The Arts of 17th-Century Science: Representations of the Natural World in European and North American Culture

285 Pages·2016·9.944 MB·English

by  Claire Jowitt, Diane Watt

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Contemporary ideals of science representing disinterested and objective fields of
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investigation have their origins in the seventeenth century. However, ‘new science’ did Do 17
f th-Century Science
not simply or uniformly replace earlier beliefs about the workings of the natural world, i
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but entered into competition with them. It is this complex process of competition and n 1
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negotiation concerning ways of seeing the natural world that is charted by the essays in Wt
this book. The collection traces the many overlaps between ‘literary’ and ‘scientific’ h
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discourses as writers in this period attempted both to understand imaginatively and tt-
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empirically the workings of the natural world, and shows that a discrete separation
REPRESENTATIONS
between such discourses and spheres is untenable. e
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OF THE
The collection is designed around four main themes – ‘Philosophy, Thought and t
u NATURAL WORLD
Natural Knowledge’, ‘Religion, Politics and the Natural World’, ‘Gender, Sexuality and
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Scientific Thought’ and ‘New Worlds and New Philosophies’. Within these themes, the y IN EUROPEAN
contributors focus on the contests between different ways of seeing and understanding
S AND NORTH
the natural world in a wide range of writings from the period: in poetry and art, in
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political texts, in descriptions of real and imagined colonial landscapes, as well as in more i AMERICAN
obviously ‘scientific’ documents. e
n CULTURE
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Claire Jowittis Lecturer in English Renaissance Literature and Diane Watt is Senior
Lecturer in British Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Wales,
Aberystwyth.
Edited by
Claire Jowitt
and
Diane Watt
Cover illustration:‘L’image, receuil d’experiment et observations . . .’, 1697.
7407.a.34. By permission of the British Library.
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THE ARTS OF 17TH-CENTURY SCIENCE:
REPRESENTATIONS OF THE NATURAL
WORLD IN EUROPEAN AND NORTH
AMERICAN CULTURE

