John Milton (1608-1674)
by Science Photo Library
Title
John Milton (1608-1674)
Artist
Science Photo Library
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
John Milton, English poet and political writer. Author of the celebrated epic poems “Paradise Lost” and “Paradise Regained”. A republican, in the“Areopagitica” he advocated a free press. Milton lived in a critical period of astronomical progress where the discoveries of Galileo and Kepler challenged the Ptolemaic system with the heliocentric Copernican cosmology. Milton had a comprehensive knowledge of contemporary astronomy and had visited the old and blind Galileo in Florence.In “Paradise Lost” he writes “when by night the glass / Of Galileo, less assured, observes / Imagined lands and regions of the moon”. Though he selected the Ptolemaic cosmology as the scientific basis upon which he constructed his “Paradise Lost”, there are many passages that suggest he appreciated and accepted the Copernican system.
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March 7th, 2014
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