Words in a Nutshell

Miniaturizing Texts in Early Modern England

Authors

  • Lucy Razzall Christ's College, University of Cambridge

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/post.35977

Keywords:

early modern, England, nutshell, metaphor, Iliad, Bible, print culture

Abstract

After Philemon Holland’s influential English translation of Pliny’s Natural History was first published in 1601, the Iliad-in-a-nutshell mentioned by Pliny became a commonplace motif of virtuosic compression in early modern England. Engaging with the popularity of this image, this article will explore its implications in early modern print culture. Although the frequently-appearing Iliad-in-a-nutshell might seem but a convenient rhetorical flourish, this article proposes that closer attention to it in the context of the small or miniature might help us to consider broader questions about the intertwining of physical and literary scale in early modern printed books as both texts and material objects. It argues that the miniature book, and more general desires to condense large works such as the Bible into smaller volumes, are not merely virtuosic or frivolous, but a manifestation of a wider anxiety about the relationship between physical size and literary weightiness.

Author Biography

  • Lucy Razzall, Christ's College, University of Cambridge

    Bye-Fellow and Director of Studies in English, Christ's College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.

References

Primary sources

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Holland, Philemon. 1634. The historie of the world: commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinus Secundus. London: Adam Islip.

Lye, Thomas. 1673. Reading and Spelling English made Easie. London: A. Maxwell for Thomas Parkhurst.

Reynolds, Edward. 1638. Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper. London: Felix Kyngston.

Shakespeare, William. 1623. Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies. London: Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount.

Stow, John. 1580. The chronicles of England from Brute vnto this present yeare of Christ. London: Ralphe Newberie.

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Published

2019-03-26

How to Cite

Razzall, L. (2019). Words in a Nutshell: Miniaturizing Texts in Early Modern England. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 9(2-3), 139-149. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.35977

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