Poetry as a political gesture and as a philosophical support: Thomas Stanley (1625–1678) and the order of the black riband

Annotation

This article draws a parallel between Thomas Stanley’s activity during the Civil War (especially 1646–1649) and his researcher’s attitude, that makes itself felt in his main work «The History of Philosophy» (the first volume was published in 1655). As a historian of philosophy Stanley pays considerable attention to philosophers’ way of living and this moral part of philosophers’ biographies often becomes more important for him, than theoretical one. This article finds out the possible reason of such attitude in Stanley’s biographical pages. This text is also dedicated to the activity of the Order of the Black Riband and contains a variant of Stanley’s ode translation from the «Psalterium Carolinum» cycle.

Keywords

cavalier-poets, royalism, Thomas Stanley, the history of philosophy, the Order of the Black Riband

Literature

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