The 'authority of the ancients'? Seventeenth-century natural philosophy and aesthetic responses to mountains

Dawn Hollis

doi:10.5040/9781350162853.ch-003

The 'authority of the ancients'? Seventeenth-century natural philosophy and aesthetic responses to mountains

Dawn Hollis

School of Classics

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

In 1684, the natural philosopher Thomas Burnet threw an intellectual grenade with his Sacred Theory of the Earth. Although he characterized mountains as ugly, disordered ruins, Burnet also acknowledged the enormous pleasure of viewing these ‘greatest objects of Nature’. As such, he has frequently been posited as a transitional figure in the development of a modern mountain aesthetic; by contrast, this chapter will argue that Burnet’s positive response was entirely in keeping with the attitudes of his era. It will further locate the contested knowledge-making of ‘the Burnet debate’ as occurring at the intersection of classical ideas, Scriptural interpretation, and empirical rationality. Despite a rhetoric which rejected the ‘authority of the ancients’, Burnet and his disputants turned to classical literature in order to unpick such questions as the form of the Chaos out of which the world developed, the mountainous nature of Paradise, and the aesthetic value of rugged landscape.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Mountain dialogues from antiquity to modernity
Editors	Jason Konig, Dawn Hollis
Place of Publication	London
Publisher	Bloomsbury Academic
Chapter	3
Pages	55-72
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Electronic)	9781350162839, 9781350162853
ISBN (Print)	9781350162822, 9781350194106
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350162853.ch-003
Publication status	Published - 6 May 2021

Publication series

Name	Ancient environments

Access to Document

10.5040/9781350162853.ch-003

'The authority of the ancients', Mountain Dialogues
Copyright © 2021 Dawn Hollis and Jason König. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/mountain-dialogues-from-antiquity-to-modernity-9781350162822/
Final published version, 551 KBLicence: Unspecified

Cite this

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title = "The 'authority of the ancients'? Seventeenth-century natural philosophy and aesthetic responses to mountains",

abstract = "In 1684, the natural philosopher Thomas Burnet threw an intellectual grenade with his Sacred Theory of the Earth. Although he characterized mountains as ugly, disordered ruins, Burnet also acknowledged the enormous pleasure of viewing these {\textquoteleft}greatest objects of Nature{\textquoteright}. As such, he has frequently been posited as a transitional figure in the development of a modern mountain aesthetic; by contrast, this chapter will argue that Burnet{\textquoteright}s positive response was entirely in keeping with the attitudes of his era. It will further locate the contested knowledge-making of {\textquoteleft}the Burnet debate{\textquoteright} as occurring at the intersection of classical ideas, Scriptural interpretation, and empirical rationality. Despite a rhetoric which rejected the {\textquoteleft}authority of the ancients{\textquoteright}, Burnet and his disputants turned to classical literature in order to unpick such questions as the form of the Chaos out of which the world developed, the mountainous nature of Paradise, and the aesthetic value of rugged landscape.",

author = "Dawn Hollis",

note = "Funding: The authors thank the Leverhulme Trust for their generous support of the wider project, {\textquoteleft}Mountains in ancient literature and culture and their postclassical reception{\textquoteright}, of which it is a part.",

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The 'authority of the ancients'? Seventeenth-century natural philosophy and aesthetic responses to mountains

Abstract

Publication series

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Mountains in ancient Literature: Mountains in ancient literature and culture and their post-classical reception

Mountain dialogues from antiquity to modernity

Cite this

The 'authority of the ancients'? Seventeenth-century natural philosophy and aesthetic responses to mountains

Abstract

Publication series

Access to Document

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Fingerprint

Projects

Mountains in ancient Literature: Mountains in ancient literature and culture and their post-classical reception

Research output

Mountain dialogues from antiquity to modernity

Cite this