- Hall , A.R. 1959 . “ The Scholar and the Craftsman in the Scientific Revolution ” . In Critical Problems in the History of Science Edited by: Clagett , M. 3 – 23 . Madison
- Hall , A.R. 1959 . “ The Scholar and the Craftsman in the Scientific Revolution ” . In Critical Problems in the History of Science Edited by: Clagett , M. 18 – 18 . Madison Hall's view is more recently stated in The Revolution in Science 1500–1750 (London and New York, 1983), pp. 22–23.
- Bennett , J.A. 1986 . The Mechanics' Philosophy and the Mechanical Philosophy . History of Science , 24 : 1 – 28 . See pp. 3–9 for Bennett's antipathy towards recent ‘high science, low science’ historiography.
- See Van Helden Albert The birth of the modern scientific instrument, 1550–1700 The Uses of Science in the Age of Newton Burke J. Berkeley 1983 49 84 In discussing the role that experiment may well have played in Galileo's discovery of laws of motion, Van Helden argues that ‘Abstraction and practicality… and mathematical and experimental science grew up together. Scientific instruments bridged the gap between them’ (p. 60).
- In characterizing Boyle thus, I do not wish to convey the impression that he was a strict mechanist who grounded chemistry solely upon the mechanical philosophy. This impression is indeed conveyed by Hall M. Boas Robert Boyle and Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Cambridge 1958 and T. Kuhn, ‘Robert Boyle and Structural Chemistry’, Isis, 43 (1952), 12–36. For perceptive qualifications of Boyle's mechanism see particularly, Antonio Clericuzio, ‘A Redefinition of Boyle's Chemistry and Corpuscular Philosophy’, Annals of Science, 47 (1990), 561–89; C. Webster, From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science (Cambridge, 1982), p. 69; and Yung Sik Kim, ‘Another Look at Robert Boyle's Acceptance of the Mechanical Philosophy: Its Limits and its Chemical and Social Contexts’, Ambix, 38 (1991), 1–10. Also J. Henry, ‘Occult Qualities and the Experimental Philosophy: Active Principles in Pre-Newtonian Matter Theory’, History of Science, 24 (1986), 335–81. However, the suggestion by Henry that Boyle perceived matter itself as endowed with activity is somewhat difficult to sustain. See Clericuzio (footnote 5), 572–3.
- Hall , A.R. 1959 . “ The Scholar and the Craftsman in the Scientific Revolution ” . In Critical Problems in the History of Science Edited by: Clagett , M. 1 – 2 . Madison The main sources for Boyle's published correspondence are The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, edited by Thomas Birch, 6 vols (London, 1772) [hereafter Works]. Unpublished manuscripts cited in this paper include the Early Letters and the Boyle Papers in the Royal Society, London [hereafter RSEL and RSBP]; and the Hartlib Papers, Sheffield University Library, Sheffield [hereafter HP]. MS transcription scheme: [ ] deletion; < > interlinear; {} marginal insertion; ( ),|| Robert Boyle, unless otherwise indicated. Certain letter forms have been normalized to modern usage.
- The most important recent study of Cork remains Canny Nicholas The Upstart Earl. A Study of the Social and Mental World of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, 1566–1643 Cambridge 1982 Also useful is Terence O. Ranger, ‘The Career of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork in Ireland 1588–1643’ (unpublished D. Phil. dissertation, University of Oxford, 1959), and ‘Richard Boyle and the making of an Irish fortune, 1588–1614’, Irish Historical Studies, 10 (1956–57), 257–97. Ranger's studies emphasize the empire-building of Cork. A wealth of material on Cork is in The Lismore Papers, edited by Alexander B. Grosart, 5 vols (first series, privately printed, 1886) and 5 vols (second series, privately printed 1887–88) [hereafter I or II Lismore]. Detailed discussion of Boyle's early background and education, as well as the impact of the Irish inheritance on his science, can be found in Malcolm R. Oster, ‘Nature, Ethics and Divinity: The Early Thought of Robert Boyle' (unpublished D. Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1990), chapter 1.
- Canny , Nicholas . 1982 . The Upstart Earl. A Study of the Social and Mental World of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, 1566–1643 7 – 7 . Cambridge
- Canny , Nicholas . 1982 . The Upstart Earl. A Study of the Social and Mental World of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, 1566–1643 11 – 12 . Cambridge II Lismore, II, 100–17. The 1632 version of True Remembrances is in Works (1744 edition) I, vii–xi.
