
Dr Alexander Corrigan, University of Edinburgh
Postdoctoral Fellow, May - October 2018
Project: John Napier of Merchiston's English Apocalyptic Legacy
I am an early modern historian, whose interests include Reformation history, the history of ideas and the relationships between religious, magical and ‘scientific’ thinking. I graduated from New College, Edinburgh in 2014 after completing my doctoral thesis on John Napier of Merchiston’s 1593 commentary on the Book of Revelation. Since then, I have co-authored a collected volume of Napier’s works and drafted a monograph expanding on my doctoral research, which explores Napier’s activities in the occult and his relationship with the crown, exploring the context in which he wrote his religious commentary.
Sacred chronology was the cornerstone of Napier’s exegesis and my research at IASH considers chronological works written by seventeenth century English intellectuals to establish the extent of Napier’s longer-term legacy south of the border. Where many scholars are currently concerned with the technical aspects of chronological methodology, I emphasise the use of religious chronologies and ideas about the end of the world as polemical devices.