The Arts of 17th-Century Science
Representations of the natural world in
European and North American culture
Edited by
Claire Jowitt and Diane Watt
First published 2002 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Claire Jowitt and Diane Watt, 2002
The editors have asserted their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or uti­
lised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The arts of l 7th-century science : representations
of the natural world in European and North American culture
1. English literature -Early modern, 1500-1700 -History
and criticism 2. American literature -Colonial period, ea.
1600-1775 -History and criticism 3. Science in literature
4. Nature in literature
I. Jowitt, Claire II. Watt, Diane
820.9'356'09032
Library of Congress Control Number: 2002108550
ISBN 13: 978-0-7546-0417-4 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-25643-9 (pbk)
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Introduction 1
Claire Jowitt and Diane Watt
1 The Transparent Man and the King’s Heart 12
Jonathan Sawday
PARTI: PHILOSOPHY, THOUGHTANDNATURALKNOWLEDGE
2 ‘Things Which Are Not’: Poetic and Scientific Attitudes to 25
Non-entities in the Seventeenth Century
Anthony R. Archdeacon
3 Points Mean Prizes: How Early-Modern Mathematics Hedged
its Bets Between Idealism and the World 43
Jess Edwards
4 Bantering with Scripture: Dr Archibald Pitcairne and Articulate
Irreligion in Late Seventeenth-century Edinburgh 58
David E. Shuttleton
PARTII: RELIGION, POLITICSANDTHENATURALWORLD
5 The Politics of Morbidity: Plague Symbolism in Martyrdom
and Medical Anatomy 77
Peter Mitchell
6 Restoring all Things from the Curse: Millenarianism, Alchemy,
Science and Politics in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley 95
Andrew Bradstock
v
vi THE ARTS OF 17TH-CENTURYSCIENCE
7 Providence, Earth’s ‘Treasury’and the Common Weal:
Baconianism and Metaphysics in Millenarian Utopian Texts
1641–55 109
Carola Scott-Luckens
PARTIII: GENDER, SEXUALITYANDSCIENTIFICTHOUGHT
8 Journeys Beyond Frontiers: Knowledge, Subjectivity and Outer
Space in Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World(1666) 127
Bronwen Price
9 Gender, Science and Midwifery: Jane Sharp, The Midwives
Book(1671) 146
Elaine Hobby
10 The Masculine Matrix: Male Births and the Scientific
Imaginationin Early-Modern England 160
Ruth Gilbert
11 From Nymph to Nymphomania: ‘Linear Perspectives’on
Female Sexuality 177
Bettina Mathes
PARTIV: NEWWORLDSANDNEWPHILOSOPHIES
12 Thomas Harriot and John White: Ethnography and Ideology
in the New World 199
Andrew Hadfield
13 ‘Adding to the World’: Colonial Adventure and Anxiety
in the Writings of John Donne 217
Richard Sugg
14 Alternative Planet: Kepler’s Somnium(1634) and the
New World 232
Mary Baine Campbell
Select Bibliography 250
Index 267
List of Figures
1.1 Charles I, King of England, Eikon Basilike(London, 1649),
frontispiece. Reproduction courtesy of the National Library
of Wales, Aberystwyth. 18
5.1 Anon., San Sebastiano Curato da Irene (Saint Sebastian
Assisted by Irene)(Seventeenth century), 63.8 x79.4 cm, oil
on canvas; Museo Civico d’Arte, Modena. Archivio fotografico
del Museo Civico d’Arte di Modena. Reproduced with
permission. 79
5.2 Francisco Pacheco, San Sebastián Asistido por Santa Irene
(Saint Sebastian Attended by Saint Irene)(1616), 292 x216 cm,
oil on canvas; Alcala de Guardaira, Parish of St Sebastian,
destroyed in 1936. Reproduction courtesy of Institut Amatller
D’Art Hispànic, Barcelona. 83
5.3 Charles Estienne, De Dissectione Partium Corporis Humani
libri tres(Paris, 1545), p. 168. Reproduction by permission of
The British Library (Shelfmark: C.112.h7). 86
10.1 ‘Figure of a man having a head in the middle of his belly’, in
Ambroise Paré, ‘Des Monstres et Prodiges’, Les Oeuvres
(Paris, 1579), vol. IX, p. cxxxi. Reproduction by permission
of The British Library (Shelfmark: c.97.h3). 163
10.2 ‘Figure of a man from whose belly another man issued’, in
Ambroise Paré, ‘Des Monstres et Prodiges’, Les Oeuvres
(Paris, 1579), vol. IX, p. cxxvi. Reproduction by permission
of The British Library (Shelfmark: C.97.h3). 164
10.3 ‘Zeus opening cosmic egg’, in William Harvey, Exercitationes
de Generatione Animalium(London, 1651), frontispiece.
Reproduction by permission of The British Library
(Shelfmark: 461.c1). 170
11.1 Lucas Cranach, The Elder, The Nymph of the Spring(after
1537), 48.5 x72.9 cm, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC. ©Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art,
Washington DC. Reproduced with permission. 180
vii
viii THE ARTS OF 17TH-CENTURYSCIENCE
11.2 Joachim Wtewael, Diana and Acteon(1607), 58 x79 cm, oil
on wood, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie, Vienna.
Reproduced with permission. 184
11.3 Antonio Allegri Correggio, Leda and the Swan(c. 1530–32),
152 x191 cm, oil on canvas, Staatliche Museen Preußischer
Kulturbesitz, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Foto: Jörg P. Anders.
Reproduced with permission. 185
11.4 Louis de Boullogne, Diana Resting(1707), 105 x163 cm, oil
on canvas, Musée des Beaux Arts. Photo: RMN. Reproduced
with permission. 190
12.1 ‘An ageed manne in his winter garment’, in Thomas Harriot,
ABriefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
(1590), Figure IX. Reproduction by permission of the British
Library (Shelfmark: G.6837). 205
12.2 ‘Their manner of fishynge in Virginia’, in Thomas Harriot, A
Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia
(1590), Figure XIII. Reproduction by permission of the British
Library (Shelfmark: G.6837). 206
12.3 ‘The truue picture of a woman nigbour to the Pictes’, in
Thomas Harriot, ABriefe and True Report of the New Found
Land of Virginia(1590), Figure V. Reproduction by permission
of the British Library (Shelfmark: G.6837). 209
12.4 ‘The Markes of Sundrye of the Cheif mene of Virginia’, in
Thomas Harriot, ABriefe and True Report of the New Found
Land of Virginia(1590), Figure IX. Reproduction by
permission of the British Library (Shelfmark: G.6837). 211
Acknowledgements
This book evolved from the conference on Science and Literature in the
Seventeenth Century, which was held in Aberystwyth in the summer of 1997.
Our first acknowledgement, then, is to all the speakers who made that
weekend such an enjoyable and stimulating event. In organising the
conference and in editing this volume, we accumulated a significant number
of other debts. To our colleagues (past and present) and our friends, who either
attended the conference, chaired sessions, or offered their time and support in
a myriad of ways, all we can do is say thank you and emphasise how much
we appreciate everything you have done. In particular, though, we would like
to thank Andrew Hadfield, Jonathan Sawday, Sarah Prescott and Shaun
Regan, who, in their different ways, made substantial contributions. For
institutional support and financial assistance we gratefully acknowledge
Brean Hammond, Lyn Pykett and Steve Smith. We would like to express our
appreciation of Erika Gaffney, of Ashgate Publishing Company, whose
enthusiasm for and faith in the book has been so encouraging. Andrew
Hadfield read and commented upon the introduction to the volume, as did
Martin Willis, and we are indebted to them for their suggestions; all errors that
remain are, of course, our own. We are also indebted to the readers appointed
by the publishers for such informed and constructive advice, and to the
contributors themselves, for their patience and hard work. Finally, a special
debt of thanks is owed to Heike Bauer, who played an invaluable role in the
production of the final manuscript.
Parts of this book first appeared in earlier publications, although they have
since been revised. Bronwen Price’s essay originally appeared in the journal
Literature and History, 7(1998); it is used here by permission of the editors
and Manchester University Press. Mary Baine Campbell’s essay is reprinted
from ‘On the Infinite Universe and Innumerable Worlds’, in Wonder and
Science: Imagining Worlds in Early Modern Europe (1999, Cornell
University) and is used here by permission of the publisher, Cornell
University Press. Despite every effort to trace and contact copyright holders
prior to publication, this may not have been possible in every case. We
apologise for any apparent infringement of copyright and, if notified, we will
be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
ix