1600

1601

1602

1603

1604

1605

1606

1607

1608

1609

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

Francis Bacon

Mundus alter et idem by Bishop Joseph Hall.

Bacon publishes The Advancement of Learning.

Gunpowder Plot alerts Britain to continued Catholic threat.

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's drawing of the moon

Galileo publishes Sidereus Nuncius.

1611

First performance of The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

1613

Purchas His Pilgrimage by Samuel Purchas.

1616

 Vatican puts De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium on the index of banned books.

1618

Francis Bacon appointed Lord Chancellor.

1620

Ben Jonson

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.

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

Godwin's Man in the Moone

Wilkins' Discovery of a World in the Moone

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.

 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.

1651

Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes.

'An Humble Request' by Gerard Winstanley.

1652

The Law of Freedom in a Platform by Gerrard Winstanley.

1655

'The Inventory of Judgement's Commonwealth' by Margaret Cavendish.

1656

Harrington's Oceana

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.

 A coup overthrows Richard Cromwell; General Monck marches on London to restore the Long Parliament.

1660

 Charles II is restored to the throne.

Olbia by John Sadler predicts the Second Coming in 1666.

1662

 The Royal Society receives its Charter.

1665

 The Great Plague of London.

Margaret Cavendish

The Blazing World

1666

The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish.

Paradise Lost

1667

Paradise Lost by John Milton.

1668

The Isle of Pines by Henry Neville.

1685

‘Pindaric Poem on Three Skips of a Louse’ by Samuel Wesley.

Aphra Behn

Principia Mathematica

1687

Emperor of the Moon by Aphra Behn.

Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton.

1697

The World in the Moon by Elkanah Settle.