On Language, Theology, and Utopia

Francis Lodwick FRS (1619-94) was a prosperous merchant, bibliophile, writer, thinker, and member of the Royal Society. He wrote extensively on language, religion, and experimental philosophy, most of it too controversial to be safely published during his lifetime. This edition includes thefirst publication of his unorthodox religious works alongside groundbreaking writings on language. Following an extensive introduction by the editors the book is divided into three parts. Part One includes A Common Writing (1647), the first English attempt at an artificial language, and the equally pioneering phonetic alphabet set out in An Essay Towards an Universal Alphabet (1686). Part Twocontains a series of linked short treatises on the nature of religion and divine revelation, including 'Of the Word of God' and 'Of the Use of Reason in Religion', in which Lodwick argues for a new understanding of the Bible, advocates a rational approach to divine worship, and seeks to reinterpretreceived religion for an age of reason. The final part of the book contains his unpublished utopian fiction, A Country Not Named: here he creates a world to express his most firmly-held opinions on language and religion, and in which his utopians found a church that bans the Bible. The book givesnew insights into the religious aspects of the scientific revolution and throws fresh light on the early modern frame of mind. It is aimed at intellectual and cultural historians, historians of science and linguistics, and literary scholars - indeed, at all those interested in the interplay ofideas, language, and religion in seventeenth-century England

Felicity Henderson manages history of science events and exhibitions at the Royal Society. Previously she was based at King's College London, Cambridge University, where she was Munby Fellow in Bibliography, and Monash University, Melbourne. She works on seventeenth century intellectual history and manuscript culture.
William Poole is Galsworthy Fellow and Tutor in English of New College, Oxford. He was formerly a Research Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge. He works on seventeenth-century textual scholarship and intellectual history. He has published many articles on aspects of literary, scientific, and intellectual history, and has edited various linguistic, theological, and bibliographical manuscripts from the period.

General Introduction
Textual Introduction
Part I: Language-Planning
A Common Writing
The Ground-Work
An Essay Towards an Universal Alphabet
Concerning a Perfect, Universall Alfabeth
Of The Universall Language
A Designe Towards an Universall Alfabet
That the Alfabet and orthografy of the English Tongue is Defective
Part II: Theology
Certain Observations
Miscellany Discourses
'Of the Universe' and Other Essays
Part III: A Country Not Names
Part IV: Miscellaneous Texts and Correspondence
Essay on Maintaining an Army in Peace-Time
Essay on Trade
Proposals for Rebuilding London
Aphorisms
Form of Prayer
Lodwick's Correspondence
Commentaries, Textual Apparatus and Bibliographies
Index