Literature in the Age of Celestial Discovery

Judy Hayden is Professor of English at The University of Tampa, USA.

"The essays assembled here powerfully reveal both the surprisingly enduring nature of early modern resistance to the Copernican revolution in astronomy and cosmology and the rich variety of the literary consequences of the emergence of the New Science. By drawing critical attention to a great range of topics and texts across the long-seventeenth century, this collection brings new concerns and vital insights to the current critical conversation regarding the complex and intriguing relationship between early modern science and literature." - Howard Marchitello, Professor of English, Rutgers University, USA "The early modern period witnessed an extraordinary convergence of astronomy and literature. Copernicus and Galileo prompted new questions: Did the earth move? Were there more worlds than one? Might other planets be inhabited? Literary writers answered these questions, and this bracing and original collection of essays illuminates the literary response to astronomical revolution, from Europe to America, across languages and times, and will be welcomed by all students of the period." - William Poole, John Galsworthy Fellow and Tutor in English, Oxford University, UK

• Introduction, 'Faln Systemes and Dead Chimæras'; Judy A. Hayden1. Heliocentrism, Plurality of Worlds, and Ethics: Anton Francesco Doni and Giordano Bruno; Pietro Daniel Omodeo2. Early Modern Space Travel and the English Man in the Moon; David Cressy3. An English Renaissance Astronomy Club? Shakespeare, Observation,and the Cosmos; David H. Levy with Judy A. Hayden4. To the Moon: Discovering the Comic in the Cosmic on the Early Modern English Stage; Gabrielle Sugar5. Sailing to the Moon: Francis Bacon, Francis Godwin, and the First Science Fiction; Catherine Gimelli Martin6. The Royal Society, Collective Vision, and Samuel Butler's 'The Elephant in the Moon'; J. Ereck Jarvis7. 'Cinthia's Hero': Edward Howard's The Six days Adventure or the New Utopia; Judy A. Hayden8. 'A new discovery of a new world': the Moon and America in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century European Literature; Brycchan Carey9. Astronomy, Prophecy, and Imposture in Tyssot de Patot's Voyages et avantures de Jaques Massé; Daniel J. Worden