Back برج عاجي Arabic Elfenbenstårn Danish Elfenbeinturm German Eburturo Esperanto Torre de marfil Spanish Bolizko dorre Basque برج عاج Persian Norsunluutorni Finnish Tour d'ivoire French Turre de ebore Interlingua

Ivory tower

For other uses, see Ivory Tower (disambiguation).
Hawksmoor Towers are representative of the stereotypical academic ivory towers, at All Souls College, Oxford at the University of Oxford


An ivory tower is a state of privileged seclusion from the practicalities of real life. An ivory tower can be a place where people choose to disconnect from the rest of the world to follow of their own interests, usually mental or esoteric ones. From the 19th century, it has been used to designate an environment of intellectual pursuit disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life.[1] Most contemporary uses of the term refer to academia or the college and university systems in many countries.[2][3]

The term originated from the Biblical Song of Songs (7:4) with a different meaning and was later used as an epithet for Mary.[4]

An ivory tower, as symbol of Mary, in a "Hunt of the Unicorn Annunciation" (c. 1500) from a Netherlandish book of hours. For the complicated iconography, see Hortus Conclusus.
  1. ^ Shapin, Steven (2012). "The Ivory Tower: the history of a figure of speech and its cultural uses" (PDF). The British Journal for the History of Science. 45 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1017/S0007087412000118. ISSN 1474-001X. S2CID 145660804.
  2. ^ Professor X (2011). In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: The Truth About College. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-47620-8.
  3. ^ Skowronek, Russell; Lewis, Kenneth (2010). Beneath the Ivory Tower: The Archaeology of Academia. University Press of Florida. ISBN 9780813034225.
  4. ^ "Mary, the Ivory Tower ~ Cardinal Newman - Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman". Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman. 2014-05-23. Retrieved 2018-05-12.

Rich TVX News Network Site

Rich TVX News Network Info

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search