Science and Patronage in England,1570–1625: A Preliminary Study

Where manuscript folio numbers are given, they have been consulted. Where a manuscript is referred to in the form (for example), BL MS Lansdowne 64.34, the reference is to an item number and description in the index.

Exemplary work on France includes Lux David , Patronage and royal science in seventeenth century France: The Académie de Physique in Caen (New York, 1989). See also Shackelford Joel , “Paracelsianism and patronage in early modern Denmark”, in Moran Bruce T. (ed.), Patronage and institutions: Science, technology and medicine at the European court, 1500–1750 (Woodbridge, 1991); Smith Pamela H. , The business of alchemy: Science and culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton, 1994); and Evans R. W. J. , Rudolf II and his world: A study in intellectual history (Oxford, 1972).

There is an extensive literature on patronage other than of natural knowledge. The most influential for this study includes: Greenblatt Stephen , Renaissance self-fashioning from More to Shakespeare (Chicago, 1980); Evans Robert C. , Ben Jonson and the poetics of patronage (London, 1989); Levy-Peck Linda , Court patronage and corruption in early Stuart England (London, 1993); Fenlon Iain , Music and patronage in sixteenth century Mantua (Cambridge, 1982); Goffen Rona , Piety and patronage in Renaissance Venice: Bellini, Titian, and the Franciscans (New Haven, 1986); Croft Pauline (ed.), Patronage, culture and power: The early Cecils (London, 2002); Kempers Bram (transl. by Jackson Beverley ), Painting, power and patronage: The rise of the professional artist in the Italian Renaissance (London, 1992); Lytle Guy Fitch Orgel Stephen , Patronage in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1991); Rosenberg Eleanor , Leicester: Patron of letters (New York, 1976); Parry Graham , The golden age restor'd: The culture of the Stuart court, 1603–1642 (Manchester, 1981); Wainwright Jonathan P. , Musical patronage in seventeenth-century England: Christopher, first baron Hatton (1605–1670) (Aldershot, 1997); O'Day Rosemary , The English clergy: The emergence and consolidation of a profession, 1558–1642 (Leicester, 1979); Cross Claire (ed.), Patronage and recruitment in the Tudor and early Stuart church (York, 1996); Zemon-Davis Natalie , The gift in sixteenth century France (Oxford, 2000); and White Paul Whitefield Westman Suzanne R. (eds), Shakespeare and theatrical patronage in early modern England (Cambridge, 2002).

See Section 2 below. Freedberg David , The eye of the lynx: Galileo, his friends, and the beginning of modern natural history (Chicago, 2002). For Tycho see Thoren Victor , The Lord of Uraniborg (Cambridge, 1990), and Christianson John Robert , On Tycho's island: Tycho Brahe and his assistants, 1570–1601 (Cambridge, 2000). For Westman, see ref. 22; for Biagioli and Findlen, see ref. 4; for Moran, see ref. 1.

Clulee Nicholas , John Dee's natural philosophy: Between science and religion (London, 1988); French Peter J. , John Dee: The world of an Elizabethan magus (London, 1972); Keynes Geoffrey , The life of William Harvey (Oxford, 1966), the fullest recent biography; Max Caspar (transl. by Hellman C. Doris ), Kepler (London, 1959); Redondi Pietro (transl. by Rosenthal Raymond ), Galileo heretic (Princeton, 1987); and Biagioli Mario , Galileo, courtier: The practice of science in the culture of absolutism (Chicago, 1993). For della Porta see Findlen Paula , Possessing nature: Museums, collecting and scientific culture in early modern Italy (Berkeley, 1994), and Eamon William , Science and the secrets of nature: Books of secrets in medieval and early modern culture (Princeton, 1994), chap. 6.

The picture of conservative stasis painted in Costello W. T. , The scholastic curriculum at early seventeenth-century Cambridge (Cambridge, Mass., 1958) has been refuted, notably by Mordechai Feingold, The mathematicians' apprenticeship: Science, universities and society in England, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1984), and, for a later period, by Shapiro Barbara , “The universities and science in seventeenth-century England”, Journal of British studies, x (1971), 47–82. The issue is discussed in Section 6 below.

Debus Allen , The English Paracelsians (New York, 1966); Dawbarn Frances , “Conflict in early modern London: The College of Physicians and courtly patronage”, Ph.D. dissertation, Lancaster University, 2000; and Pelling Margaret , Medical conflicts in early modern London: Patronage, physicians, and irregular practitioners 1550–1640 (Oxford, 2003).

Ames-Lewis Francis , Sir Thomas Gresham and Gresham College: Studies in the intellectual history of London in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Aldershot, 1999), and Gilbert Humphrey “The erection of an Academy in London for the education of her Majesties Wards and others the youth of nobility and gentlemen”, BL MS. Lansdowne 98, ff. 2–9. See also Gilbert Humphrey Sir , Queen Elizabeth's Academy (ed. by Furnivall F. J. ) (London, 1869).