- Canny , Nicholas . 1982 . The Upstart Earl. A Study of the Social and Mental World of Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork, 1566–1643 22 – 23 . Cambridge see also N. Canny, The Elizabethan Conquest of Ireland: a Pattern Established 1565–76 (London, 1976), pp. 117–36
- Walton , Izaac . 1929 . The Compleat Walton 289 – 289 . London 307–309. It should be noted that Boyle was to be a fervent admirer of Hugo Grotius, Arminius' disciple. See Works, II, 34, 297; IV, 17, 27, 63, 152, 189; v, 148, 173; VI, 706.
- Stubbs , Mayling . 1982 . John Beale, Philosophical Gardener of Hereforshire Part I. Prelude to the Royal Society (1608–1663) . Annals of Science , 39 : 463 – 489 . (pp. 468–70)
- Wotton to Cork, 24 II Lismore December 1635 III 219 221
- Maddison , R.E.W. 1969 . The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle F.R.S. London [hereafter Life], p. 24. The original manuscript titled, ‘An Account of Philaretus During His Minority’, is in RSBP XXXVII and was also published by Birch in his Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle in Works, I. For dating of ‘Philaretus’ see Life, p. 1.
- Marcombes to Cork, 20 II Lismore January 1641 IV 171 171 For the general role of mathematics in the education of the upper classes see Mordechai Feingold, The Mathematicians' Apprenticeship: Science, Universities and Society in England 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1984), chapter 6.
- 1671 . Of the Usefulness of Mathematicks to Natural Philosophie . Works , III : 426 – 426 . For discussion of Boyle's mathematical competence see Steven Shapin, ‘Robert Boyle and Mathematics: Reality, representation, and experimental practice’, Science in Context 2, 1 (1988), 23–58 (26–28). Shapin goes on to persuasively argue that whatever the truth regarding Boyle's skill in mathematics, he rarely felt the need to utilize detailed mathematical accounts of bodies or events in the microscopic realm. The idealized language of mathematical abstraction restricted both Boyle's potential audience and the advertised ‘compatibility between experimental findings and the principle of mechanism and corpuscularianism’, ibid., 41–3.
- Hunter , Michael . 1981 . Science and Society in Restoration England 89 – 89 . Cambridge
- The manor and estate at Stalbridge, Dorset, where Boyle settled in late 1644 was purchased by Cork in 1636, although it was not originally intended for Boyle. See Life 54 54 57. Cork's great landed wealth was considerably diminished by the time of his death in September 1643 due to the Irish rebellion of the early 1640s. The belief of James Jacob represented in Robert Boyle and the English Revolution (New York, 1977), chapter 2, that Boyle's social ethic was essentially the product of political expediency prompts a contrasting response in M. Oster (footnote 7), chapter 3, especially 111–12.
- RSBP, XXXVII, fols , 160 – 163 . 169. It bears all the hallmarks of an early reflection, subsequently integrated into his much larger work found in Royal Society Commonplace Book MS 195 of which MS 192 appears a draft. The Aretology or Ethicall Elements of Robert Boyle, Begun at Stalbridge, The [Blank] of 1645. That's the tru Good that makes the owner so [hereafter Aretology]. For the dating of MS 195 note the title page and Works, i, 17, 20.
- RSBP , XXXVII fols. 161 – 162 .
- Royal Society , MS 195 fol. 227 – fol. 227 .
- Royal Society , MS 195 fols. 227 – 228 .
- Breen , Timothy . 1966 . The Non-Existent Controversy: Puritan and Anglican Attitudes on Work and Wealth, 1600–1640 . Church History , 35 : 273 – 287 . (p. 282)
- The most exhaustive survey of the transmission of Erasmian Humanism into Protestant social ethics is currently Todd Margo Christian Humanism and the Puritan Social Order Cambridge 1987 A recent call for further evaluation of the impact of humanism on science and religion can be found in Barbara Shapiro, ‘Early Modern Intellectual Life: Humanism, religion and science in seventeenth-century England’, History of Science, 29 (1991), 45–71. Boyle's early scientific associations are documented in Charles Webster, The Great Instauration. Science, Medicine and Reform 1626–1660 (London, 1975) [hereafter Instauration], pp. 57–67. Also important is T. C. Barnard, Cromwellian Ireland, English Government and Reform in Ireland 1649–1660 (Oxford, 1975), especially chapter 8.
