Details

Subject(s)

• Milton, John 1608-1674—Knowledge—Science [Browse]
• Literature and science—England—History—17th century [Browse]

Editor

• Martin, Catherine Gimelli [Browse]

Series

• Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture ; 51. [More in this series]
• Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture ; 51 [More in this series]

Summary note

"Milton and the New Scientific Age represents significant advantages over all previous volumes on the subject of Milton and science, as it includes contributions from top scholars and prominent beginners in a broad number of fields. Most of these fields have long dominated work in both Milton and seventeenth-century studies, but they have previously not included the relatively new and revolutionary topic of early modern chemistry, physiology, and medicine. Previously this subject was confined to the history of science, with little if any attention to its literary development, even though it prominently appears in John Milton's Paradise Lost, which also includes early "science fiction" speculations on aliens ignored by most readers. Both of these oversights are corrected in this essay collection, while more traditional areas of research have been updated. They include Milton's relationship both to Bacon and the later or Royal Society Baconians, his views on astronomy, and his 'vitalist' views on biology and cosmology. In treating these topics, our contributors are not mired in speculations about whether or not Milton was on the cutting edge of early science or science fiction, for, as nearly all of them show, the idea of a 'cutting edge' is deeply anachronistic at a time when most scientists and scientific enthusiasts held both fully modern and backward-looking beliefs. By treating these combinations contextually, Milton's literary contributions to the 'new science' are significantly clarified along with his many contemporary sources, all of which merit study in their own right"-- Provided by publisher.

Bibliographic references

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• Introduction : "encountering the modern : seventeenth-century poetry, science, and fiction" / Catherine Gimelli Martin
• Two Baconian poets, one Baconian epic : Milton, Cowley, and the Royal Society / Catherine Gimelli Martin
• "Small things discover great" : "lower wisdom" in Paradise lost / Pavneet Aulakh
• The fall and Galileo's law of falling bodies : geometrization vs. observing and describing things in Paradise lost / Rachel Trubowitz
• Does Milton's god play dice with the universe? / John Rumrich
• Starry messengers : Galileo and the role of the observer in Paradise lost / Erin Webster
• The "middle spirits" of the moon : lunar soteriology in Francis Godwin's The man in the moone / Marisa Bruce
• "By gradual scale sublimed" : chymical medicine and monist human physiology in John Milton's Paradise lost / Charlotte Nicholls
• Paracelsian medicine, vitalism, and Samson agonistes / Leah S. Marcus
• John Milton, Isaac Newton, and the life of matter / Stephen M. Fallon.

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ISBN

• 9780367182731 ((hardback ; : alk. paper))
• 0367182734 ((hardback ; : alk. paper))

LCCN

2019005918

OCLC

1089274433

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