Medieval Influences in Paradise Lost

Much has been made of Milton's classical influences in Paradise Lost. Annotated copies are littered with footnotes tying Milton's work to the Odyssey and the Aeneid. Since Milton did model his Christian epic on these pagan models, such citations are justifiable. However, since Milton's intention was to "justify God's ways to man", we should acknowledge that classical references are simply carefully selected structural devices utilized for a higher purpose.

It is equally important to note that this Renaissance work, written in 1667, is also indebted to medieval lore. Kester Svendsen notes that by "fusing medieval cosmological lore with Christian metaphysics, Milton was . . . no less a medieval than a Renaissance Christian" (223). By drawing connections between Milton's cosmology and the cosmological theories found in 15^th and 16^th century encyclopedias, Svendsen illustrates how the author was influenced by medieval sources. In order to explain the mystical nature of God and creation, Milton utilized a number of medieval sources including sacred geometry, German mysticism, and rabbinic tradition.

To the medieval mind, the evidence of God's relationship with creation could be found in the geometric nature of the universe. To understand this nature is to understand God, as Milton writes: "for Heav'n/ Is as the Book of God before the set" (PL VIII 66-67). In this passage, if we read the preposition "as" to mean "equivalent to" we see its connection to the Medieval idea of God authoring two books, one being the Bible and the second being Nature itself. This was a common idea in medieval mysticism:

The medieval world was thoroughly semiotic, the stars in the sky and the leaves on the trees were shot through with semantic meaning, signifiers of the Creator's absolute authorship. (http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0247.html)