Book contents
- How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England
- Reviews
- How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Plates
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Texts and Citations
- Chapter 1 An Introduction Is Like a Book
- Chapter 2 The Lexicon of Print
- Chapter 3 The Metaphors We Read With
- Chapter 4 Book Size and Information Management
- Chapter 5 The Bookish Sensorium
- Chapter 6 The World Is a Book
- Chapter 7 When Print Was White
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - The World Is a Book
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 August 2025
Book contents
- How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England
- Reviews
- How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare’s England
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures and Plates
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- A Note on Texts and Citations
- Chapter 1 An Introduction Is Like a Book
- Chapter 2 The Lexicon of Print
- Chapter 3 The Metaphors We Read With
- Chapter 4 Book Size and Information Management
- Chapter 5 The Bookish Sensorium
- Chapter 6 The World Is a Book
- Chapter 7 When Print Was White
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Chapter 6 takes up the best-known bookish metaphor: the book of nature. Tracing the phrase “book of nature” and its attendant metaphors through early modern English writing, this chapter shows how its Christian use did not fully disappear when the metaphor suddenly flipped to work in service of the modern scientific method. The “book of nature” gave people a language for knowledge in a rapidly changing epistemology.
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- How the World Became a Book in Shakespeare's England , pp. 191 - 233Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
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