymath (a person of encyclopedic learning) in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad." "…the polymath researcher…"

• Ziryab (789-857); an Iraqi-Andalusian poet, musician, singer, cosmetologist, fashion designer, celebrity, trendsetter, strategist, astronomer, botanist and geographer; "Zaryab was a "renaissance man" before the Renaissance."

• Al-Kindi (Alkindus) (801–873); an Arab astronomer, geographer, mathematician, meteorologist, musician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, and politician; "he (Al-Kindî) was an omnivorous polymath, studying everything, writing 265 treatises about everything—arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, meteorology, geography, physics, politics, music, medicine, philosophy."

• Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) (865–925); a Persian physician, alchemist, chemist, philosopher and scholar. "Like other Muslim intellectuals of that period, Razi was a polymath. Only half of his nearly 200 written works deal with medicine, the rest are on other topics, such as astronomy, mathematics, philosophy and theology…"

• Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Mas'udi (896-956); an Arab historian, Earth scientist, Islamic scholar, geographer, geologist, and traveller. An "erudite polymath…" "Prolific writer and polymath. His known works number over twenty and deal with with a wide variety of religious and secular subjects, including history (both Islamic and universal), geography, the natural sciences, philosophy, and theology…"

• Abhinavagupta (fl. 975–1025); an Indian philosopher, literary critic, Shaivite, aesthetist, musician, poet, dramatist, dancer, exegetical theologian, and logician; "the great Kashmiri philosopher and polymath, Abhinavagupta".

• Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) (965–1039), an Iraqi scientist, physicist, anatomist, physician, psychologist, astronomer, engineer inventor, mathematician, ophthalmologist, philosopher, and Ash'ari theologian; "a devout, brilliant polymath"; "a great man and a universal genius, long neglected even by his own people"; "Ibn al-Haytham provides us with the historical personage of a versatile universal genius."

• Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī (973–1048), a Persian scientist, physicist, anthropologist, astronomer, astrologer, encyclopedist, geodesist, geographer, geologist, historian, mathematician, natural historian, pharmacist, physician, philosopher, scholar, teacher, Ash'ari theologian, and traveller; "al-Biruni was a polymath and traveler (to India) who introduced Indian scientific knowledge & thought to the Middle East & the West, making contributions in mathematics, geography and geology, natural history, calendars and astronomy"; "al-Biruni, a scholar in many disciplines — from linguistics to mineralogy — and perhaps medieval Uzbekistan's most universal genius."Mr Koïchiro Matsuura.

United Nations: Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

• Avicenna (980–1037); a Persian astronomer, chemist, geologist, logician, paleontologist, mathematician, physicist, poet, psychologist, scientist and teacher. He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects and in particular on medicine which was thought in medieval universities as late as 1650. He is known as the father of modern medicine. He is also considered the father of the fundamental concept of momentum in physics, and regarded as a pioneer of aromatherapy for his invention of steam distillation and extraction of essential oils. He also developed the concept of uniformitarianism and law of superposition in geology,for which he is considered to be the 'father of geology'.

• Ibn Hazm (994–1064) An Andalusian-Arab polymath who produced "… some 400 works, covering jurisprudence, logic, history, ethics, comparative religion, and theology, and The Ring of the Dove, on the art of love."

• Shen Kuo (1031–1095); a Chinese scientist, statesman, mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, zoologist, botanist, pharmacologist, agronomist, ethnographer, encyclopedist, poet, general, diplomat, hydraulic engineer, inventor, academy chancellor, finance minister, and inspector; "Chinese polymath and astronomer who studied medicine, but became renown for his engineering ability."

• Omar Khayyám (1048–1131); a Persian poet, writer, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and skeptic. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, music and was a physicist.

• Al-Ghazali (1058–1111); He was a Persian jurist, philosopher, cosmologist, psychologist, mystic and Islamic theologian. He is considered a pioneer of the methods of doubt and skepticism and was an encyclopedic author, polymath, theorist, philosopher, moralist, critic and comparative religionist.

• Acharya Hemachandra (1089–1172); an Indian scholar, poet, linguist, grammarian, historian, philosopher, and prosodist; "the great polymath Hemacandra"; "Hemacandra (1089–1172) was one of the great polymaths of medieval India."

