MACARIA, THE HARTLIB CIRCLE, AND HUSBANDING CREATION1
MACARIA, THE HARTLIB CIRCLE, AND HUSBANDING CREATION

Summary/Abstract: This paper attempts to interpret one of the rarely read seventeenth-century atypical utopias, A Description of the Famous Kingdome of Macaria. Macaria originated inside the Hartlib Circle, was anonymously published and, for a long time, was considered a work by Samuel Hartlib. Classified as an important manifesto destined to direct the energies of the Long Parliament, Macaria has been associated with other tracts of the Puritan movement in England. In my paper I will interpret this text in the wider context of the new approach on husbandry developed inside the Hartlib Circle. This new approach reformulates the view on husbandry, combining the classical and Renaissance traditions, adding some interesting alchemical influences and also the Baconian principles of experimentation and benefit of mankind. The first writer of the Hartlib Circle to ever express such an opinion was Gabriel Plattes.

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