Dr Ariel Hessayon
Staff details

Academic qualifications
BA History, Trinity College, Oxford University, 1990
PhD History, Selwyn College, Cambridge University, 1996
Teaching
Radicalism during the English Revolution, 1641–60
Heresy, the Occult and the Apocalypse in Early Modern Europe
Early Modern European philosophy
Research Interests
Dr Ariel Hessayon's research interests include early modern ideas, religion, politics, literature and popular culture. Ariel is a co-convenor of the seminar on seventeenth-century British History at the Institute of Historical Research and would welcome enquiries from those interested in doctoral research in areas relating to radicalism and/or esotericism in early modern Europe.
Major Research projects (completed)
Current Research projects
Current doctoral research students
Philip Smith, ‘The Seekers found: radical religion during the English Revolution’
Fellowships
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (2009-)
University of London Research Fellowship at School of Advanced Study, 2008
Leverhulme Special Research Fellowship at Royal Holloway, University of London, 1998–2000
New Hall, Cambridge University, Research Fellowship, 1995–1998
Editorial work
Member of the editorial board, Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 2007–
Member of the editorial board, Esoterica, 2007-
Publications
Book
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. ‘Gold Tried in the Fire’: The prophet TheaurauJohn Tany and the English Revolution. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-5597-8
Edited Book
Hessayon, Ariel and Laborie, Lionel, eds. 2020. Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts, vol. 1: Continental Europe. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004443631
Hessayon, Ariel and Laborie, Lionel, eds. 2020. Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts, vol. 3: The British Isles. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004443631
Hessayon, Ariel and Laborie, Lionel, eds. 2020. Early Modern Prophecies in Transnational, National and Regional Contexts, vol. 2: The Mediterranean World. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9789004443631
Hessayon, Ariel, ed. 2018. The Refiner’s Fire: the Collected Works of TheaurauJohn Tany. London: Breviary Stuff Publications. ISBN 9780957000575
Hessayon, Ariel, ed. 2016. Jane Lead and her Transnational Legacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-39613-6
Hessayon, Ariel and Apetrei, Sarah, eds. 2013. An Introduction to Jacob Boehme: Four Centuries of Thought and Reception. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-84357-7
Hessayon, Ariel and Apetrei, Sara, eds. 2013. An Introduction to Jacob Boehme: Four Centuries of Thought and Reception. Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415843577
Hessayon, Ariel and Finnegan, David, eds. 2011. Varieties of Seventeenth- and early Eighteenth-century English radicalism in context. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-6905-0
Hessayon, Ariel, ed. 2007. A selection of papers from "Rediscovering Radicalism in the British Isles and Ireland in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries", Goldsmith’s College, University of London, 21-23 June, 2006. Florence: Florence University Press.
