'Excellent, erudite and lucid intellectual biography. Hotson has provided a richly contextualised and nuanced study of the possibilities of belief which were available to Alsted' -Journal of Ecclesiastical History'Hotson has written a concise intellectual biography, in many respects exemplary, of a scholarly figure who is difficult to pin down. He has given Alsted a detailed profile. Based on Hotson's scholarship, other researchers will be able to make better use of Alsted's treasure trove than has been possible so far' -Bulletin of the German Historical Institute'The author combines the approaches and methods of political history, church history, the history of ideas, and the history of science, and he succeeds admirably' -Bulletin of the German Historical Institute'There is much more to this monograph than traditional intellectual biography. [This] monograph represents a staggering amount of research, meticulously documented and expertly presented. Hotson has offered us nothing less than an imaginative and innovative attempt at reforming the history of ideas. Clearly, he is setting high standards for himself and others in the next generation of intellectual historians' -American Historical Review'. this work is a major achievement that should and will permanently mark the landscape of late Renaissance-Reformation studies.

every serious scholar of early modern cultural history should read this book.' -Sixteenth Century Journal'[W]e have here a highly significant book that, in its detail, defies easy review and demands careful scrutiny by all interested in the development of Protestant thought in the century after the Reformation.' -Calvin Theological Journal'With enormous erudition and the perserverance of a detective, Hotson dissects the various intellectual strands that make up the fabric of Alsted's oeuvre, identifying authors and tracing the often curious ways in which ideas found entrance into Alsted's work. This brief review cannot possibly do justice to the subtlety and comprehensiveness of Hotson's study. Alsted was a writer of prodigious productivity and learning. So is his modern biographer' -Renaissance QuarterlyJohann Heinrich Alsted, professor of philosophy and theology at the Calvinist academy of Herborn, was a man of many parts. A deputy to the famous Synod of Dort and the greatest encyclopedist of his age, he was also a pioneer of Calvinist millenarianism and a devoted student of astrology, alchemy, Lullism, and the works of Giordano Bruno. Alsted's intellectual biography opens up unexpected perspectives on the reforming movements of the seventeenth century, and provides an invaluable introduction to many of the central ideas, individuals and institutions of this neglected era of central European intellectual history.