ABSTRACT
The influence of Peri hypsous on early modern thought may be said to originate with the publication of the first edition of the text: a version in the original Greek printed in Basel in 1554. While there is no evidence to confirm that Peri hypsous was widely known in the late sixteenth century, a compelling case can be made for the influence of Longinian notions of the sublime on the development of early modern English literature. Patrick Cheney and Andrew Hadfield have argued for readings of early modern literature that trace an emergent interest in republican ideals. The endeavour to locate a source for the sublime, which most eighteenth-century thinkers believed Longinus had failed to achieve, is a pre-eminent concern in writings of the period. There are some objects, however, which are inherently sublime; the greatness of God, for instance, is independent of mere description.
