Renaissance man

A "renaissance man" is a common term that refers to a person who is interested in many fields of work and knowledge. The term comes from the seeminly great number of activities famous renaissance masters were involved in. For instance, Leonardo de Vinci was an expert of art, mathematics and engineering including many others. Also, a gentleman or courtier of that era was expected to speak several languages, play a musical instrument, write poetry and so on.

The term most often comes into use when bemoaning the fact that there are no renaissance men left in the world. This claim in fact illustrates a lack of knowledge on the part of the speaker -- it was easy to be a an expert in all fields during the renaissance as the total sum of knowledge could fit onto a few bookshelves. Today a single day's worth of book publishing covers considerably more knowledge, broad coverage at any sort of expert level is simply impossible. Similarly, in education there is the trend towards specialisation rather than a superficial knowledge of many fields.