Cormack Lesley B. , Charting an empire: Geography at the English universities, 1580–1620 (Chicago, 1997); Feingold , op. cit. (ref. 5); Johnston Stephen , “Mathematical practitioners and instruments in Elizabethan England”, Annals of science, xlviii (1991), 319–433; Bennett J. A. , “The mechanics' philosophy and the mechanical philosophy”, History of science, xxiv (1986), 1–27; Bennett J. A. , “Geometry and surveying in early seventeenth-century England”, Annals of science, xlviii (1991), 345–54; and Turner A. J. , “Mathematical instruments and the education of gentlemen”, Annals of science, xxx (1973), 51–88.

Johnston , op. cit. (ref. 8) 243.

Eamon , op. cit. (ref. 4), 223, emphasis supplied.

Eamon , op. cit. (ref. 4) 222.

Biagioli , Galileo, courtier (ref. 4), 267–311.

Findlen , Possessing nature (ref. 4), 227–30.

Cosimo's support of Galileo's Copernicanism signalled cultural but not de facto independence from Rome. One might suggest that when Aldrovandi's natural historical collections outgrew the flora and fauna of Northern Italy, he could promise possession only of an abstract, systematized nature. As political possessors of vast territories of equally vast biodiversity, the Spanish or Austrian Hapsburgs became more appropriate patrons.

Hannaway Owen , The chemists and the word (London, 1975).

Moran Bruce T. , “Patronage”, in Applebaum Wilbur (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution (New York, 2000), 484–8, p. 485.

For music, see Gouk Penelope , Music, science and natural philosophy in seventeenth-century England (Yale, 1999), and Gaukroger , op. cit. (ref. 70).

An English example of an ostentatious instrument was Blagrave's “mathematicall jewell”. See Blagrave John , The Mathematicall Jewell (London, 1585). Blagrave equally produced a staff “cleane devoid of all loftie florishes, singular easie to be conceived”. See Blagrave John , Baculum Familiare (London, 1590), dedicatory epistle.

The Elements of Geometrie … now first translated into the Englishe toung, by H. Billingsley, with a preface by … M. J. Dee, specifying the chiefe Mathematicale sciences, what they are, etc (London, 1570).

Dee John , General and rare memorials pertayning to the perfect art of nauigation (London, 1577). It was dedicated to Christopher Hatton. See also Crossley J. H. (ed.), Autobiographical tracts of John Dee (Manchester, 1851), 50–67, p. 50.

On “Brytan”, see Seymour I. , “The political magic of John Dee”, History today, January 1989, 29–35. Dee created for Elizabeth an ideology of a British monarchy based on Arthurian history, see Clulee Nicholas , op. cit. (ref.4), 196–8. For Rudolph II's patronage see Evans , op. cit. (ref. 1).

Westman Robert S. , “The astronomer's role in the sixteenth century: A preliminary study”, History of science, xviii (1980), 105–47.

Johnson Francis R. , Astronomical thought in Renaissance England: A study of the English scientific writings from 1500–1645 (New York, 1937).

Westman , “Astronomer's role” (ref. 22), 106, states that “[b]etween 1543 and 1600 I can find no more than ten thinkers who choose to adopt the main claims of heliocentric theory”. In note 6 he lists Thomas Digges and Thomas Harriot, and the “weak or inconclusive” case of Recorde. We would not count Gilbert because, whilst he almost certainly accepted the Earth's motion, he did not accept Copernicus's astronomical arguments. The biggest group was of Germans, with Italy second equal to England but, as we argue, England did not share the patronage systems of Germany and Italy.

See Section 4 below.

Biagioli , op. cit. (ref. 4). The most critical opinion is Shank Michael J. , “How shall we practice history? The case of Mario Biagioli's Galileo, Courtier”, Early science and medicine, i (1996), 106–50.

The Dutch recipient of James's patronage, Cornelis Drebbel, is another example. See Section 5 below.

See Shackelford , “Paracelsianism and patronage” (ref. 1).

See Smith , The business of alchemy (ref. 1).

See for example Moran Bruce T. , “German prince-practitioners: Aspects in the development of courtly science, technology, and procedures in the Renaissance”, Technology and culture, xxii (1981), 253–74.

Moran Bruce T. , “Privilege, communication and chemistry: The Hermetic-alchemical circle of Moritz of Hessen-Kessel”, Ambix, xxxii (1985), 110–26; idem, The alchemical world of the German court: Occult philosophy and chemical medicine in the circle of Moritz of Hessen (Stuttgart, 1991); idem, “Wilhelm of Hesse-Kassel: Informal communication and the aristocratic context of discovery”, in Nickels Thomas (ed.), Scientific discovery: Case studies (Dordrecht, 1978), 67–96; Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland ( Harrison G. B. , ed.), Advice to his son (London, 1930); Batho G. R. , “The library of the “wizard earl”: Henry Percy, ninth Earl of Northumberland (1564–1632)”, The library, 5th series, xv (1960), 246–61; and Shirley John William , “The scientific experiments of Sir Walter Ralegh, the wizard earl, and the three magi in the Tower 1603–1617”, Ambix, iv (1945–51), 52–66.

