This volume centers on the study of the relations between literature and the environment and poses important questions to an evolving field: why has ecocriticism focused on narrow, more recent historical periods? What has prevented or discouraged critics from extending environmentally-conscious readings further into the past, and what is lost as a consequence? "Early Modern Ecostudies" engages directly with such issues and advances a new practice that borrows from the methodologies of current ecocriticism, interrogates its problematic assumptions, and extends its reach and significance. Dealing with a range of subjects, these essays apply ecocritical methods to traditional authors such as Shakespeare, Sidney, More, and Milton; canonical texts such Edward Taylor's poetry and the Florentine Codex; and documents from the literature of discovery, medicine, and natural history.

Travel Knowledge examines European travel writing from 1500-1800, with an emphasis on travel to the East Indies, Africa, and the Levant. The importance of travel literature has grown in the humanities as scholars plumb such texts for their insights on colonialism, the other, and the nation, but this is one of the first volumes on European travel in the early modern period. The essays further distinguish themselves by focusing not on the European discovery of the Americas, but on voyages to the east, and by allowing the voices of marginalized travelers to speak through history. This collection includes both critical essays and the primary texts to which they refer, a unique pairing. Travel Knowledge is essential reading in history, literature, and ethnography.

The essays in this volume interrogate the unique and often problematic relationship between early modern cultural studies and ecocriticism, providing theoretical insights and models for a future practice that successfully wed the two disciplines.

Travel Knowledge examines European travel writing from 1500-1800, with an emphasis on travel to the East Indies, Africa, and the Levant. The importance of travel literature has grown in the humanities as scholars plumb such texts for their insights on colonialism, the other, and the nation, but this is one of the first volumes on European travel in the early modern period. The essays further distinguish themselves by focusing not on the European discovery of the Americas, but on voyages to the east, and by allowing the voices of marginalized travelers to speak through history. This collection includes both critical essays and the primary texts to which they refer, a unique pairing. Travel Knowledge is essential reading in history, literature, and ethnography.