The study defines the locus of early bourgeois wisdom within the history of the encyclopedic expansion of knowledge triggered by the invention of printing. It interprets the use made of that wisdom as a response to the crisis of the 'polyhistor' ideal. As an instrument for a selection of knowledge geared to the criterion of social utility, it challenged the privileged position of the universities in the quest for truth and brought about a shift of emphasis toward everyday communication as a medium for the achievement of knowledge. In so doing, it produced a political type of scholar acting as an expert observer of this new dissemination and circulation of knowledge.