• Ibn Tufail (Abubacer) (1105–1185); an Andalusian Arab "polymath scholar", Islamic philosopher, physician, Arabic writer, novelist, and court official.

• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194-1250) King of Germany, Italy, Burgundy and Sicily. Lived most of his life in Sicily. A polyglot speaking eight or nine languages with high literacy in seven. He was a respected warrior and wise negotiator, who cultivated arts and letters. Frederick was patron of a crucially important poetic tradition, the Sicilian School, cited by Dante Alighieri as critical stage in the literary development of Italian and Romance languages in general and vernaculars (ie non Latin languages) across Europe. For about a century the poetry of the Palermo court produced a stylistically advanced Sicilian which preceded the Tuscan advanced by Dante as preferred language of Italy and shaped Dante's view that vernaculars should replace Latin. Frederick was also a multiculturalist, welcoming Greek, Latin, German, native Sicilian and French influences as well as the Arabic inheritance of Sicily. He founded the University of Naples and granted it academic freedom, a very enlightened act at a time when institutions of higher learning were rarely 'free' and autonomous. He was a religious skeptic, occasionally defying Popes. An acknowledged expert and writer on falconry with significant zoological studies. He was a lawyer and judge and theorised about the law and its role. He ruled over a brilliant court and cultivated the arts. Known in his time as "stupor mundi", wonder of the world, a kind of 13th century substitute for "polymath".

• Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (Tusi) (1201–1274); a Persian polymath, prolific writer, an astronomer, biologist, chemist, mathematician, philosopher, physician, physicist, scientist, theologian and Marja Taqleed. He was one of the greatest scientists of the thirteenth century;Karima Alavi,

Tapestry of Travel, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University.

"the ensemble of Tusi’s writings amounts to approximately 165 titles on a wide variety of subjects (astronomy, ethics, history, jurisprudence, logic, mathematics, medicine, philosophy, theology, poetry and the popular sciences)."

• Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288); an Arab physician, anatomist, biologist, physiologist, surgeon, ophthalmologist, Ulema, Hafiz, Muhaddith, Shafi`i jurist and lawyer, Sunni theologian, philosopher, litterateur, logician, novelist, psychologist, scientist, science fiction writer, astronomer, cosmologist, futurist, geologist, grammarian, linguist, historian, philosopher of history, philosopher of religion, natural philosopher and sociologist; "Ibnul-Nafees was not only a great physician and discoverer of the minor blood circulation (pulmonary circulation), but he also had many interests, views and works about many other branches of knowledge."

• Ibn al-Banna (1256-1321); He wrote "100 titles, out of which some 50 are dedicated to mathematics and astronomy (including astrology), but the list also includes Quranic studies, theology (ūsul al‐dīn), logic, law (fiqh), rhetoric, prosody, Sufism, the division of inheritances (farāʾiḍ), weights and measures, measurement of surfaces (misāḥa), talismanic magic, and medicine", and so he is considered by many as a polymath.

• Leone Battista Alberti (1404–1472); "often considered the archetype of the Renaissance polymath"

• Suyuti (1445–1505); an Egyptian Arab Islamic scholar, Sunni theologian, Shafi'i jurist, Arabic grammarian and linguist, historian, and Islamic philosopher. "…the geat Egyptian polymath al-Suyuti…" "…the great polymath-historian Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti…" "…the noted Arab polymath al-Suyuti…"

• Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) "In Leonardo Da Vinci, of course, he had as his subject not just an ordinary Italian painter, but the prototype of the universal genius, the 'Renaissance man,' …"; "prodigious polymath… Painter, sculptor, engineer, astronomer, anatomist, biologist, geologist, physicist, architect, philosopher, humanist.". Leonardo's scientific accomplishments are often reduced to inventions (of which he made very many) or to speculation, and an adventurous spirit. Recent writing shows that he was in fact a serious and brilliant scientist, concerned with what today is called 'systems theory', or complex systems; but he devised scientific reasoning models for experimentation, and conducted experiments with validation procedures, all of which qualify him as a scientist in the true sense as well. For the extraordinary and unprecedented range of his work, of which only a minority survives, he is justly considered by many the most diversely talented person, or, as Helen Gardner says "The scope and depth of his interests were without precedent… His mind and personality seem to us superhuman".

