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The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner

In the middle of the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner attempted to realize the old idea of deciphering the alphabet of the world, which Francis Bacon had raised as a general postulate of science. This article describes these attempts and th...

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Autor principal: Gierl, Martin
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20665241
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00048-009-0007-4
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author Gierl, Martin
author_facet Gierl, Martin
author_sort Gierl, Martin
collection PubMed
description In the middle of the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner attempted to realize the old idea of deciphering the alphabet of the world, which Francis Bacon had raised as a general postulate of science. This article describes these attempts and their interrelations. Linné used the model of the alphabet to classify plants according to the characters of this fruiting body. Gatterer, one of the leading German historians during the Enlightenment, adopted the botanical method of classification by genus and species to classify the history of scripts. He used the forms of the alphabetic characters to measure the age of manuscripts and to map the process of history as a genealogy of culture. Gatterer collaborated closely with Büttner, the first Göttingen professor of natural history. Büttner constructed a general alphabet of languages which connected the phonetics of language with the historically known alphabets. Early on, diplomatics and ethnography combined the natural order of natural history and the cultural order of the alphabet with the attempt to register development and to document development by the evolution of forms. Based on the shared model of the alphabet and on the common necessity to classify their empirical material, natural history and the description of culture were related attempts in the middle of the eighteenth century to comprehend the alphabetically organized nature and a naturally ordered culture.
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spelling pubmed-28740552010-06-04 The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner Gierl, Martin NTM Artikel/Articles In the middle of the eighteenth century, Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner attempted to realize the old idea of deciphering the alphabet of the world, which Francis Bacon had raised as a general postulate of science. This article describes these attempts and their interrelations. Linné used the model of the alphabet to classify plants according to the characters of this fruiting body. Gatterer, one of the leading German historians during the Enlightenment, adopted the botanical method of classification by genus and species to classify the history of scripts. He used the forms of the alphabetic characters to measure the age of manuscripts and to map the process of history as a genealogy of culture. Gatterer collaborated closely with Büttner, the first Göttingen professor of natural history. Büttner constructed a general alphabet of languages which connected the phonetics of language with the historically known alphabets. Early on, diplomatics and ethnography combined the natural order of natural history and the cultural order of the alphabet with the attempt to register development and to document development by the evolution of forms. Based on the shared model of the alphabet and on the common necessity to classify their empirical material, natural history and the description of culture were related attempts in the middle of the eighteenth century to comprehend the alphabetically organized nature and a naturally ordered culture. SP Birkhäuser Verlag Basel 2010-04-23 2010 /pmc/articles/PMC2874055/ /pubmed/20665241 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00048-009-0007-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2010 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
spellingShingle Artikel/Articles
Gierl, Martin
The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title_full The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title_fullStr The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title_full_unstemmed The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title_short The Alphabet of Nature and the Alphabet of Culture in the Eighteenth Century. Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner: Botany, Diplomatics, and Ethno-Linguistics according to Carl von Linné, Johann Christoph Gatterer, and Christian Wilhelm Büttner
title_sort alphabet of nature and the alphabet of culture in the eighteenth century. botany, diplomatics, and ethno-linguistics according to carl von linné, johann christoph gatterer, and christian wilhelm büttner: botany, diplomatics, and ethno-linguistics according to carl von linné, johann christoph gatterer, and christian wilhelm büttner
topic Artikel/Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2874055/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20665241
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00048-009-0007-4
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