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Annals of Science Volume 13, 1957 - Issue 2
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Original Articles

A summary of former accounts of the life and work of Robert Boyle

R.E.W. Maddison B.Sc.Ph.D.
Pages 90-108 | Published online: 23 Aug 2006

  • Royal Society . Boyle Papers , XXXVII
  • British Museum, Add. MSS. 4314, fol. 88. Letter of 10 August 1743 to Dr T. Birch. Apart from the fact that the manuscript is in Robert Boyle's early handwriting, there is a passage in the Account, which may be taken to indicate its composition at an early date. We read: “Whilst Philaretus lived at Florence, this famous Galileo died within a league of it, his memory being honoured with a celebrating epitaph, and a fair tomb erected for him at the public charges” Works i xxiv xxiv These words show that Boyle, because he was then living in Florence, knew of the proposals to erect this memorial shortly after Galieo's death, but did not know at the time of writing his Account, after his return to England, that great opposition would delay the erection of this memorial for nearly a century. (J. J. Fahie, Memorials of Galileo Galilei, 4to., Leamington and London, 1929, 9. 142). Another sentence in the Account creates a little difficulty. We read: “But Philaretus himself having sufficiently discoursed that point of early piety, in the sixth treatise of his Christian Gentleman, I shall at present only add to the arguments you may find there alledged…” (Works, vol. i, p. xxii). There is no surviving work of Boyle's bearing this title. It may be some early composition, parts of which were subsequently utilized in the Christian Virtuoso. The quotation given could be related to Proposition VI of the Second Part of this work (Works, vol. vi, p. 792). The Christian Virtuoso on Boyle's own admission is an early work; the preface to the first part is described as ‘of an ancient date’, and the second part is admitted to be a ‘collection of fragments’. Two parts of a work by Boyle called The Gentleman are extant (B.P. XXXVII). They are in an early hand; they are very short, and hardly deserving, one would have thought, of the description ‘treatise’. It is not possible to associate them with the work mentioned in the quotation.
  • Birch , Thomas , ed. 1744 . The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle. To which is prefixed The Life of the Author Vol. i , 6 – 15 . London 5 vols., folio The Life was published separately in March 1744, 8vol., London; the Account of Philaretus occupies pp. 18–48 in this issue.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 , fol. 60. This is endorsed “Mr Boyle's papers dictated by him, copied by Dr Burnet, relating to his Life”.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 , fol. 66. This is in the hand of Robin Bacon, amanuensis to Robert Boyle. It is endorsed “Papers of Mr Boyle's Life delivered by him to ye B'p of Sarum”.
  • More , Louis Trenchard . 1944 . The Life and Works of The Honourable Robert Boyle x – x . New York 8vo.
  • Burnet , Gilbert . 1692 . A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Honourable Robert Boyle; at St. Martins in the Fields London 7 January 1691–2, 4to.
  • 1691–2 . “ Anthony à Wood ” . In Athenae Oxoniensis. To which are added The Fasti Vol. ii , London 2 vols., folio col. 838
  • January 1691–2 . The Gentleman's Journal : or the Monthly Miscellany. By Way of Letter to a Gentleman in the Country January , 16 – 16 . London
  • 1694 . The Great Historical, Geographical and Poetical Dictionary… out of Lewis Morery, D.D. his Sixth Edition Corrected and Enlarged by Monsieur Le Clerk London 2 vols., folio
  • Bray , William , ed. 1854 . Diary and Correspondence of John Evelyn, F.R.S. , a new edition Vol. iii , 359 – 359 . London 4 vols., 8vo. (Letter of 19 June 1696). The original is in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. A transcription from the original has been published in Chymia (1953, 4, 79) by Curt F. Buehler in an article on ‘A Projected but Unpublished Edition of the “Life and Works” of Robert Boyle’. Buehler seems unaware that the letter has previously been published; he wrongly allots it to the month of April through a misinterpretation of the postal stamp (IV) (20) as the twentieth day of the fourth month, whereas in fact (IV) represents not a Roman numeral but the then usual abbreviation for June.
  • Budgell , Eustace . Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Illustrious Family of the Boyles 1737 – 1737 . London 8vo. This is the third edition of the work but the first to have the appendix containing the “Character of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq.”
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 390 – 390 . foot-note; B.M. Add. MSS. 28104, fol. 21.
  • Evelyn (Bray) Vol. iii , 346 – 346 . The letter is printed under the date 30 March, but it should be 29th. See original: BM. Add. MSS. 4229, fol. 58; and Wotton's letter of 13 August 1703, Evelyn (Bray), vol. iii, p. 389.
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 352 – 352 . Letter dated 7 April 1696.
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 370 – 370 . Letter dated 2 January 1697–8.
  • 1699 . London Gazette , May 11–15
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 50.
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 385 – 385 .
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 387 – 387 . Letter dated 23 January 1702–3.
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 388 – 388 .
  • Evelyn (Bray) , iii 390 – 390 . B.M. Add. MSS. 28104, fol. 21; Add. MSS. 4229, fol. 56. Letter dated 12 September 1703.
  • Birch , Thomas , ed. 1772 . The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle London 6 vols., 4to. Cited as Works, vol. i, p. clxxxviii.
  • B.M. Slo. MSS. 4041 fol. 317. Letter dated Easter-Eve [23 April], 1709.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 69. Letter to Thomas Birch dated 21 October 1742. See also his queries in Royal Society, Boyle Papers xxxvi.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 66. Letter to Thomas Birch dated 4 November 1742.