• Matrakçı Nasuh (died 1564) … "came from a Bosnian Muslim family. Either his father or grandfather was drafted into the state service. He was renowned in the 16th century as a mathematician, historian, geographer, cartographer, topographer, musketeer, and was an outstanding knight, calligrapher and engineer. Because he was a musketeer, he was also called al-Silâhî (the musketeer or gunman). He was a polymath thinker, writer, an artist (he pioneered a particular artistic style for depicting cities) and a theoretician. He wrote books in these fields, all in Turkish."

• Gerolamo Cardano (1501-1576), an Italian mathematician and inventor.

• Matteo Ricci (1552-1610); Italian Jesuit and a phenomenal figure in the East-West scientific exchange in China. "Matteo Ricci was the perfect man of culture, a polymath versed in all things, mathematics and literature, philosophy and poetry, mechanics and astronomy." In collaboration with Xu Guangqi, he was also the first to translate classic Confucian texts into Latin and classic Western texts into Chinese (including portions of Euclid's Elements). Life Magazine ranks Ricci among the “Top 100 People” of the 2nd millennium, placing him in 68th position. David Mungello, J. Cummins, Jonathan Spence and Joseph Needham all describe his many first rate talents

• Akbar the Great (1542–1605); an Indian Mughal emperor, "polymath", architect, artisan, artist, armorer, blacksmith, carpenter, construction worker, engineer, general, inventor, lacemaker, ruler, technologist, theologian, and writer.

• Xu Guangqi (1562–1633); a Chinese bureaucrat, agricultural scientist, astronomer, and mathematician in the Ming Dynasty, who also helped in the translation of several classic Western texts into Chinese, including part of Euclid's Elements. Xu has been described as "a fascinating polymath who spread his interests far and wide for a specific purpose: statecraft."

• Athanasius Kircher (born 1601); "a 'polymath' if there ever was one. He studied a variety of subjects including… music, Egyptology, Sinology, botany, magnetism"; Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything (book title)

• Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716), a German philosopher, polymath and mathematician.

• Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790); an American polymath, a leading author, political theorist, politician, printer, scientist, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat. "The ultimate creole intellectual… A true polymath of the Enlightenment style, he distinguished himself on both sides of the Atlantic by researches in natural sciences as well as politics and literature."

• Mikhail Lomonosov (1711–1765); "Lomonosov was a true polymath—physicist, chemist, natural scientist, poet and linguist…"

• Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826); some sources describe him as "polymath and President," putting "polymath" first; John F. Kennedy famously commented, addressing a group of Nobel laureates, that it was "the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House—with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) a German Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Natural Philosopher, Diplomat, Civil servant. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust."Germany's greatest man of letters—poet, critic, playwright, and novelist—and the last true polymath to walk the earth" "Goethe comes as close to deserving the title of a universal genius as any man who has ever lived". "He was essentially the last great European Renaissance man." His gifts included incalculable contributions to the areas of German literature and the natural sciences. He is credited with discovery of a bone in the human jaw, and proposed a theory of colors. He has a mineral named in his honor, goethite. He molded the aesthetic properties of the Alps to poetry, thus, changing the local belief from "perfectly hideous" and an "unavoidable misery," to grandeur of the finest most brilliant creation.

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834); poet, critic, and philosopher.

• Thomas Young (1773–1829) was an English polymath who made notable contributions to the fields of vision, light, solid mechanics, energy, physiology, language, musical harmony and Egyptology.

• Jose Rizal (1861–1896), a Filipino patriot, an ophthalmologist, poet, journalist, novelist, volcanologist, biologist, political scientist, painter and polyglot.

• Edward Heron-Allen (1861–1943); Not only was Heron-Allen a lawyer by trade, he also wrote, lectured on and created violins, was an expert on the art of chiromancy or palmistry, having read palms and analysed the handwriting of luminaries of the period. He wrote on musical, literary and scientific subjects ranging from foraminifera, marine zoology, meteorology, as a Persian scholar translated Classics such as the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and The Lament of Baba Tahir, also wrote on local history, archeology, Buddhist philosophy, the cultivation, gourmet appreciation of and culture of the asparagus, as well as a number of novels and short stories of science fiction and horror written under his pseudonymn of "Christopher Blayre."

