World-building and the early modern imagination

"From British attempts on the stage and page to reinvent the world order with their island at the center to the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher's museum that strove to make the invisible visible, the early modern period was rife with attempts to reimagine the world and the human place within it. This volume looks at natural philosophers, playwrights, historians, and other figures in the period 1500-1700 as a means of accessing the plethora of world models that circulated in Europe during this era"--Provided by publisher.