ABSTRACT

The printing revolution in sixteenth-century England that resulted in the greatly increased availability of religious texts led to a multiplicity of other revolutionary changes in the seventeenth century. The relationship between the availability of the English Bible and the English civil revolution was certainly the most direct; and its study continues to stimulate strong analysis of the relationship between religion and politics. Literary texts documented, participated in, and influenced the nature of that relationship. Of course, since the English Civil Wars and the rise of printing-both so thoroughly associated with religion-corresponded with what has been called the “Age of Milton”—again, so thoroughly associated with religionMilton’s poetry and prose have garnered significant attention in this area of study. The relationship of the printing revolution to another revolution of the seventeenth century, what has come to be called the “Scientific Revolution,” however, is less obvious but no less profound.1 Its study has been correspondingly minimal. But, because the period associated with the explosion of printed religious texts preceded then paralleled the period associated with the rise of modern science, the extensions of which are so widespread and enduring, the need to investigate the relationship of

religious and scientific texts and practices is pressing.2 Milton’s works again demand to stand at the forefront of such studies because they reflect and inflect the same sets of epistemological concerns and questions which characterize the shift from Renaissance humanism to the more scientifically-minded Enlightenment.