Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution
Cambridge University Press, 11/6/2014
EAN 9781107033603, ISBN10: 1107033608
Hardcover, 246 pages, 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm
Language: English
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.