Introducing a revolution -- What Galileo saw: two fables of sound and seeing -- Kepler's progress: imagining the future -- The poetry of the world: a natural history of poetics -- "Look there, look there!": imagining life in King Lear -- The dream of Descartes -- A history of error: Robert Fludd, Thomas Browne, and the Harrow of Truth -- The century of genius (1): Measuring up -- The century of genius (2): Hooke, Newton, and the system of the world -- Revolution and its discontents: the skeptical challenge -- Appendix 1: The fable of sound -- Appendix 2: Descartes' Three dreams.