Hessayon, Ariel and Keene, Nicholas, eds. 2006. Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0-7546-3893-3
Edited Journal
Hessayon, Ariel; Corns, Thomas and Hughes, Ann, eds. 2014. Gerrard Winstanley: Theology, Rhetoric, Politics, Prose Studies, 36(1). 0144-0357
Book Section
Hessayon, Ariel. 2020. Rethinking early Quakerism and its origins. In: John Coffey, ed. The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions. Volume I, The Post-Reformation Era, 1559-1689. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 139-160. ISBN 9780198702238
Hessayon, Ariel. 2018. Jacob Böhme’s Foremost Seventeenth-Century English Translator: John Sparrow (1615–1670) of Essex. In: Bo Andersson; Lucinda Martin; Leigh Penman and Andrew Weeks, eds. Jacob Böhme and His World. 25 (386) Leiden: Brill, pp. 329-357. ISBN 9789004385092
Hessayon, Ariel. 2018. ‘Not the Word of God’: Varieties of Antiscripturism during the English Revolution. In: Robert Armstrong and Tadhg Ó Hannracháin, eds. The English Bible in the Early Modern World. Leiden: Brill, pp. 161-182. ISBN 9789004347977
Hessayon, Ariel. 2017. The Resurrection of John Lilburne, Quaker. In: John Rees, ed. John Lilburne and the Levellers: Reappraising the Roots of English Radicalism 400 Years On. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 95-116. ISBN 9781138060692
Hessayon, Ariel. 2016. Lead’s Life and Times: (part one) Before Widowhood; (part two) The Woman in the Wilderness; (part three) The Philadelphian Society. In: Ariel Hessayon, ed. Jane Lead and her Transnational Legacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 13-90. ISBN 9781137396136
Hessayon, Ariel. 2016. Jane Lead’s Legacy in Perspective. In: Ariel Hessayon, ed. Jane Lead and her Transnational Legacy. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-12. ISBN 978-1-137-39613-6
Hessayon, Ariel. 2015. The Apocrypha in early modern England. In: Kevin Killeen; Helen Smith and Rachel Willie, eds. The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530–1700. Oxford: Oxford UP, pp. 131-148. ISBN 9780199686971
Hessayon, Ariel. 2014. The Ranters and their sources: the question of Jacob Boehme’s supposed influence. In: Vittoria Feola, ed. Antiquarianism and Science in Early Modern Urban Networks. Paris: Blanchard, pp. 77-101.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2013. ‘Boehme’s life and times’. In: , ed. Ariel Hessayon and Sarah Apetrei (eds.), An Introduction to Jacob Boehme: Four Centuries of Thought and Reception. New York: Routledge, pp. 13-37. ISBN 978-0-415-84357-7
Hessayon, Ariel. 2013. Jacob Boehme’s writings during the English Revolution and afterwards: their publication, dissemination and influence. In: , ed. Ariel Hessayon and Sarah Apetrei (eds.), An Introduction to Jacob Boehme: Four Centuries of Thought and Reception. New York: Routledge, pp. 77-97. ISBN 978-0-415-84357-7
Hessayon, Ariel. 2012. Abiezer Coppe and the Ranters. In: Laura Lunger Knoppers, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Literature and the English Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 346-374. ISBN 978-0-19-956060-8
Hessayon, Ariel. 2012. Abiezer Coppe and the Ranters. In: Laura Lunger Knoppers, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Literature and the English Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 346-374. ISBN 9780199560608
Hessayon, Ariel. 2011. Gerrard Winstanley, radical reformer. In: Ariel Hessayon and David Finnegan, eds. Varieties of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English radicalism in context. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 87-112. ISBN 978-0-7546-6905-0
Hessayon, Ariel and Finnegan, David. 2011. Introduction: Reappraising early modern radicals and radicalism. In: Ariel Hessayon and David Finnegan, eds. Varieties of seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English radicalism in context. Aldershot: Ashgate, 000-000. ISBN 978-0-7546-6905-0
Hessayon, Ariel. 2011. “The Great Trappaner of England”: Thomas Violet, Jews and crypto-Jews during the English Revolution and at the Restoration. In: Michael Braddick and David Smith, eds. The Experience of Revolution in Stuart Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 210-230. ISBN 780521868969