- RSBP , XIV fol. 20 – fol. 20 .
- RSBP , XIV fols. 20 – 21 .
- Bettey , J.H. 1977 . Agriculture and Rural Society in Dorset 1570–1670 3 – 3 . (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol
- Bettey , J.H. 1977 . Agriculture and Rural Society in Dorset 1570–1670 3 – 3 . (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol 5, 88, 306, 327
- Kerridge , E. 1967 . The Agricultural Revolution 347 – 348 . London These improvements hardly added up to a ‘revolution’, however, even when seen alongside developments in gardening, botany and horticulture; Works, VI, 40, III, 408; M. Hunter, (footnote 17), p. 101. It should be noted at this juncture that Boyle catechizes his own workmen, whose skills he arguably owns.
- Instauration , 469 – 469 .
- RSBP , XIV fol. 16 – fol. 16 . See also M. R. Oster, ‘The “Beame of Diuinity”: Animal Suffering in the Early Thought of Robert Boyle’, British Journal for the History of Science, 22 (1989), 151–80 (pp. 167–8).
- Spedding , J. , Ellis , R. and Heath , D. , eds. 1857–1859 . The Advancement of Learning, 1605, in The Works of Francis Bacon Vol. 15 , London (hereafter The Works), III, 330–33. See also De Augmentis Scientiarum, 1623, in The Works, IV, 294–9.
- The Works , III 332 – 333 . Noted in Walter Houghton, ‘The History of Trades: Its relation to seventeenth-century thought as seen in Bacon, Petty, Evelyn, and Boyle’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 2 (1941), 33–60, (p. 35).
- The Works , IV 254 – 254 .
- The Works , III 159 – 159 . 161, 164. Also noted in W. Houghton (footnote 33), p. 37.
- For a comprehensive statement of Zilsel's views see Zilsel E. The origins of William Gilbert's scientific method Journal of the History of Ideas 1941 2 1 32 ‘The sociological roots of science’, American Journal of Sociology, 47 (1941–42), 544–62, and ‘The genesis of the concept of scientific progress’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 6 (1945), 325–49. For Merton, see R. K. Merton, Science, Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England, second edition (New York, 1970), chapters 7–8. For a recent discussion of Merton's views see Puritanism and the Rise of Modern Science, edited by I. B. Cohen (New Jersey, 1990). Alongside Merton should be read the earlier classic on science's close link with technology, B. Hessen, ‘The social and economic roots of Newton's “Principia” in N. Bukharin, Science at the Cross Roads (London, 1931). More recently also Paolo Rossi, Philosophy, Technology and the Arts in the Early Modern Era (New York, 1970) and Francis Bacon: From Magic to Science (London, 1968), pp. 1–11. For R. Hall's opposing critique see Ballistics in the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1952) and ‘Merton revisited, or science and society in the seventeenth century’, History of Science, 2 (1963) 1–16 (also footnote 1). A well-argued case for intellectual over utilitarian priorities in science is M. Hunter (footnote 17), chapter 4.
- Works , VI 39 – 41 . for detailed information on the Invisible College, see C. Webster, ‘New Light on the Invisible College: The Social Relations of English Science in the Mid-Seventeenth Century’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 24 (1974), 19–42.
- Instauration , 66 – 66 .
- Instauration , 67 – 67 .
- 1647 . Works , I May : xli – xli . xlvi–xlvii, Boyle to Hartlib, 8
- Instauration , 72 – 72 . Reconstructed from HP XLVII 1, 9, 20.
- Works , VI 76 – 76 . 77
- Fitzmaurice , E. 1895 . The Life of Sir William Petty, 1623–1687 318 – 319 . London
- 1648 . The Advice of W. P. to Mr Samuel Hartlib for the Advancement of Some Particular Parts of Learning 7 – 7 . London
- Wheatley , Henry B. , ed. 1879 . The Diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F.R.S. to which are added a Selection from his Familiar Letters Vol. 4 , III – III . London 481. In 1696. Evelyn mentions meeting Boyle ‘almost fourty yeares since’, and at his own house in Deptford; IV, 34. The first mention of Boyle is the entry for 12 April 1656, II, 83. The description of a rapidly developed friendship is mentioned in a letter to William Wotton, 12 September, 1703, IV, 35–6. Noted in W. Houghton (footnote 33), p. 46.
