Joseph Glanville

John Geoffrey Newton (University of Durham)
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Joseph Glanvill’s writings on natural philosophy and religion were widely read during the Restoration period – although now he is mostly remembered for his work on the supernatural. Anthony Wood praised him as “a great master of the English language, expressing himself therein with easy fluency, and with a manly, yet withall a smooth style” (Wood, 1817, III, col 1245). In the preface to the posthumous

Some Discourses, Sermons, and Remains

(1681) his, publisher Anthony Horneck praised his incisive reasoning and analytical skill: “His soul seemed to be spun of a finer thread than those of other mortals, and things look’d with another face, when they passed through the quicker fire of his Laboratory.”

After gaining his BA and MA from Oxford University, Glanvill’s first work,

785 words

Citation: Newton, John Geoffrey. "Joseph Glanville". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 07 December 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1764, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1764 Joseph Glanville 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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