In the early modern period, poetic form underpinned and influenced scientific progress. The language and imagery of seventeenth-century writers and natural philosophers reveal how the age-old struggle between body and soul led to the brain’s emergence as a curiosity in its own right. Investigating the intersection of the humanities and sciences in the works of authors ranging from William Shakespeare and John Donne to William Harvey, Margaret Cavendish, and Johann Remmelin, Lianne Habinek tells how early modernity came to view the brain not simply as grey matter but as a wealth of other wondrous possibilities – a book in which to read the soul’s writing, a black box to be violently unlocked, a womb to nourish intellectual conception, a creative engine, a subtle knot that traps the soul and thereby makes us human. For seventeenth-century thinkers, she argues, these comparisons were not simply casual metaphors but integral to early ideas about brain function. Demonstrating how the disparate fields of neuroscientific history and literary studies converged, The Subtle Knot tells the story of how the mind came to be identified with the brain.

Lianne Habinek is assistant professor of English at Bard College.

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"Habinek's book is repeatedly revealing new knowledge. Her writing is also elegant, transparent, and fluid, unlike the inspiring knots it unties." University of Toronto Quarterly

"Habinek's argument ranges widely and is richly and densely articulated. The Subtle Knot is important chiefly for Habinek's detailed examinations of the ways her five central metaphors help us understand early modern writers' conceptualizations of how the mind works. For this, we are truly in her debt." Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme

"An important and original book. Informed by accurate and detailed knowledge of early modern theories about the brain, the body, and the soul, Lianne Habinek focuses on the relationship between the literary imagination and scientific knowledge, and the cultural metaphors that they shared." Mary Crane, Boston College

"The Subtle Knot is extremely well-researched and well-constructed. Lianne Habinek artfully incorporates the medieval and classical heritage of the history of the mind into her discussions, demonstrating how they were still important to early modern theorists. Challenging long-held assumptions, Habinek shows us how even the most 'objective' scientific practice, such as anatomy, was caught up in philosophical and linguistic tradition." Janine Rogers, Mount Allison University

“The Subtle Knot provides an intriguing account of how early moderns made efforts to imagine and image the brain and will certainly be a landmark text in the burgeoning field of neurohumanities.” The British Society for Literature and Science