In the seventeenth century a series of proposals and schemes for an artificial language intended to replace Latin as the international medium of communication gained currency. Fully developed these schemes consisted of a classification of all known things and a set of self-defining names designed to reflect the divisions of the classification. This attempt to create a specialized and scientific form of language was enthusiastically taken up by a number of eminent scientists of the day including Bacon Descartes Newton and other members of the Royal Society. Dr Slaughter demonstrates that the idea of a universal language was a rational response to the inadequacy of seventeenth-century language a result of social and cultural changes precipitated by the rise of science the spread of print and literacy and the subsequent development of a literate culture. A valuable addition to the study of history and literature this book also has relevance for contemporary languages with similar problems of development.