I wish I could remember the details, but there was one specific individual who was reportedly the last man to know the sum of all human knowledge before it exploded into specialization and advanced beyond the capacity for any one individual to learn.
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That sounds like a reference to Thomas Young.... there was a biography of him titled "The Last Man That Knew Everything". And while the title is a bit of an exaggeration, he was a polymath of such talent and impact on science that if anyone is deserving of the title, it would probably be him.
No, it wasn't him. Googling of course brought up that book, but he is at least a century too late to be who I was trying to remember, I think.