A TIMELINE OF BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION
1600
De Magnete Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure by William Gilbert.
Giordano Bruno burned at the stake for heresy.
East India Company established.
1603
Accession of James I (James VI of Scotland) unites the thrones of England, Wales and Scotland.
1605
Mundus alter et idem by Bishop Joseph Hall.
Bacon publishes The Advancement of Learning.
Gunpowder Plot alerts Britain to continued Catholic threat.
1608
John Milton born in London.
1609
The Man in the Moone, telling Strange Fortunes by anon.
First known drawing of the moon seen through a telescope, by Thomas Harriot.
British colonists shipwrecked on the Bermudas.
1610
Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius, including the most detailed representation to date of the surface of the Moon.
1611
First performance of The Tempest by William Shakespeare.
1613
Purchas His Pilgrimage by Samuel Purchas.
1614
John Wilkins born in Fawsley, Northamptonshire.
1616
Vatican puts De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium on the index of banned books.
1618
Francis Bacon appointed Lord Chancellor.
1620
Ben Jonson's masque, Newes from the New World Discover'd in the Moone, is performed for the court of James I.
Cornelius Drebbel demonstrates an underwater boat in the Thames.
1621
Francis Bacon is created Viscount St Albans, and two weeks later is charged with accepting bribes. He never again holds public office.
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton.
'Mayflower' lands at Plimoth, Massachussetts.
1623
Civitas Solis by Thomas Campanella.
1626
Francis Bacon dies.
1627
New Atlantis by Francis Bacon published as an appendage to Sylva Sylvarum.
1628
De motu cordis by William Harvey describes the circulation of the blood.
1629
Nuncius Inanimatus by Francis Godwin.
1630
1633
Francis Godwin, Bishop of Hereford, dies.
1634
Lucian’s True History received its first translation into English, by Francis Hicks.
Somnium by Johannes Kepler, published posthumously.
1637
Discourse on Method by Rene Descartes.
1638
The Man in the Moone by Francis Godwin.
The Discovery of a World in the Moone by John Wilkins.
The Antipodes by Richard Brome.
1639
The Bishops Wars.
A Discoverie of Infinite Treasure by Gabriel Plattes.
Samuel Hartlib publishes a new edition of More's Utopia.
1640
Charles I summons the Long Parliament.
1641
A Description of the Famous Kingdom of Macaria by Gabriel Plattes.
1642
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms begin with the Battle of Edghill.
Closure of theatres in England.
1643
Evangelista Torricelli measures the pressure of the atmosphere.
1644
Aulicus his Dream, of the King’s Sudden Comming to London by Francis Cheynell.
1645
Cromwell reorganises Parliamentary forces as the New Model Army.
Royalists defeated at Naseby.
1646
The New Planet No Planet by Alexander Ross.
Charles I surrenders.
1647
The Putney debates.
1648
Nova Solyma by Samuel Gott.
Mathematicall Magick. or, The Wonders That May be Performed by Mechanicall Geometry by John Wilkins.
Royalist uprising ends at Preston.
Pride's Purge reduces the Long Parliament to the Rump.
1649
Charles I executed.
First public workhouse opens in London.
Gerard Winstanley sets up a community of 'Diggers' in Surrey.
John Wilkins appointed warden of Wadham College, Oxford and forms the Oxford Experimental Philosophy Club.
1650
1651
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.
'An Humble Request' by Gerard Winstanley.
A New and More Exact Mappe by Mary Cary.
Clavis Apocalyptica by Samuel Hartlib predicts the world will end in 1655.
1652
The Law of Freedom in a Platform by Gerrard Winstanley.
1655
'The Inventory of Judgement's Commonwealth' by Margaret Cavendish.
1656
The Commonwealth of Oceana by James Harrington.
Histoire comique des Estats et Empires de la Lune by Cyrano de Bergerac.
John Wilkins becomes Cromwell's brother-in-law.
1657
'Letters from Utopia' by Marchemont Nedham.
1658
The Prerogative of Popular Government by James Harrington.
Brief Directions Showing How a Fit or Perfect Model of Popular Government May be Made, Found, or Understood by James Harrington.
Death of Oliver Cromwell.
1659
The Christian Commonwealth by John Eliot.
A Holy Commonwealth by Richard Baxter.
The Art of Lawmaking in Three Books by James Harrington.
Government Described, or the Free-State of Ragouse by John Streater.
A coup overthrows Richard Cromwell; General Monck marches on London to restore the Long Parliament.
1660
Charles II is restored to the throne.
Readie and Easie Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth by John Milton.
Olbia by John Sadler predicts the Second Coming in 1666.
Nucleus of Royal Society formed.
New Atlantis. Begun by the Lord Verulam, Viscount St Albans: And Continued by R.H. Esquire
1662
The Royal Society receives its Charter.
1665
The Great Plague.
1666
The Great Fire of London.
The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish.
1667
Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Jonathan Swift born in Dublin.
1668
The Isle of Pines by Henry Neville.
1670
1672
John Wilkins dies.
1674
Death of John Milton.
1675
Gerania by Joshua Barnes.
1680
1685
‘Pindaric Poem on Three Skips of a Louse’ by Samuel Wesley.
Charles II dies. James II succeeds to the throne.
1687
Emperor of the Moon by Aphra Behn.
Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton.
1688
James II ousted in the Glorious Revolution.
1690
1697
The World in the Moon by Elkanah Settle.
Robert Paltock born in London.