Article ID: CBB001553524

Number-Lines: Diagramming Irrationality in “The Phoenix and Turtle” (2015)

unapi

This article considers how changes in the concept of number allow both poets and mathematicians in the early modern period to imagine and articulate concepts that resist referential signification. Specifically, it examines how both Shakespeare's “The Phoenix and Turtle” and Robert Recorde's The Whetstone of Witte employ hybridized lines possessing characteristics of both discrete and continuous types of quantity in order to render irrationality. Tracing the development of a formalized poetic “number line,” which understands verses as negotiating between aural, accentual-syllabic numbers and visual inscriptions, this article claims that “The Phoenix and Turtle” functions diagrammatically. In doing so, the poem engages habits of thought also required by Recorde's practical manuals on mathematics, but does so in order to interrogate the limits of a rationalized, mathematical worldview.

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Authors & Contributors
Perrone Capano, Lucia
Lolli, Gabriele
Trubowitz, Rachel
Maroscia, Paolo
Guichard, Luis Arturo
Toffalori, Carlo
Concepts
Science and literature
Mathematics
Poetry and poetics
Science and religion
Geometry
Mathematics and art
Time Periods
Medieval
20th century
17th century
Early modern
Renaissance
Ancient
Places
Mediterranean region
Italy
Germany
Hellenistic world
England
Europe
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