The Art of Reading Earthquakes: On Harvey's Wit, Ramus's Method, and the Renaissance of Lucretius

Gabriel Harvey's witty use of a quotation from Ovid on the occasion of the earthquake of 1580 is the point of departure for exploring the several ways in which a contemporary debate about literature, logic, and natural causes was carried out through the mediation of classical texts. At the expl...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRenaissance quarterly Vol. 61; no. 3; pp. 792 - 832
Main Author Passannante, Gerard
Format Book Review Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge The Renaissance Society of America 22.09.2008
Renaissance Society of America
Cambridge University Press
Subjects
1580 AD
Aristotelianism
Classical literature
Criticism and interpretation
Disasters
Earthquakes
Epicureanism
Giants
Harvey, Gabriel
History
Irony
Jokes
Latin literature
Literary criticism
Literature
Logic
Lucretius
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus)
Mediation
Poetry
Ramism
Records and correspondence
Renaissance period
Reported speech
Studies
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
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Summary:Gabriel Harvey's witty use of a quotation from Ovid on the occasion of the earthquake of 1580 is the point of departure for exploring the several ways in which a contemporary debate about literature, logic, and natural causes was carried out through the mediation of classical texts. At the explosive intersection of Harvey's Socratic wit and Ramist logic, a buried reference to Lucretius sets into motion a number of deeper questions about the nature of literary and natural digressions, and about the ironic ends of a method that demands order, both for its ancient texts and for the natural world.
ISSN:0034-4338
1935-0236
DOI:10.1353/ren.0.0160