Batho Gordon R. , “Thomas Harriot and the Northumberland household”, in Fox Robert (ed.), Thomas Harriot: An Elizabethan man of science (Aldershot, 2000), 28–47; Shirley John W. , “Sir Walter Ralegh and Thomas Harriot”, in Shirley John W. (ed.), Thomas Harriot, renaissance scientist (Oxford, 1974), 16–35. See also the fuller work, Shirley John W. , Thomas Harriot: A biography (Oxford, 1983).

Findlen , Possessing nature (ref. 4).

See Section 3.3 below.

Jardine Lisa Stewart Alan , Hostage to fortune: The troubled life of Francis Bacon, 1561–1626 (London, 1998); Walton Steven A. , Thomas Harriot's ballistics and the patronage of military science (Durham, 1991); and Batho Gordon , in Fox (ed.), Thomas Harriot (ref. 32), 28–47. Blagrave's patrons include Sir Thomas Parry; Sir Francis Knollys; William Cecil, Lord Burghley; and Lord Charles Howard, Baron of Effingham, Lord High Admiral of England. See Pumfrey Stephen , “Was Harriot the English Galileo? An answer from patronage studies”. Bulletin of the Society for Renaissance Studies, xxi (2003), 11–22.

In one of a well-known series of marginalia to his copy of John Blagrave's Mathematical Jewel (London, 1585), Harvey recommends on the title page “mie mathematical mechanicians” James Kynvin and Humphrey Cole, as well as “Jon Reynolds, Jon Redd, and Christopher Payne”, who were in turn recommended to him by his fellow Leicester clients Thomas Digges and Cyprian Lucar. See the British Library copy, shelf mark 1653/294.

Smith Alan G. R. , Servant of the Cecils: The life of Sir Michael Hickes (New Jersey, 1977); Strong Roy , Henry Prince of Wales and England's lost renaissance (London, 2000); and Pattison Mark , Isaac Casaubon, 1559–1614 (London, 1875).

Evans , Rudolf II and his world (ref'. 1).

Adams Simon , Leicester and the court: Essays on Elizabethan politics (Manchester, 2002), 46, and Barroll Leeds , Anna of Denmark, Queen of England: A cultural biography (Philadelphia, 2001), 4, 16 and 37. See also Christianson , On Tycho's island (ref. 3), 14 seq.

See, for example, Biagioli , op. cit. (ref. 4), chap. 5, on Galileo and Barbarini (Urban VIII), and Findlen , op. cit. (ref. 4) 357.

Giard Luce , “Remapping knowledge, reshaping institutions”, in Pumfrey S. Rossi P. L. Slawinski M. (eds), Science, culture and popular belief in Renaissance Europe (Manchester, 1991), 19–47.

See Section 3.2 below.

See Patterson W. B. , King James VI and I and the reunion of Christendom (Cambridge, 1997), chap. 4, and Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 37), chaps. 5–9.

Marotti Arthur F. , “Poetry, patronage and print”, in Brown Cedric C. (ed.). Patronage, politics, and literary traditions in England, 1558–1658 (Detroit, 1993), chap. 1.

See Biagioli Mario , “Etiquette, interdependence, and sociability in seventeenth-century science”. Journal of critical inquiry, xxii (1996), 193–238. Biagioli argues that the social practices of these academies evolved, albeit in differing ways, from courtly models.

See Section 3.3 below.

Thomas Digges interpreted the star for Lord Burghley. See below (ref. 94). Another English work dealing with the star was Anon., A Letter sent by a gentleman of England, to his freende, contayning a confutation of a French mans errors, in the report of the myraculous starre nowe shyninge (London 1573). On the comet, see Twyne Thomas , A view of certain wonderful effects, of late dayes come to passe and now conferred with the presignyfications of the comete … (London, 1578); on the conjunction see Harvey Richard , An astrological discourse upon the great and notable coniunction of the two superiour planets … (London, 1583), and an addition by John Harvey.

Trevor-Roper Hugh , “The court physician and Paracelsianism”, in Nutton V. (ed.), Medicine at the courts of Europe, 1500–1837 (London, 1985), 79–94. For Bomelius and Dee see Section 3.3 below. For Dickson see Stevenson David , The origins of freemasonry: Scotland's century, 1590–1710 (Cambridge, 1988), chap. 5, p. 92.

Pady Donald S. , “Sir William Paddy M.D. (1554–1634)”, Medical history, xviii (1974), 68–82.

In dedicating to Sir Francis Walsingham his Abridgement of Fox (London, 1589), Bright mentioned his receipt of “that especiall protection from the bloody massacre of Paris nowe 16 years passed…”. See Dictionary of national biography, ii, 1245–7, s.v. “Bright, Timothy (15517–1615)”. The original at our disposal does not contain a dedication.

