Polygraph (author)
A polygraph (from Ancient Greek: πολύς, poly = "many" and γράφειν, graphein = "to write") is an author who writes in a variety of fields.[1]
In literature, the term polygraph is often applied to certain writers of antiquity such as
Diderot
are examples of modern polygraphs.
Polygraph writers
Classical Antiquity
Middle Ages
- Abu Nuwas
- Isidore of Seville
- Jacob of Edessa[2]
- Al-Jahiz
- Michael Psellos
- Bar-Hebraeus[3]
- Piero Valeriano Bolzani
Early modern period (1500-1800)
- Carlo Amoretti
- Jean-François de Bastide
- Giuseppe Betussi
- Jacques Pierre Brissot
- Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Ferdinand Hoefer
- Athanasius Kircher
- Pierre-Jean Le Corvaisier
- Pierre Louis Manuel
- Mathieu-François Pidansat de Mairobert
- Nicolas Edme Restif de La Bretonne
- César Vichard de Saint-Réal
- Francesco Sansovino
- Charles Sorel
Modern era (1800 onwards)
- August Strindberg
- Jean-Marie-Vincent Audin
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Pierre Gévart
- Henry de Graffigny
- T. Proctor Hall
- Léon Halévy
- Vincent Labaume
- Paul Lacroix
- Gustave Le Rouge
- Simin Palay
- Christian Plume
- Claude Roy
- Ludwig Tieck
- Isaac Asimov
- Stephen Jay Gould
Other usage
The term can be used in a pejorative sense to mean a journalist who writes on many subjects but without expertise in any particular one. The composer Georg Telemann was considered, somewhat pejoratively, a polygraph by critics due to the vast number and variety of his musical compositions.
Notes
- ^ "Definition of polygraph | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
- ^ Richard Barrie Dobson. Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J (Editions du Cerf, 2000) p. 749
- ^ Richard Barrie Dobson. Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages, Volume 2 (Routledge, 2000) p. 49
- This article incorporates text from French Wikipedia, Polygraphe (auteur).
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