- Wheatley , H. The Diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F.R.S. to which are added a Selection from his Familiar Letters Edited by: Wheatley , Henry B. Vol. II , 80 – 80 . London 4 vols
- Wheatley , H. May 1657 . The Diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F.R.S. to which are added a Selection from his Familiar Letters Vol. III , May , 235 – 235 . 9
- Wheatley , H. August 1659 . The Diary of John Evelyn, Esq., F.R.S. to which are added a Selection from his Familiar Letters Vol. III , August , 260 – 261 . 9
- Usefulness of Experimental Philosophy… The Second Tome (1671). Works , III 395 – 455 . For a detailed look at the History of Trades after 1660, see M. Hunter (footnote 17), chapter 4. M. B. Hall provides an illuminating discussion of the Royal Society's interest in technological innovation through the work of its first secretary in ‘Oldenburg, The Philosophical Transactions, and Technology’, in J. Burke, The Uses of Science, pp. 21–47. Sprat's identification of the Royal Society with the manual arts is conveyed in his History of the Royal Society, edited by J. I. Cope and H. Jones (St. Louis and London, 1959; reprinted 1966), pp. 378–403. Sprat then opens his section commending experiments as ‘a proper study for the gentlemen of our nation’, with Boyle placed centre-stage: ‘And now with so good an omen as this Gentlemans Example, who has not disdain'd to adorn the honor of his Family with the Studies of Nature; I will go on to recommend them to the Gentry and Nobility of our Nation’. Ibid., 403. Nevertheless, Sprat's assumption throughout the section is that unlike artisans who work for a living, gentlemen practising disinterested philosophy produce a different kind of knowledge enshrined within a different value system that accords with social rank.
- Usefulness . Works , III 395 – 395 . Boyle says the essays for Pt. II, of Usefulness were probably first written ‘about the year 1658’. Ibid.
- Usefulness . Works , III 395 – 395 . Boyle says the essays for Pt. II, of Usefulness were probably first written ‘about the year 1658’. Ibid.
- Usefulness . Works , III 396 – 396 . Boyle says the essays for Pt. II, of Usefulness were probably first written ‘about the year 1658’. Ibid.
- Usefulness . Works , III 395 – 395 . M. B. Hall details a useful case-study regarding the problem of priority disputes through the example of Oldenburg's failure to publish discussions at Society meetings concerning Hooke's design for a ‘magnetical watch’ in J. Burke (footnote 4), pp. 37–42. The general problem of truth-bearing testimony and the evaluation of experimental evidence is amply discussed with Boyle in mind in Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life (Princeton, N.J., 1985), especially chapter 2; also Shapin, ‘The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England’, Isis, 79 (1988), 373–404. A broader survey on the role of evidence in the period is Barbara J. Shapiro, Probability and Certainty in Seventeenth-Century England: A Study of the Relationships between Natural Science, Religion, History, Law and Literature (Princeton, N.J., 1983), especially chapter 2.
- Works , III 396 – 396 .
- Works , III 396 – 396 . However, it cannot be doubted that beyond these considerations there is the understandable refusal to divulge trade secrets which Boyle openly concedes is an objection he has to confront. Ibid., p. 397. Arguments Boyle employs include the insistence ‘that I never divulge all the secrets and practices necessary to the exercise of any one trade’, not only scholars have puactices but also ‘the artificers themselves’, many ‘handicrafts require… a manual dexterity, not to be learned from books, but to be obtained by imitation and use’, and divulging secrets to philosophers can ‘supply tradesmen with new means of getting a livelihood, or even enriching themselves’. Ibid., 397–8.
- Works , 397 – 397 . For the prevalence of the private residence as the laboratory of naturalists, see S. Shapin, ‘House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England’, Isis, 79 (1988), 373–404 (pp. 376–8). For Boyle's laboratories, pp. 379–80, 383–9.
- Works , II 401 – 401 . S. Shapin (footnote 56), p. 376.
- Works , III 443 – 443 .
- Works , III 442 – 442 . 443. One of many examples of Boyle's ‘conversation’ with mechanics occurs when he provides advice regarding the durability of crystals. See Works, III, 452.
- Works , III 444 – 444 . Petty's complaint to Boyle about his continual reading and the subsequent concern for his health is in a letter Petty wrote to Boyle from Dublin 15 April 1653 in B.L. MSS. 6193 fol. 138. See also Life, pp. 80–81. Generally speaking Boyle wants reading to be informative and a spur to action of some kind.
