This introduction begins by surveying the topic of loneliness within the history of emotions, challenging the notion of loneliness as a “modern emotion.” While early modern people lacked the language of “loneliness” according to present-day sensibilities, the synonyms which they used to express it enable modern scholars to grasp and comprehend their feelings of physical and social isolation. The introduction distinguishes “solitude” from “loneliness,” showing how early modern individuals from all social, religious, and political backgrounds were driven to express their loneliness in manuscript and print, and in poetry and prose, as a consequence of imprisonment, exile, sickness, grief, and a lack of companionship. The following section of the introduction demonstrates how early modern people engaged in the act of writing in order to ameliorate their feelings, considering in particular the significance of the spaces and places in which they wrote. The introduction concludes by bringing the historical discussion of loneliness to bear on present-day concerns, highlighting the plight of “academic loneliness” and precarity in humanities research today. In doing so, it justifies the value in studying the private and public writings of early modern people in order to reflect upon the challenges of isolation faced by society today.