Recently, on YouTube, I answered Tudor Society member Real Tudor Lady's question on the books and TV series, A Discovery of Witches, examining whether the School of Night (School of Atheists) really existed. I thought I'd go into it in a bit more detail for Tudor Society members, and also share some further reading resources.
Further Reading
Links to online resources:
- Susanne S. Webb. “Raleigh, Hariot, and Atheism in Elizabethan and Early Stuart England.” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, vol. 1, no. 1, 1969, pp. 10–18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4048171.
- Aishwarya Sughandi. “Walter Raleigh’s School of Night and Mermaid Tavern: An Enquiry” - https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/171638/1/rek10_195.pdf
- Strathmann, Ernest A. “The Textual Evidence for ‘The School of Night.’” Modern Language Notes, vol. 56, no. 3, 1941, pp. 176–186. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2910547.
- The School of Night on Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_School_of_Night
- The Marlowe Society - http://www.marlowe-society.org/christopher-marlowe/life/the-free-thinkers/
If you have a subscription to the Oxford Dictionary of Bibliography, you can also read detailed bios of the men:
- Roche, J. (2006, September 28). Harriot, Thomas (c. 1560–1621), mathematician and natural philosopher. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-12379.
- Burnett, M. (2006, May 25). Chapman, George (1559/60–1634), poet and playwright. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5118.
- Nicholl, C. (2008, January 03). Marlowe [Marley], Christopher (bap. 1564, d. 1593), playwright and poet. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-18079.
- Sokol, B. (2008, January 03). Roydon, Matthew (fl. 1583–1622), poet. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-24238.
- Nicholls, M. (2008, January 03). Percy, Henry, ninth earl of Northumberland (1564–1632), nobleman. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-21939.