Download or read book Philip Sidney and the Poetics of Renaissance Cosmopolitanism written by Robert E. Stillman and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2008 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a fresh interpretation of Philip Sidney's Defence of Poesy, Robert E. Stillman's intellectually ambitious study challenges traditional scholarship by identifying the impact of his education by the followers of Philip Melanchthon-the so-called Philippists-on his poetics, piety, and politics. Sidney created the first Renaissance text to argue for poetry's pre-eminence as an autonomous form of knowledge in the public domain, and its consequent power to promote cultural reform.