Paradise Lost and the Cosmological Revolution

246 Pages·2014·4.748 MB·English

by  Dennis Danielson

PARADISE LOST AND THE COSMOLOGICAL
REVOLUTION
This volume brings John Milton’s Paradise Lost into dialogue with
thechallengesofcosmologyandtheworldofGalileo,whomMilton
met and admired: a Universe encompassing space travel, an Earth
that participates vibrantly in the cosmic dance, and stars that might
be “world[s] / Of destined habitation.” Milton’s bold depiction of
ourUniverse as merely a small part of alarger Multiverse allows the
removalofHellfromEarth’scentertoalocationfaroffintheabyss
of Chaos. In this wide-ranging work, Dennis Danielson lucidly
unfolds early modern cosmological debates, engaging not only
Galileo but also Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and the English
Copernicans,thusplacingMiltonatarichcrossroadsofepicpoetryand
thehistoryofscience.
dennis danielson is Professor of English at the University of
British Columbia. He is also a member of the Milton Society
of America and an associate member of the American Astronomical
Society. Danielson’s previous books include Milton’s Good God:
A Study in Literary Theodicy and The Cambridge Companion to
Milton.

PARADISE LOST
AND THE COSMOLOGICAL
REVOLUTION
DENNIS DANIELSON
UniversityofBritishColumbia
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Danielson,DennisRichard,1949–
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pages cm
isbn978-1-107-03360-3(Hardback)
1. Milton,John,1608–1674–Knowledge–Science. 2. Milton,John,1608–1674–Knowledge–
Science. 3. Milton,John,1608–1674.Paradiselost. 4. Galilei,Galileo,1564–1642–Influence.
5. Literatureandscience–England–History–17thcentury. 6. Cosmologyinliterature. I. Title.
pr3592.s3d362014
8210.4–dc23 2014024211
isbn978-1-107-03360-3Hardback
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With gratitude to
Patrick Grant, John Carey, and Owen Gingerich
and
ff
in a ectionate memory of
Martin Evans

Contents
Illustrations page viii
Foreword and acknowledgments x
Note on text and usage xii
Preface: A cosmical epic xiii
1 The discarded image 1
2 Multiverse, Chaos, Cosmos 27
3 Copernicus and the cosmological bricoleurs 51
4 Milton and Galileo revisited (1): “Incredible delight” 78
5 Milton and Galileo revisited (2): “What if?” 100
6 The Sun 129
7 Planet Earth 154
8 Space flight, ET, and other worlds 179
Epilogue: “The meaning, not the name” 200
Appendix: Maria Mitchell: “The astronomical science
of Milton as shown in Paradise Lost” 205
Bibliographical note 215
Index 217
vii
Illustrations
1.1 The Aristotelian elements page 7
1.2 Aristotle’s universe as illustrated in Apian, Cosmographia
(1539) 10
1.3 From Cellarius, Harmonia Macrocosmica (1660) 13
1.4 The retrograde motion of Mars 15
1.5 The path of Mars as described by Kepler (Astronomia Nova,
1609) 17
1.6 From Georg Peurbach, Theoricae Novae Planetarum (1482) 18
1.7 The equant 19
1.8 The three pillars of pre-Copernican (geocentric) cosmology 23
1.9 Kepler’s replacement of an eccentric point with one focus of an
ellipse 24
2.1 Scheiner and Locher, “The Astronomical System of the
Ancients” (1614) 39
3.1 The Copernican system, De Revolutionibus (1543, 1566) 53
3.2 Tycho’s counter-factual diagram of the new star’s parallax
(1573) 59
3.3 Digges’s Cosmos (1576) 63
3.4 The Tychonic model of the Universe (1588) 73
5.1 The Capellan (or Egyptian or Heraclidean) system (1573) 108
5.2 Galileo’s sketch of the phases of Venus (Il Saggiatore, 1623) 111
5.3 Locher and Scheiner’s Tyhonic sketch of the phases of Venus
(1614) 113
5.4 Newton’s sketch of the Coriolis effect (1679) 117
5.5 An excerpt from Tycho Brahe’s Astronomical Letters (1601) 124
5.6 Frontispiece to Kepler’s Rudolphine Tables (1627) 125
5.7 Wilkins’s Frontispiece for his Discourse Concerning a New
World and Another Planet (1640) 127
6.1 Medina’s “engraving” for Book 3 of Paradise Lost (1688) 151
6.2 Title page of Samuel Ward’s All in All (1622) 152
viii