Moran , “Patronage” (ref. 16), 485.

Moran , “Prince-practitioners” (ref. 30).

Christianson , On Tycho's island (ref. 3), 258–4. See also Thoren , The Lord of Uraniborg (ref. 3), and Evans , Rudolf II and his world (ref. 1).

Wright Edward , Certain Errors in Navigation (London, 1599), “Praeface to the Reader”, 3.

Heal Felicity Holmes Clive , “The economic patronage of William Cecil”, in Croft (ed.). Patronage, culture and power (ref. 2), 199–229, p. 204.

Levy-Peck , op. cit. (ref. 2); MacCaffery Wallace T. , “Place and politics in Elizabethan politics”, in Neale John (ed.), Elizabethan government and society (London, 1961), 95–126.

Croft , op. cit. (ref. 2), p. ix; the client was Timothie Bright. See Carlton William J. , Timothie Bright, Doctor of Physicke (London, 1911), 28–29. See also Husselby J. , “Architecture at Burghley House: The patronage of William Cecil, 1553–1598”, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Warwick, 1996.

Cuddy Neal , “The revival of the entourage: The bedchamber of James I, 1603–1625”, in Starkey David (eds), The English court from the Wars of the Roses to the Civil War (London, 1987), 71–118.

Levy-Peck , Court patronage (ref. 2), chap. 2.

See, for example, Greenblatt , Renaissance self-fashioning ; Evans , Ben Jonson and the poetics of patronage ; Croft , Patronage, culture and power ; Parry , The golden age restor'd ; Wainwright , Musical patronage in seventeenth century England ; and Cross , Patronage and recruitment in the Tudor and early Stuart church (see ref. 2).

Croft , op. cit. (ref. 2), pp. ix. xv.

Rosenberg , Leicester (ref. 2), passim.

Knafla Louis A. , “The country Chancellor: The patronage of Thomas Egerton, Baron Ellesmere”, in Fogel French R. Knafla Louis A. (eds), Patronage in late Renaissance England: Papers read at a Clark Library Seminar 1977 (Los Angeles, 1983), 33–103. For dedications see “Appendix”.

Platt Hugh , Jewell House of Art and Nature (London, 1594), Preface, sig. A2–3.

Blagrave John , Astrolabium Uranicum Generale (London, 1596), sig. A2, and The Art of Dyalling in two parts … (London, 1609), sig. A2v. His Baculum familiare (ref. 18) of 1590 was dedicated to Francis Knollys, and The Mathematicall Jewell (ref. 18) of 1585 to William Cecil.

Clulee , John Dee's natural philosophy (ref. 4), 196–8.

Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 43).

Shirley , op. cit. (ref. 32); Pumfrey , op. cit. (ref. 35); and Walton , op. cit. (ref. 35).

Pumfrey Stephen , Latitude and the magnetic Earth (Cambridge, 2002), 19–23.

Keynes , William Harvey (ref. 4); Huffman William H. , Robert Fludd: Essential readings (London, 1992); Willson D. H. , King James VI & I (London, 1956); Leary John E. , Francis Bacon and the politics of science (Ames, 1994); Martin Julian , Francis Bacon and the reform of natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1992); Jardine Stewart , Hostage to fortune (ref. 35); and Gaukroger Stephen , Francis Bacon and the transformation of early-modern science (Cambridge, 2001).

Marotti , op. cit. (ref. 44).

Forman Simon , The Groundes of the Longitude … (London, 1591), sig. Alv, and Hood Thomas , The Mariners Guide (London, 1596), Dedicatory Epistle.

Pumfrey , Latitude (ref. 69), 194–9.

Williams Franklin , Index of dedications and commendatory verses in English books before 1641 (London, 1962).

Widdowes John , A Description of the World (London, 1621), “Epistle Dedicatorie”, sig. A1.

Dictionary of national biography, xix, 1330–1, s.v. “Twyne, Thomas (1543–1613)”.

The New Testament of Our Lord Iesus Christ translated out of Greeke by Theod. Beza: Whereunto are adioyned brief summaries of doctrine vpon the Euangelistes and Actes of the Apostles, together with the methode of the Epistles of the Apostles by the said Theod. Beza: And also short expositions on the phrases and hard places taken out of the large annotations of the foresaid authour and loach. Camerarius. By Loseler P. , Villerius. Englished by Tomson L. (London, 1576).

Twyne Thomas , The Garlande of Godly Flowers (London, 1574).

Beza was Theodore Mayerne's godfather. See Vigne Ralph , “Mayerne and his successors: Huguenot physicians under the Stuarts”, paper delivered at the Royal College of Physicians in December 1985, and published by the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine.

Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 43), 296–7.

Tartaglia Niccolo , Three bookes of colloquies concerning the arte of shooting (London, 1588).

See also Rosenberg , Leicester (ref. 2), passim.

Rosenberg , Leicester (ref. 2), 140–1.

