wrote that the Ancient Greek muse Polyhymnia was sometimes known as Polymatheia, describing her as responsible for "that faculty of the soul which inclines to attain and keep knowledge."

In Western Europe, the first work to use the term polymathy in its title, De Polymathia tractatio: integri operis de studiis veterum ("A Treatise on Polymathy: The Complete Work on the Studies of the Ancients"), was published in 1603 by