Bishop Francis Godwin

Bishop Francis Godwin, born in 1562, became Bishop of Hereford and was also an author. After his death, his book The Man in the Moone or A discourse of a voyage thither by Domingo Gonsales Thy Speedy messenger was published. This early type of science fiction became an instant success. By 1768 there had been twenty-four editions in four languages. In this story the character Domingo flies to the moon in a carriage drawn by wild swans. What makes this book so remarkable is not the choice of topic but the visionary ideas, for example, a rotating earth or the state of weightlessness the wild swans find themselves in whilst travelling through outer space:

"I found then by this Experience that which no Philosopher ever dreamed of, to wit, that those things which wee call heavie, do not sinke toward the Center of the Earth, as their naturall place, but are drawn by a secret property of the Globe of the Earth, or rather some thing within the same, in like sort as the Loadstone draweth Iron, being with the compasse of its attractive beames."

It is obvious that Bishop Godwin was familiar with the work of Copernicus, the Polish astronomer, and the use of these ideas in this early 17th century work of fiction is fascinating.

[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2003]