Matter in the Margins

Abstract

Chapter 1 examines philosophical contexts that mattered to Shelley surrounding materia subtilis (subtle matter), and the sensorium. It offers a selective overview of the history of these formulations and their presence in Shelley’s library in the writings of Lucretius, Pierre Bayle, David Hartley, and Coleridge and Southey’s Omniana (1812), all of which are recorded in the ‘Marlow List’.