Early Modern Histories of Time

"All the essays in the book make as much use of the concept of 'period' and 'periodization' as possible. The essays approach the writing of a literary history through engaging with historiography and their practitioners, as starting points. The breadth of the critical vision, the magnitude of the task handled, and the inclusion of many original angles will make this book invaluable for anyone writing a literary history, writing about a literary history, and thinking about the very nature of literary and cultural histories in the early modern period."—Renaissance and Reformation

"The scope of this volume is ambitious. Poole and Williams explain that they aim to explore both how modern scholars use ‘the idea of historical periods’ and how the early moderns ‘understood chronology, antecedent, and temporal division...[T]he volume makes its readers aware of just how engrained periodisation is in modern academic thought and how difficult it is to constructively overcome its boundaries. That in itself is a valuable contribution and its contents will be of interest to any scholars interested in the ongoing debates concerning periodisation, its known shortcomings, and its possible revisions."—Erudition and the Republic of Letters

"This fascinating and thought-provoking collection represents a significant intervention into how we conceptualize periodization. Considering on the one hand how scholars work within historical periods and on the other hand how people in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries conceived of time, Early Modern Histories of Time radically questions how we organize history and the assumptions that we make when applying temporal divisions to the past."—The Spenser Review

"A provocative and illuminating volume. Its breadth of topics and approaches adds to its utility and appeal not only for literary scholars but also for historians. It will be the standard reference on historical periodization for years to come."—Zachary S. Schiffman, Northeastern Illinois University

"Early Modern Histories of Time is a tremendously exciting and genuinely multidisciplinary collection of essays by historically engaged literary scholars juxtaposed with excellent contributions from political, religious, and archaeological historians."—Evelyn Tribble, University of Connecticut