What Happened
Thomas N. Orchard navigates the intersection of seventeenth-century scientific advancement and the dense celestial imagery of John Milton’s epic. While Milton lived during the transition from ancient assumptions toward the sun-centered models championed by Copernicus and Galileo, he drew from both the established lore of the past and the emerging discoveries of his contemporaries. Orchard documents Milton’s 1638 journey to Florence, where a visit with the blind, imprisoned Galileo informed the poet’s descriptions of lunar textures and sunspots. This volume maps the technical underpinnings of the poem, comparing the 'music of the spheres' with the actual astronomical knowledge of the 1890s, clarifying how Milton fused mythic narrative with the expanding horizons of planetary science and stellar observation.
Key figures
- John Milton
Author of Paradise Lost whose astronomical knowledge is the subject of study.
- Galileo
Italian astronomer who Milton visited in Florence during his 1638 travels.
- Christian Huygens
Dutch scientist who determined the accelerated motion of bodies under gravity.
- Tycho Brahe
Astronomer who believed comets moved in circular orbits.
- Florence
The cultural center where Milton enjoyed two months of hospitality and learning.
What it's really about
- Cosmic Order
- The harmony pervading the motions of suns, planets, and satellites.
- Scientific Transition
- The shift from ancient crystal domes to a universe of suns.
Why it's memorable
- Milton traveling with a single man-servant to meet the world-renowned Hugo Grotius in Paris.
- Ancient astronomers imagining the stars as golden studs decorating a crystal dome of heaven.
Where it lands
Orchard concludes that Milton found meditative delight in the stars, leaving behind an epic that mirrors the untold glories of the Galaxy in melodious language.
For your book club
- Whether Milton truly believed in the Copernican system or simply used it for poetic effect.
- The way 17th-century discoveries about gravity influenced Milton's descriptions of the celestial vault.