- The essay in Works II 7 7 was probably written in the period 1649–1651. See M. Oster (footnote 31), p. 155. Again, in an undated letter to Clodius, Hartlib's son-in-law, in talking of his work in anatomy with Petty, Boyle praises the intricacy of nature through the dissection of fish rather ‘than all the books I ever read in my life could give convincing notions of’. Ibid., vi, 55.
- Aretology , fol. 190r – fol. 190r . Quoted in M. Oster (footnote 31), 169.
- Aubrey , John . 1813 . Letters Written by Eminent Persons in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries Vol. II , 486 – 486 . London W. Houghton (footnote 33), 58–9, takes Boyle's attitude rather too much at face value. A possible partial listing of Boyle's library is now published in J. Harwood, The Early Essays and Ethics of Robert Boyle (Carbondale, 1991), pp. 249–81.
- See An Hydrostatical Discourse, occasioned by the Objections of the Learned Dr. Henry More Works 1672 III 626 626 Discussed in S. Shapin, (footnote 56), p. 376. At the same time, Boyle could write in Usefulness that ‘each page in the great volume of nature is full of real hieroglyphicks, where… things stand for words, and their qualities for letters’. Works, II, 29.
- Boyle writes I who had the good Fortune to Learn the Operations from illiterate Persons, upon whose credit I was not Tempted to take up any opinion about them, should consider things withe lesse prejudice, and consequently with other Eyes than the Generality of Learners… The Sceptical Chymist London 1661 sigs. A7v–A8r. Noted in J. Golinski, ‘Chemistry in the Scientific Revolution: Problems of language and communication’, in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, edited by D. Lindberg and R. Westman (Cambridge, 1990), 367–96 (p. 386).
- Boyle's chief assistant, Hooke, was well aware of the persuasive role and power of pictures in improving the explanatory and aesthetic case for the mechanical philosophy, as illustrated in his Micrographia (1665). For a full discussion of this question see Harwood J. Rhetoric and Graphics in Micrographia Robert Hooke: New Studies Hunter M. Schaffer S. Woodbridge 1989 119 147 Generally speaking there is little in Boyle's publications that amount to visual representation of scientific practice and the one engraving of 1664 that depicts Boyle against the backcloth of the air-pump is, in effect, a homage to scientific proprietorship of experimental knowledge. See S. Shapin, ‘The Invisible Technician’, American Scientist (Nov/Dec, 1989), 554–63 (p. 588). I am grateful to Steven Shapin for bringing this article to my attention. It deals largely with the separate question of laboratory technicians as opposed to artisans.
- Hooke's problematic status and dependent working relationship with Boyle is detailed in Shapin S. Who was Robert Hooke Robert Hooke: New Studies Hunter M. Schaffer S. 253 286 See also, S. Pumfrey, ‘Ideas above his station: A social study of Hooke's curatorship of experiments’, History of Science, 29 (1991), 1–44.
- Shapin , S. Who was Robert Hooke Edited by: Hunter , M. and Schaffer , S. 254 – 255 . 259, 260. Even in the later 1670s ‘it is evident that Hooke continued to perform major services for Boyle in obtaining and delivering instruments… and in acting (together with Oldenburg) as intermediary between Boyle and a host of printers, engravers, builders and other craftsmen’, p. 265. See also Margaret Espinasse, Robert Hooke (London, 1956), chapter 6.
- Boyle's complaints about visitors interrupting his solitude finds early expression in letters of the 1640s to Benjamin Worsley and Lady Ranelagh from Stalbridge in Works VI 39 41 43–4; Shapin (footnote 56), 384, 386–7; M. Boas (footnote 5), 15–16, 19, 21.
