author

Nathaniel Ingelo

d. 1683

A 17th-century English clergyman and writer remembered chiefly for Bentivolio and Urania, an allegorical romance that blends religious ideas with imaginative storytelling. His work reflects the devotional and literary world of Restoration-era England.

1 Audiobook

Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances

Prefaces to Four Seventeenth-Century Romances

by Earl of Orrery Roger Boyle, Nathaniel Ingelo, George Mackenzie

About the author

Nathaniel Ingelo, who died in 1683, was an English clergyman, writer, and musician. He is chiefly known for Bentivolio and Urania, a long allegorical romance first published in the 1660s and later reprinted in more than one edition.

His writing mixes fiction, moral reflection, and spiritual symbolism in a way that was well suited to the tastes of 17th-century readers. Because of that blend of narrative and religious purpose, his best-known book has remained the main reason his name is still remembered.

Reliable biographical information about Ingelo is fairly limited, but the surviving record consistently connects him with both the church and literary culture of his time. For modern readers, he stands out as one of those lesser-known early English authors whose reputation rests on a single unusual and ambitious work.