Religion Around John Donne

In this volume, Joshua Eckhardt examines the religious texts and books that surrounded the poems, sermons, and inscriptions of the early modern poet and preacher John Donne. Focusing on the material realities legible in manuscripts and Sammelbnde, bookshops and private libraries, Eckhardt uncovers the myriad ways in which Donnes writings were received and presented, first by his contemporaries, and later by subsequent readers of his work. Eckhardt sheds light on the religious writings with which Donnes work was linked during its circulation, using a bibliographic approach that also informs our understanding of his works reception during the early modern period. He analyzes the religious implications of the placement of Donnes poem A Litany in a library full of Roman Catholic and English prayer books, the relationship and physical proximity of Donnes writings to figures such as Sir Thomas Egerton and Izaak Walton, and the movements in later centuries of Donnes work from private owners to the major libraries that have made this study possible. Eckhardts detailed research reveals how Donnes writings have circulated throughout historyand how religious readers, communities, and movements affected the distribution and reception of his body of work. Centered on a place in time when distinct methods of reproduction, preservation, and circulation were used to negotiate a complex and sometimes dangerous world of confessional division, Religion Around John Donne makes an original contribution to Donne studies, religious history, book history, and reception studies.