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Usually, polymaths are understood as universal people gifted in different fields. Oddly enough, these amazing personalities, endowed with almost supernatural abilities, are almost not studied as a phenomenon. The book of the famous historian Peter Burke is a successful attempt to fill this gap. According to his definition, polymaths are not just polymaths with broad interests, but scientists who have encyclopedic knowledge about a subject or a significant segment of it. What is their uniqueness and can they be classified? What traits - congenital or acquired - contribute to polymathy? How important are the sociocultural and economic conditions in which they live and work to these people? How are they affected by technological progress and information explosion? Will polymaths survive as a "species" in the face of deepening specialization? Peter Burke searches for answers to these questions and more, exploring the history and "habitat" of polymaths - from Pythagoras to Jared Diamond, from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag.