OXFORD: Benjamin Jowett, Balliol

Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol
(1870-1893),  Vice Chancellor of
(1882-1893).

There was a time when "knowledge" could be encompassed by one person. That idea is associated with Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford 1870-1893, who became Vice Chancellor of Oxford 1882-1893.

To him is commonly attributed the quote "I am the Master of this College, What I don't know isn't knowledge." The source is actually a poem signed Henry Charles Beeching but is reported as the work of several mischievous and clever undergraduates at Balliol.

First come I. My name is J–W–TT (Jowett)
There's no knowledge but I know it.
I am the Master of this College,
What I don't know isn't knowledge. 

 - H. C. Beeching, "Masque of B-ll--l". 

Librarything.com has posted a list of what was considered general knowledge in 1793, as compiled by a Harvard College librarian. Although Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations had appeared in 1776, economics was not yet a separate field of study. Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments appears under Ethics below. (Adam Smith is one of the earliest and best-known alumni of Balliol.)

MEMORY
I. Sacred History
II. Ecclesiastical History
III. Civil History: Including Biography
IV. Natural History
V. Voyages and Travels
VI. Geography and Topography

REASON
I. Theology
II. Mythology
III. Ethics; or the Moral System in General
IV. Grammars, Dictionaries
V. Logic, Rhetoric and Criticism
VI. General and Local Politics
VII. Law
VIII. Metaphysics
IX. Arithmetic, Geometry and Algebra
X. Natural and Experimental Philosophy: Including Astronomy
XI. Chymistry
XII. Agriculture
XIII. Arts and Manufactures

IMAGINATION
I. Poetry and the Drama
II. Works of Fiction
III. The Fine Arts
Miscellanies