Elias Ashmole. The Quartercentenary Biography.

This biography celebrates the accomplishments of Elias Ashmole, founder of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, on the fourth centenary of his birth (1617-2017). It complements Vittoria Feola's previous intellectual biography of Ashmole, "Elias Ashmole and the uses of antiquity" in a number of ways. First, it brings up evidence about Ashmole's closeness to Catholic ideas which has been neglected so far. Secondly, it sets Ashmole within his broader mid-seventeenth century milieu of like-minded collectors and amateur natural philosophers, as well as within his family connections. Thirdly, it shows that Ashmole's pragmatic political choices reflected loyalty to the sovereignty of his country over conflictual religious allegiances, thus making Ashmole's example relevant in today's world of rising calls for religious encroachments onto State sovereignty.