Stevin Simon , Haven finding art by the latitude and variation (London, 1599).

Knafla , op. cit. (ref. 63), Appendix.

Vaughan William , Directions for Health, both naturall and artificiall (London, 1617). Gething Richard , Calligraphotechnia, or the art of faire writing sett forth, and newly enlarged (London, 1619), is not a treatise but a series of engraved templates illustrating a formal bureaucratic style.

Ferrier Auger , A learned astronomical discourse, of the iudgement of nativities (London, 1593), and Ford John , The golden meane… Discoursing of the nobleness of perfect virtue in extreames (London, 1614).

See BL MS. Stowe 573.

BL MS. Lansdowne 64.34. See also http://www.exlibris.org/nonconform/engdis/brownists.html.

BL MS. Lansdowne 121 f. 13; also Bourne William , “The Nature and Quality of Water: As touching the Swimming and Sinking of Things”, c. 1565, according to Taylor E. G. R. , Mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1968), 176, 319.

BL MS. Add. 18035.

BL MS. Lansdowne, 100, f. 19.

BL MS. Lansdowne, 101, ff. 8–15.

Digges offered Cecil an “astronomical manuscript” on 14 May 1574, BL MS. Lansdowne 19.30. See also Calendar of State papers domestic, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, i, 1547–1580, 11 December 1572, Thomas Digges to Lord Burghley. Digges “has waded as far as ancient grounds of astrology would bear him to sift out the unknown influences of this new star or comet. Sends notes of observations and predictions”. He probably produced for Leicester “The Second Paradoxe. That the antique Roman and Grecian discipline martiall doth farr exceede in excellencie our modern, notwithstanding all alterations by reason of the late invention of artillery and fireshott”, BL MS. Lansdowne 98 f. 6 ff.

See Barlow William , Magneticall Advertisements (London, 1616), Preface.

See Section 3.5 below.

Sidney, of course, also gave military service, which stimulated his utilitarian concerns. He wrote from the Netherlands asking, “to what purpose should our thoughts be directed to various kinds of knowledge, unless room be afforded for putting it into practice, so that public advantage may be the result”. We are grateful to Thomas Dixon for this quotation, cited in Sinfield Alan , “Power and ideology: An outline theory and Sidney's Arcadia”, English literary history, iii (1985), 259–77, p. 270.

Dawbarn Frances , “New light on Dr Thomas Moffet: The triple roles of an early modern physician, client, and patronage broker”, Medical history, xlvii (2003), 3–23.

Hannay Margaret P. , ‘“How I these studies prize’: The Countess of Pembroke and Elizabethan science”, in Hunter Lynette Hutton Sarah (eds), Women, science and medicine: 1500–1700: Mothers and sisters of the Royal Society (London, 1997), 108–21.

Heal Holmes , “The economic patronage of William Cecil” (ref. 55).

On Cecil see Read Conyers , Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth (New York, 1960), and the recent shorter survey by Graves Michael A. R. , Burghley: William Cecil, Lord Burghley (London, 1998).

Guy John , Tudor England (Oxford, 1990), 387.

Croft , op. cit. (ref. 2), p. xiv.

This is also a major contention of Adams , op. cit. (ref. 39).

See Feingold Mordechai , Mathematicians' apprenticeship (ref. 5), 77, and Johnston , “Mathematical practitioners” (ref. 8), 319–44.

The extent to which Burghley operated an economic policy (and whether it was conservative or radical) is discussed in Heal Holmes , op. cit. (ref. 55), passim.

A discourse of the commonweal of England, attributed to Thomas Smith, ed. by Dewar Mary (Charlottesville, 1969); see also Dewar Mary , Thomas Smith: A Tudor intellectual in office (London, 1964).

Thirsk Joan , Economic policy and projects: The development of a consumer society in early modern England (Oxford, 1988); Heal Holmes , “The economic patronage of William Cecil” (ref. 55), 203.

This is an important point. In England as elsewhere, universities were ultimately under local political control and patronage influence. However, Oxford and Cambridge possessed an institutional inertia that left courtiers with less power to determine policy and personnel than they exerted over London clients.

BL MSS. Lansdowne 18.90; 19.20; 12.48.

BL MS. Lansdowne 42.45.

BL MS. Lansdowne 23.14–16.

Ascham Roger , The Scholemaster (London, 1570). In the dedication Margaret Ascham mentioned not only Cecil's chancellorship of Ascham's university, but also “how much my sayd husband was many wayes bound vnto you, and how gladly and comfortably he vsed in hys lyfe to recognise and report your goodnesse toward hym, leauyng with me then hys poore widow and a great sort of orphanes a good comfort in the hope of your good continuance”. See also the editions of 1571, 1579, and 1589.

See BL MSS. Lansdowne 34.21; 39.48; 54.70; 71.85; 107.4.

BL MSS. Lansdowne 102.16; 34.12; Guy , op. cit. (ref. 102), 414; and Sorley W. R. , “The beginnings of English philosophy”, in Ward A. W. Waller A. R. (eds), The Cambridge history of English and American literature in 18 volumes (1907–21), iv: Prose and poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton, chap. 14, section 6.