• Walter Russell (1871–1963) was an American polymath, known for his achievements in painting, sculpture, architecture, and for his unified theory in physics and cosmogony. He posited that the universe was founded on a unifying principle of rhythmic balanced interchange. This physical theory, laid out primarily in his books The Secret of Light (1947) and The Message of the Divine Iliad (1948–49), has not been accepted by mainstream scientists. Russell asserted that this was mainly due to differences between himself and scientists in their assumptions about the existence of mind or matter. Russell was also proficient in philosophy, music, ice skating, and was a professor at the institution he founded, the University of Science and Philosophy. He believed mediocrity is self-inflicted and genius is self-bestowed.

• C. B. Fry (1872–1956) — International and record-breaking athlete at sports including football, cricket, athletics and rugby union, also a politician, publisher, teacher and writer.

• Dr. Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) – “A polymath talent” , Schweitzer was an Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, physician, humanitarian, and peace activist. Influential in all of these fields, he wrote theological and philosophical texts ranging from the historical Jesus to J.S. Bach and German/French organ-building which influenced the Organ reform movement. He founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné, and was honored with the 1952 Nobel Prize for his philosophy of "Reverence for Life." He spent the last years of his life campaigning against the use of nuclear weapons.

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), a French poet, novelist, artist, filmmaker, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, diarist, ballet scenarist, illustrator and playwright. The "polymath par excellence" was an internationally renowned figure who was an influence on Modernism and the 20th century avant-garde.

• William James Sidis (1898–1944); a child prodigy who wrote on such varied subjects as mathematics, cosmology, psychology, Native American history, and public transportation. "His sister, Helena, said of him that, as an adult, he could learn a new language in one day, and as an adult, he was a true polymath, a 'Renaissance man'."

• André Malraux (1901–1976); a French novelist, art historian, adventurer and politician;" France's first minister of culture and polymath extraordinaire"

• John von Neumann (1903–1957); a physicist, mathematician, contributions to game theory, economics, pioneering computer scientist. "It isn't often that the human race produces a polymath like von Neumann, then sets him to work in the middle of the biggest crisis in human history…"

, p. 66.

"Other luminaries would follow Einstein to New Jersey, including the dazzling Hungarian polymath, John von Neumann…"

• Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910-1997); a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water. He co-developed the aqua-lung, pioneered marine conservation and was a member of the Académie française.

• Orson Welles (1915-1985), an American director of film, radio and theatre who was equally influential in all three fields, as well as an actor, author, screenwriter, stage magician and television personality. A prodigy and "roving polymath," Welles drew acclaim in his early 20s for his radio plays, including his infamous adaptation of H.G. Wells' novel War of the Worlds, and his stage productions. At the time, he also authored Everybody's Shakespeare, a popular series of books on the plays of William Shakespeare which remained in print for decades. At 25, he directed Citizen Kane, often cited as the greatest film ever made.

• Herbert Simon (1916–2001); "Simon is a very distinguished polymath, famous for work in psychology and computer science, philosophy of science, a leader in artificial intelligence, and a Nobel Prize winner in Economics."

• Sir Peter Ustinov (1921-2004); a British-born polymath. He was an Academy Award-winning actor, a legendary comedy performer, a best-selling author and raconteur of one-man show proportions, as well as a leading playwright, theatre and opera director, television presenter, stage designer, newspaper columnist, diplomat and ambassador for UNICEF.

• Desmond Morris (born 1928); a British zoologist and ethologist, who is also a surrealist painter, popular author, and television presenter. "Desmond Morris already has a reputation for being something of a polymath. Zoologist, Man Watcher, gesture expert and even television celebrity…"

• Naquib Al-Attas (born 1931); "In his person he resembles the universal character of scholars of the past in the mastery of many branches of learning: religion, metaphysics, theology, philosophy, education, philology, letters, art and architecture, and military sciences." "The closest thing to a polymath that modern Islam has produced."

• Hossein Nasr (born 1933); a leading Islamic philosopher, known as a "polymath" because of the different subjects on which he writes. Thus, he is described as "a modern equivalent of the old court polymaths."

• Jonathan Miller (born 1934); a British theatre and opera director, author, television presenter, humorist, and sculptor, who trained as a doctor. "The polite polymath."

• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1960); a literary essayist and best selling author, a successful financial trader and hedge fund manager, and a scholar in the epistemology of statistics with multidisciplinary publications, and distinguished professor in risk engineering.

See also

• List of Renaissance men

References

fr:Liste de polymathes