- Works , II 14 – 14 . Shapin (footnote 66), p. 557. Shapin argues that a ‘very substantial proportion of Boyle's experimental work was done on his behalf by his assistants' and that he positively avoided manipulating physical apparatus. Ibid. While the evidence for this is indeed persuasive, not least because of Boyle's failing health and eye-sight as the years went by, the issue remains more ambiguous than Shapin allows, as does the evidence. Boyle's early enthusiasm for hands-on experience is clearly evident across chemistry, pneumatics and anatomy. The unsavoury nature of the subject for experimentation is sometimes involved. For example, when discussing work involving animal dung, he goes on to exclaim, ‘And though my condition does (God be praised) enable me to make experiments by others hands; yet have I not been so nice, as to decline dissecting… with my own hands. Nor, when I am in my laboratory, do I scruple with them naked to handle lute and charcoal’. Essay II of Usefulness, c. 1649–1651, Works, II, 14. A little further on he suggests ‘For the true naturalist… does not only know many things, which other men ignore, but can perform many things… being enabled by his skill not barely to understand several wonders of nature, but also partly to imitate, and partly to multiply and improve them’. Ibid. Boyle relates how to satisfy himself on the Torricellian experiment he needed to conduct it with his own hands. Essay IV of Usefulness, c. 1653. See Robert Frank, Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists. A Study of Social Ideas and Social Interaction (Berkeley, 1980), p. 96, and for Boyle's personal involvement in parts of his Certain Physiological Essay (Works, I, 359–76). p. 123., as well as dissection, pp. 140–41. In an experiment with the physician, George Joyliffe, in London in April/May 1656, Boyle personally held the spleen of a dog precisely to verify that the experiment was going correctly. Ibid., p. 141 and M. Oster (footnote 31), p. 157. The nature of a particular experiment and personal circumstances may have played as much a part as social convention.
- Shapin . 1989 . “ Rhetoric and Graphics in Micrographia ” . In Robert Hooke: New Studies Edited by: Hunter , M. and Schaffer , S. 561 – 561 . Woodbridge
- Rossi , P. 1970 . Philosophy, Technology and the Arts in the Early Modern Era x – x . New York
- Oster . 1989 . The “Beame of Diuinity”: Animal Suffering in the Early Thought of Robert Boyle . British Journal for the History of Science , 22 : 171 – 171 . see also Hunter (footnote 17), 99; Ruth Kelso, The Doctrine of the English Gentleman in the Sixteenth Century (University of Illinois studies in language and literature, 1929), p. 14. Richard Brathwaite, in his dedication to The English Gentleman (London, 1630), extolled a person's moral worth rather than rank or place in society, though he acknowledged the advantages of his class. This further expresses itself in useful toil: ‘For in heaven onely, which is our Father's house, there are many mansions to rest in. In this world, which is not our Father's house, there are not many mansions to rest in, but onely Vineyards to worke in’, p. 164.
- Works , III 395 – 395 .
- Hunter . 1981 . Science and Society in Restoration England 98 – 98 . Cambridge 104, 111
- In a letter from Boyle to Hartlib on 8 May 1647, he indicated his composition of an epistle, partly by way of gratitude, ‘to persuade men to communicate all those successful receipts, that relate either to the preservation or recovery of our health’. See Works I xi xi The epistle that Boyle referred to was, in all probability, eventually sent to Hartlib, but was not published until 1655, when it made its appearance in a small volume, Chymical, Medicinal, and Chyrurgical Addresses made to Samuel Hartlib, Esquire (London, 1655). The sixth entry in the table of contents reads, ‘An Epistolical Discourse of Philaretus to Empericus, written by a Person of singular Piety, Honor and Learning, inviting all true lovers of Vertue and Mankind, to a free and generous Communication of their Secrets and Receits in Physick’. The relevant text was reproduced by Margaret Rowbottom, who described it as ‘The Earliest Published Writing of Robert Boyle’, Annals of Science, 6 (1950), 376–89. R. E. W. Maddison some years later found a short incomplete item in Boyle's hand dated 23 July 1649, almost certainly intended for Hartlib, entitled ‘An Invitation to Communicativeness To…’ which provided further evidence for the epistle. See ‘The Earliest Published Writing of Robert Boyle’, Annals of Science, 17 (1961), 165–73. It was found in RSEL, VI, which Maddison correctly saw as a fragment of a larger projected discourse titled ‘Of Publicke-spiritednesse’, only a portion of which was published as the sixth item in Hartlib's volume of 1655. The opening paragraph mentions ‘the unwelcome visits of a Quotidian Ague’, which confirms the dating of July 1649. See Maddison Life, p. 1, on corresponding dating for Boyle's autobiographical sketch, ‘Philaretus’, as well as Boyle's letter to Lady Ranelagh, where both the recent illness and the projected discourse are mentioned. Works, VI, 48.
- Works , III 397 – 397 . 398–9. For more general discussion on secrecy see William Eamon, ‘From the secrets of nature to public knowledge’, in D. Lindberg and R. Westman (footnote 65), pp. 333–65.