  • Boulton , Richard . 1715 . The Theological Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq.; Epitomiz'd Vol. i , xxiii – xxiii . London 3 vols., 8vo.
  • Shaw , Peter . 1725 . The Philosophical Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq; Abridged, methodized, and disposed under the General Heads of Physics, Statics … , A second edition London 3 vols., 4to. corrected, 3 vols., 4to., London, 1738
  • 1701 . The Great Historical, Geographical and Poetical Dictionary … out of Lewis Morery, D.D. 2nd edition. Revis'd Corrected and Enlarg'd to the Year 1688 by Jer. Collier London 2 vols., fol.
  • Manget , Jean Jacques . 1731 . Bibliotheca Scriptorum Medicorum Vol. i , 445 – 445 . Geneva 2 vols., 4 pts., fol. pt. 1 This account is entirely bibliographical.
  • Zedler , Johann Heinrich . 1732–1750 . Grosses vollständiges Universal Lexikon Vol. iv , Halle and Leipzig 64 vols., fol.
  • 1734–1741 . A General Dictionary, Historical and Critical : … of … Mr. Bayle … Vol. iii , 541 – 541 . London 10 vols., fol.
  • John , Wilford . 1741 . Memorials & Characters, Together with the Lives of Divers Eminent and Worthy Persons London fol.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4478c
  • Birch's Diary B.M. Add. MSS. 4478c and Henry Miles's correspondence (B.M. Add. MSS. 4229). A memorandum dated 16 July 1741 concerning the production of a new edition of Boyle's works is in the Royal Society, B.P. XXXVI, and B.M. Add. MSS. 4229, fol. 79.
  • December 1741 . Proposals for Publishing by Subscription A Complete Collection of the Works Of the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq; Printed from the Best Editions, with Considerable Improvements and Additions from his Original Manuscripts: Particularly Letters upon Various Subjects, written by Himself and his Friends, and some Tracts never before published. To the whole will be prefixed A New Account of his Life, Partly from Memoirs drawn up by himself; together With his Effigies curiously engraven from an Original Painting, in the Possession of Dr. Mead December , London folio
  • 1743 . The London Evening Post , December 10–13 and subsequent issues. London Magazine: and Monthly Chronologer, 1743, 12, 624. Gentleman's Magazine, 1743, 13, 672. And probably other journals too.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 88. Letter dated 10 August 1743.
  • Works , i iii – iii .
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 64. Letter dated 16 August 1742.
  • Works , i clix – clix .
  • Works , i clxxi – clxxi .
  • Works , i clxvii – clxvii .
  • Letter dated 16 July 1692. Original not located. Quoted from extract made by Henry Miles in B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 90.
  • Facsimile in Catalogue of the Newton Papers sold by Order of The Viscount Lymington Sotheby & Co. Sale 1936 July 13–14 Lot No. 143. Printed in David Brewster, Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, second edition, 2 vols., 8vo., Edinburgh, 1860, vol. ii, p. 366. Boyle had communicated to both Locke and Newton certain information about a process for multiplying gold. Newton had lost part of this, and had asked Locke if he could supply it from Boyle's papers. See Brewster, ibid., vol. ii, p. 76.
  • Cranston , Maurice . 1957 . John Locke, A Biography 353 – 353 . London 8vo.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 112. Letter of Henry Miles to Andrew Millar dated 29 September 1741.
  • Royal Society . Boyle Papers XXXVI ,
  • Works , i ccxxxvii – ccxxxvii .
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 44, p. 18. See also refs 15 and 16.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 110. Letter of H. Miles to [? A. Millar.] dated 24 September 1741. “Mr. Smith has a legal demand as executor to Mr. Warr to the papers : for he kept those I have, by the consent of Mr. Boyle's next relations, to whom he made the offer of 'em, many years since, but they refused to accept it—after having examined a good number of them.”
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 130.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 114. Letter dated 10 October 1741.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 130. Letter dated 4 January 1741–2.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 133. Letter dated 9 February 1741–2.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 6210 fol. 248. Letter dated 10 February 1741–2.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 134. Letter dated 15 February 1741–2.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 150. Letter undated.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 136. Letter dated 4 March 1741–2.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 138. Letter dated 27 March 1742.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 67. Letter dated 19 October 1742.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 69. Letter dated 21 October 1742.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4253 fol. 128. Letter dated 22 December 1742.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4229 fol. 124. Letter to A. Millar dated 23 December 1741.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 90. Letter to [?T. Birch] dated 10 August 1743.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 4314 fol. 95. Letter of H. Miles to [?T. Birch] dated 4 June 1744.
  • B.M. Add. MSS. 6210 fol. 249. Letter of H. Miles to Professor Ward dated 3 June 1746.
  • May 1770 . Royal Society Council Minutes May , 17
  • Bluhm , R.K. 1956 . A Guide to the Archives of the Royal Society and to other Manuscripts in its Possession . Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London , 12 : 38 – 38 .
  • Worshipful Society of Apothecaries , London : Court Book .
  • Works , i ii – ii .

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