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. Jacob Boehme, Emanuel Swedenborg and their Readers. In: S. McNeilly, ed. The arms of Morpheus-Essays on Swedenborg and Mysticism. The Swedenborg Society, pp. 17-56. ISBN 9780854481507
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. ‘Jacob Boehme, Emanuel Swedenborg and their readers’. In: Stephen McNeilly, ed. The Arms of Morpheus. Essays on Swedenborg and Mysticism. London: The Swedenborg Society, pp. 17-56. ISBN 978-0-85448-150-7
Hessayon, Ariel. 2006. ‘Og king of Bashan, Enoch and the Books of Enoch: extra-canonical texts and interpretations of Genesis 6:1–4’. In: Ariel Hessayon and Nicholas Keene, eds. Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England. Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 5-40. ISBN 9780754638933
Hessayon, Ariel. 2006. Og King of Bashan, Enoch and the Books of Enoch: Extra-Canonical Texts and Interpretations of Genesis 6:1-4. In: Ariel Hessayon and N. Keene, eds. Scripture and Scholarship in Early Modern England. Ashgate, pp. 5-40. ISBN 0754638936
Hessayon, Ariel. 2006. Fabricating radical traditions. In: Mario Caricchio and Giovanni Tarantino, eds. Cromohs Virtual Seminars. Recent historiographical trends of the British Studies (17th–18th Centuries). Florence University Press, 000-000.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2004. 19 entries in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: ‘Adams, Mary (supp. fl. 1652)’, ‘Attaway, Mrs (fl. 1645-1646)’, ‘Blunden, Humphrey (b. 1609, d. in or after 1654)’, ‘Brice, Edmund (fl. 1648-1696)’, ‘Bromley, Thomas (bap. 1630, d. 1691)’, ‘Bull, John (d. 1642)’, ‘Burton, Simon (bap. 1613, d. 1663)’, ‘Calvert, Giles (bap. 1612, d. 1663)’, ‘Coppe, Abiezer (1619-1672?)’, ‘Crab, Roger (c.1616-1680)’, ‘Currer, William (c.1617-1668)’, ‘Everard, William (bap. 1602?, d. in or after 1651)’, ‘Franklin, William (b. c.1610)’, ‘Jhones, Basset (b. 1613/14)’, ‘Norwood, Robert (c.1610-1654)’, ‘Pordage, John (bap. 1607, d. 1681)’, ‘Robins, John (fl. 1641-1652)’, ‘Totney, Thomas (bap. 1608, d. 1659?)’, ‘Wyke, Andrew (fl. 1645-1663)’,. In: H.C.G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford and online: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198614111
Article
Hessayon, Ariel. 2020. ‘Teutonicus': Knowledge of Boehme among English Speakers before the English Civil War’. Daphnis, 48, pp. 247-269. ISSN 0300-693X
Hessayon, Ariel. 2019. Gerrard Winstanley in translation. Notes and Queries, 66(4), pp. 544-546. ISSN 0029-3970
Hessayon, Ariel. 2014. Winstanley and Baptist thought. Prose Studies, 36(1), pp. 15-31. ISSN 0144-0357
Hessayon, Ariel. 2013. ‘Gerrard Winstanley and Jacob Boehme’. Cromohs – Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 18, pp. 1-28. ISSN 1123-7023
Hessayon, Ariel. 2011. Jews and crypto-Jews in sixteenth and seventeenth century England. Cromohs: Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 16, pp. 1-26.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2011. The making of Abiezer Coppe. The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 62(1), pp. 38-58. ISSN 0022-0469
Hessayon, Ariel. 2009. Early modern communism: The Diggers and community of goods. Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 3(2), pp. 1-49. ISSN 19301189
Hessayon, Ariel. 2009. Restoring the Garden of Eden in England’s Green and Pleasant Land: The Diggers and the Fruits of the Earth. Journal for the Study of Radicalism, 2(2), pp. 1-25.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. "The refiner’s fire": TheaurauJohn Tany (1608–1659) e la Rivoluzione Inglese. Rivista Storica Italiana, 119, pp. 359-384.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. "The Teutonicks writings": translating Jacob Boehme into English and Welsh. Esoterica, 9, pp. 129-165.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2007. Incendiary texts: book burning in England, c.1640–c.1660. Cromohs – Cyber Review of Modern Historiography, 12, pp. 1-25.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2005. Og, re di Basan, Enoc e i Libri di Enoc: testi non canonici e intrepretazioni di Genesi 6, 1–4. Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa, 41, pp. 249-295.
Hessayon, Ariel. 2005. Jacob Boehme and the early Quakers. Journal of the Friends Historical Society, 60(3), pp. 191-223.