- Golinski , J. 1987 . “ The figural and the literal ” . In Problems of Language in the History of Science and Philosophy, 1630–1800 Edited by: Benjamin , A. , Cantor , G. and Christie , J. 58 – 82 . Manchester (pp. 65–6)
- Rowbottom , M. Works , I 384 – 384 .
- HP, XVIII Hartlib's ‘Ephemerides’ 1649 1649 1650
- Hartlib's ‘Ephemerides’ 1649 – 1649 . HP, XVIX. In HP, LXV, there is a prescription for ague that Boyle signs ‘Tried upon himselfe’, This may well date from July 1649 (footnote 76).
- HP XVIX Ephemerides 1655 1655 The reference to rock crystal may refer to the reference in Usefulness which came from the mid 1650s (footnote 59). For further evidence that Boyle had not freed himself from older practices of secrecy see J. Golinski, in Lindberg and Westman (footnote 65), 383–4.
- Beale to Hartlib, 15 Titled ‘Agent for Secrecyes 1657 September HP XXXI, fols. 53–6. fol. 53r.
- September 1657 . Titled ‘Agent for Secrecyes September , fol. 53r – fol. 53r .
- Beale to Hartlib, 10 January 1656. HP XXXI, fols. 7–16, fol. 16r. The real, though generally illicit and dangerous nature of such questions for Boyle as alchemical transmutation and intercourse with spirits, the search for the philosopher's stone, astrology and magic, involve detailed issues beyond the particular remit I have set myself here. However, there is, at the very least, a clear continuity in Boyle's mind between the secretive practice of alchemy and supernatural reality which should be borne in mind when reading comments such as Beale's. Note, for example, Boyle's comments on the nature of the Elixir (section 5, footnote 79). For interesting interim work on these matters as they pertain to Boyle see Hunter Michael Alchemy, magic and moralism in the thought of Robert Boyle British Journal for the History of Science 1990 23 387 410
- Perez-Ramos , Antonio . 1988 . Francis Bacon's Idea of Science and the Maker's Knowledge Tradition 168 – 168 . Oxford For discussion of Boyle see pp. 166–79. See also R. M. Sargent, ‘Robert Boyle's Baconian Inheritance: A Response to Laudan's Cartesian Thesis’, Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science, 17 (1986), 469–86. Boyle's defence of corpuscularianism can be found in such works as his On the Origin of Forms and Qualities (1666) and About the Excellency and Grounds of the Mechanical Hypothesis (1674).
- Perez-Ramos . 1988 . Francis Bacon's Idea of Science and the Maker's Knowledge Tradition 169 – 173 . Oxford Deeply felt as this probabilistic scepticism was, it could also be used by Boyle as a means of challenging the authority of prevalent modes of chemical discourse, which was both perceived and characterized as obscure. See, for example, the preface to The Sceptical Chemist (1661) and the appendix, ‘Experiments and Notes about the Producibleness of Chymical Principles’. Thus, his new form of discourse, the experimental ‘essay’, was a vehicle not only for carrying things into texts, but also to replace traditional chemical doctrine with the theoretical categories of mechanism. See Golinski (footnote 82), 384–8. The visible force of experiment also clarified for Boyle the inadequacy of esoteric mathematics in advancing those categories (footnote 16).
- In Hooke's case see, for example Hooke R. Posthumous Works Waller R. London 1705 61 61 See also J. A. Bennett, ‘Robert Hooke as Mechanic and Natural Philosopher’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 35 (1980), 33–48.
- Hall . 1959 . “ The Scholar and the Craftsman in the Scientific Revolution ” . In Critical Problems in the History of Science Edited by: Clagett , M. 19 – 19 . Madison Works, III, 74–5. Quoted by Yung Sik Kim (footnote 5), 5–6.
- See his essay of 1661 titled Some Specimens of An Attempt to make Chymical Experiments Useful to Illustrate the Notions of the Corpuscular Philosophy Works I 354 359 where his attempt to bring chemists and corpuscularians together echoes his desire to do likewise for ‘shops’ and ‘schools’ in the Preamble to Usefulness
- Shapin and Schaffer . 1988 . The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England . Isis , 79 : 129 – 130 .
- Shapin and Schaffer . 1988 . The House of Experiment in Seventeenth-Century England . Isis , 79 : 130 – 130 .
Annals of Science
Volume 49, 1992 - Issue 3