BL MS. Lansdowne 107.92.

BL MS. Lansdowne 107, f. 155.

Gerard John , The Herball or Generall Historie of Plants (London, 1597), sig. A2.

See BL MS. Lansdowne 107, f. 155, and Gerard , Herball (ref. 118), “To the well affected Reader and peruser of this booke”.

BL MS. Lansdowne 21.60.

BL MS. Lansdowne 12.73. See also BL MS. Lansdowne 12.79 for the Archbishop of Canterbury's response.

Bright Timothie , Hygieina, id est de sanitate tuenda medicinae (London, 1582).

For example, Dr Henry Hector proposed to cure his gout and later collated remedies from Averroes and others. Dr Masters and Mr Dion among others provided advice, while Dr Henry Landwer prescribed some medical slippers. Burghley even asked one Kelley [probably Edward Kelly] to return to England and cure him. Other physicians sent him directions for pains in the head, recipes for sage water and healing baths, and Burghley wrote out his own regimens. In his old age he received from John Evelyn a paper describing his cure for deafness, accompanied, of course, by a petition. See BL MSS. Lansdowne 27.43; 55.43; 18.35–6; 121.19; 29.7; 104.56; 46.12; 68.88; 77.92; 75.78; 77.90.

Even the case for Timothie Bright, the Burghley physician and inventor of shorthand or secret writing, to become Robert Cecil's tutor was made through Hickes, see BL MS. Lansdowne 51.27. Bright had just completed his The Art of Short, Swifte and Secret Writing (London, 1588), dedicated to Elizabeth. Francis Bacon sought, with limited success, to advance his early legal career through Burghley (his uncle) and his son Robert (his cousin). Thus in 1593 Bacon asked Hickes to advance his suit (BL MS. Lansdowne 75, f. 56). Hickes received rewards for such services (BL MS. Lansdowne 46.14). It was also through Hickes that suits for the Mastership of St John's College, Cambridge were promoted (BL MS. Lansdowne 108, 109). Ralph Parr, an Oxford scholar, attempted to advance his suit by sending him some Latin verses (BL MS. Lansdowne 99.71).

Heal Holmes , “The economic patronage of William Cecil” (ref. 55), 208. (Osborne was also the dedicatee of Timothie Bright's Treatise of Melancholie of 1588.).

The following is a representative sample of the scores of petitions intended for Burghley's attention after 1570: A description of a newly invented portable mill, useful for soldiers on campaign; practical information on the cultivating of vines and grapes; suggestions for improving the mechanical arts that included new designs for hoists lifts, and pulleys which could be used in warfare, and a device “to make a boat to goe faster on the water without ower or saile”; a letter concerning the “conditions necessary for to bring to passe the invention of brimston and oyle, And the profitte that may grow thereof to the Queenes Majestie and her subjectes”; notes in Burghley's own distinctive hand concerning the production of gold and silver ore; an offer to Lord Burghley of a “thin Aqua Chymica” which came with a peremptory “demande off your honour [for] a new yeares gifte”; news of a grant by the Queen for the production of new furnaces; a general petition assuring Burghley that “her Majestie shall proffitte by the effort of my inventions … from ten to twelve thousand pounde, or more …”. See BL MSS. Lansdowne 101, f. 65; 101, ff. 36–42; 19, f. 52; 22, ff. 68–72; 25, f. 144; 60. f. 177; 105, ff. 176–178; 108, f. 36.

See Calendar of State papers domestic, Elizabeth, xl, 28, 15 July 1566: “Arm. Waad to Leicester and Cecill. Has repaired to the Tower and examined Mr Cornelius [Lannoy] as to delay in assays of metals, etc. Particulars of the conversation which took place.” See also Heal Holmes , “The economic patronage of William Cecil” (ref. 55), 209.

Strype John , The life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith (Oxford, 1820), 100–5, 161, 282. In BL MS. Lansdowne 29, f. 139, T. Smith wrote to Lord Burghley on 8 March 1579, urging haste in Medley's business, and worrying if the profit of his new art would answer the expense.

BL MS. Lansdowne 103, ff. 217.

Heal Holmes , “The economic patronage of William Cecil” (ref. 55), 208, 220.

See the biographical information usefully collated at http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/digges_tho.html and http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/digges_leo.html.

Thomas Digges to Lord Burghley (ref. 94).

Thoren , The Lord of Uraniborg (ref. 3).

See ref. 94.

Digges Thomas , Arithmaticall militare treatise, named stratioticos (London, 1579).

Digges Leonard , amended by Digges Thomas , An Arithmaticall Militare Treatise, named Stratioticos (London, 1579), “Preface”.

http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/digges_tho.html.

