This book explores the impact of biblical reading practices on scientific thought in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries. It addresses the idea that the natural philosophers of the era forged their new sciences despite, rather than because of, the pervasive bible-centeredness of early modern thought.

List of figures Notes on contributors Introduction; P.J.Forshaw & K.Killeen PART 1: THE WORD AND THE WORLD The Use of Creatures: Allegory, the Literal Sense and the Contemplative Life; P.Harrison Making Sense of Science and the Literal: Modern Semantics and Early Modern Hermeneutics; J.D.Fleming Reading the Two Books with Francis Bacon: Interpreting God's Will and Power; S.Matthews Textual Criticism and Early Modern Natural Philosophy: The Case of Marin Mersenne (1588-1648); P.Mueller Giordano Bruno's Hermeneutics: Observations on the Bible in De Monade (1591); L.Catana PART 2: INFERIOR AND SUPERIOR ASTRONOMY Vitriolic Reactions: Orthodox Responses to the Alchemical Exegesis of Genesis; P.Forshaw Tycho the Prophet: History, Astrology and the Apocalypse in Early Modern Science; H.Håkansson 'Whether the stars are innumerable for us?': Astronomy and Biblical Exegesis in the Society of Jesus around 1600; V.Remmert Reading the Book of God as the Book of Nature: The Case of the Louvain Humanist Cornelius Valerius (1512-1578); I.A.Kelter PART 3: EXEGESIS AND SCIENCE IN EARLY MODERN CULTURE The Fortunes of Babel: Technology, History, and Genesis 11:1-9; J.Sawday Duckweed and the Word of God: Seminal Principles and Creation in Thomas Browne (1605-1682); K.Killeen Days of the Locust: Natural History, Politics, and the English Bible; K.Edwards