Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution

This volume brings John Milton's Paradise Lost into dialogue with the challenges of cosmology and the world of Galileo.

Dennis Danielson (Author)

9781107033603, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 6 November 2014

246 pages, 23 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.5 kg

'Danielson's monograph will appeal mostly to those interested in contextual studies, especially the history of astronomy, but it contains some inspiring ideas for Miltonists too.' Šárka Tobrmanová, Notes and Queries

This volume brings John Milton's Paradise Lost into dialogue with the challenges of cosmology and the world of Galileo, whom Milton met and admired: a universe encompassing space travel, an earth that participates vibrantly in the cosmic dance, and stars that are 'world[s] / Of destined habitation'. Milton's bold depiction of our universe as merely a small part of a larger multiverse allows the removal of hell from the center of the earth to a location in the primordial abyss. In this wide-ranging work, Dennis Danielson lucidly unfolds early modern cosmological debates, engaging not only Galileo but also Copernicus, Tycho, Kepler, and the English Copernicans, thus placing Milton at a rich crossroads of epic poetry and the history of science.

1. The discarded image
2. Multiverse, chaos, and cosmos
3. Copernicus and the cosmological bricoleurs
4. Milton and Galileo revisited (1)
5. Milton and Galileo revisited (2)
6. The sun
7. Planet Earth
8. Space flight, ET, and other worlds.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]