Of the considerable correspondence between Digges and Leicester, see especially BL Add. MS. 48084, ff. 232–311b, “Letters and papers, mostly of Thomas Digges, Muster-master-General, relating to musters; 1585–1595”; and BL Add. MS. 48083, ff. 235–46 concerns Digges's dispute with Commander John Norris. Digges also petitioned Burghley in a complaint against Waad, BL MS. Lansdowne 72.63. BL MS. Lansdowne 67.5–6 documents Digges's complaint to Burghley against one William Digges, over a matter of several thousand pounds. See also BL MS. Egerton 1694.

See ref. 32.

See Batho , op. cit. (ref. 31) for Percy's occultism.

Percy , op. cit. (ref. 31) 67.

Shirley , Thomas Harriot (ref. 32), 19.

Walton , Thomas Harriot's ballistics (ref. 35).

See Pumfrey , op. cit. (ref. 35), 18–19.

See Pumfrey , op. cit. (ref. 35), 20–22, and Walton , op. cit. (ref. 35).

Batho , op. cit. (ref. 31), 30, and Shirley (ed.), Thomas Harriot (ref. 32), 29.

His utilitarian Tract on the Use of Globes (London, 1593) was dedicated to Ralegh.

Appropriately, he bequeathed his two “perspective trunckes” to Percy, Taylor , Mathematical practitioners (ref. 90) 183.

Batho , op. cit. (ref. 32), 31–32, 45–46. That the accusations were unfounded is shown by Scott Mandelbrote, “The religion of Thomas Harriot”, in Fox (ed.), op. cit. (ref. 32), 246–79.

French , op. cit. (ref. 4), 102–3.

Wright Edward , Certaine Errors in Navigation (London, 1599), sig. Q4-Qbv; Preface, 2.

Pumfrey , Latitude (ref. 69), 19–23.

Gilbert's half-brother was able to get the “Nova Physiologia” placed in Prince Henry's library, with a dedication to him. It was published in Amsterdam in 1651.

Bennett , “Geometry and surveying” (ref. 8).

Though see Stewart Alan , The cradle King: A life of James VI and I (London, 2003). He describes (pp. 38–39) how James cultivated a coterie of court poets called “the Castilian band”.

Irving David , Memoirs of the life of George Buchanan (Edinburgh, 1817), 160–1, cited in Lockyer Roger , James VI & I (London and New York, 1998), 9.

Williamson Arthur H. , “Number and national consciousness: The Edinburgh mathematicians and Scottish political culture at the union of the crowns”, in Mason Roger A. (ed.), Scots and Britons: Scottish political thought and the union of 1603 (Cambridge, 1994), 197–212, p. 210.

Williamson , op. cit. (ref. 157) 205.

Williamson , op. cit. (ref. 157), 197–99; Dictionary of national biography, xvi, 91–94, s.v. “Pont, Robert (1524–1606)”.

Williamson , op. cit. (ref. 157), 188–9.

Stevenson David , The origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's century 1590–1710 (Cambridge, 1988), 49.

Stevenson , op. cit. (ref. 161), 91–93.

Fludd Robert , Utriusque Cosmi majoris scilicet et minoris metaphysica atque technica historia in duo volumina secundum cosmi differentiam divisa (Frankfurt, 1617/18). For dedication see Yates Frances , The Rosicrucian enlightenment (London, 1972), 78.

Casaubon Isaac , De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis (London, 1614). See Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 37), chap. 6. Casaubon Isaac , De rebus sacris et ecclesiasticis exercitationes XVI. Ad Cardinalis Baronii Prolegomena in Annales, & primam eorum partem, de Domini Nostri Iesu Christi natiuitate, vita, passione, assumptione (London, 1614); his death prevented later volumes of this Protestant assault on Baronius. For his re-dating of the Hermetic corpus, see Yates F. A. , Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic tradition (London, 1964), chap. 21, “After Hermes Trismegistus was dated”.

Williamson, private communication.

Stevenson , op. cit. (ref. 161), 30–31. For Craig see Williamson , op. cit. (ref. 157) 199.

Debus Allen , The French Paracelsians: The chemical challenge to medical and scientific tradition in early modern France (Cambridge, 1991), and Sir Cornwallis Charles , “Copie of a letter touching the death of Henry, Prince of Wales”, 1613, BL Add. MS. 11, 532.

Debus , op. cit. (ref. 6), and Charles Webster, “Alchemical and Paracelsian medicine”, in Webster (ed.), Health, medicine and mortality in the sixteenth century (Cambridge, 1979), 301–34, esp. p. 320.

Trevor-Roper Hugh , “The court physician and Paracelsianism”, in Nutton V. (ed.), Medicine at the courts of Europe, 1500–1837 (London, 1990), 79–94. See also Barroll , op. cit. (ref. 39) 16.

Stewart , Cradle King (ref. 155), 115.

See Patterson , King James VI and I (ref. 43), 125–7. Caspar , Kepler (ref. 4) notes that Kepler considered James I was his “great hope in matters of creed” and had “intended to dedicate Harmonices Mundi Libri V to James I of England”, but because of the political situation of the time the dedication was “forbidden by the censor”. See pp. 252, 288.

Pattison , op. cit. (ref. 37) published an appendix that includes Casaubon's plans for future works. He intended an edition of the classical physician Celsus, and a work “De coloribus”. Pattison also noted (p. 500) his love of natural marvels.

Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 37), 318.

Ibid., 297, 227, 316, 403–4, 298.

Ibid.; see, for example, p. 354.

Though Carleton reported Casaubon's complaint that his fellow Huguenot émigré, the royal (and his) physician Mayerne, got £1400. Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 37), 323, 435. For Grotius see ibid., 322.

Ibid., 294, 326.

Strong , Henry Prince of Wales (ref. 37), 5. The boys at Henry's court included Lord Cranbourne (son of Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, and grandson of William Cecil, Lord Burghley); the third Earl of Essex (son of Elizabeth's favourite, Robert Devereux, second Earl of Essex); and Harington John , heir to the Prince's tutor, Lord Harington of Exton.

Dictionary of national biography, iii, 1367–8, s.v. “Chaloner, Thomas (1561–1615)”.

Feingold , Mathematician's apprenticeship (ref. 5), 63.

See ref. 179.

But see Strong , Henry Prince of Wales (ref. 37).

See ref. 179.

Strong , Henry Prince of Wales (ref. 37), 164.

Ibid. , 162. The major work on Drebbel is still Jaeger F. M. , Cornells Drebbel en zijne tijdgenooten (Groningen, 1922); see also Tierie G. , Cornells Drebbel (1572–1633) (Amsterdam, 1932), and http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/Catalog/Files/drebbel.html. In another example of ostentation, James commissioned Phineas Pett to build for Henry a model galleon, the Disdain. See Strong , Henry Prince of Wales (ref. 37) 35.

For natural philosophy as emblematic of patronage see Biagioli Mario , “Galileo the emblem maker”, Isis, lxxxi (1990), 230–58.

For Arundel's patronage of the fine arts see Parry , The golden age restor'd (ref. 2), chap. 5.

The Two Bookes of Francis Bacon. Of the proficiencie and aduancement of Learning, diuine and humane (London, 1605).

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 285–8.

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 437–8.

Martin Leary , op. cit. (ref. 70).

Gaukroger , op. cit. (ref. 70), 45–57.

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35). See for example p. 149.

Harkness Deborah E. , “Strange ideas and ‘English’ knowledge: Natural science exchange in Elizabethan London”, in Smith Pamela H. Findlen Paula (eds), Merchants and marvels: Commerce, science, and art in early modern Europe (London, 2002), 137–60, p. 151.

Gaukroger , op. cit. (ref. 70) 17.

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 301–9, p. 303. For Bacon and Casaubon see also Pattison , Isaac Casaubon (ref. 37), 325, 334–6.

Gaukroger , Francis Bacon (ref. 70), 163, n. 52.

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35), 439, 311.

Gaukroger , Francis Bacon (ref. 70), 164.

Jardine Stewart , op. cit. (ref. 35) 438.

Sprat Thomas , The history of the royal-society of London, for the making of natural knowledge (London, 1667), frontispiece.

A possible exception is John Thornborough, Bishop of Worcester, who continued the Scottish court's interest in Paracelsism and the occult. Appointed chaplain-in-ordinary to Elizabeth in 1587, he was already a known supporter of Paracelsian medicine. As Bishop of Worcester he authored Lithothorikos, sive, Nihil, aliquid, omnia, antiquorum sapientum vivis coloribus depicta, Philosophice-theologice, In gratiam eorum qui Artem auriferam Physico-chymice & pie profitentur (Oxford, 1621), dedicated to Ludovic, Duke of Lennox. The work immediately elicited a dedication from one R. N. E. (putatively Robert Napier of Edinburgh, son of John), who published in 1622 a translated work called A revelation of the Secret Spirit. Declaring the most concealed secret of Alchymie (London 1622). See Dictionary of national biography, xix, 766–7, s.v. “Thornborough, John (1551–1641)”.

Lux , Patronage and royal science in seventeenth century France (ref. 1), and Feingold , op. cit. (ref. 5), chap. 5.

Biagioli Mario , “Scientific revolution, social bricolage, and etiquette”, in The scientific revolution in national context, ed. by Porter Roy Teich Mikuláš (Cambridge, 1992), 11–53.

Prest Wilfred R. , The Inns of Court under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts, 1590–1640 (London, 1972), and Levack Brian P. , The civil lawyers in England, 1630–1641 (Oxford, 1973).

Ames-Lewis , Sir Thomas Gresham and Gresham College (ref. 7), and Ward John , The lives of the professors of Gresham College (London, 1740; reprinted 1967).

Feingold , Mathematicians 'apprenticeship (ref. 5), and Cormack Lesley , Charting an empire (ref. 8). It may be significant that Feingold's examples become more significant as he moves, in chap. 4, from 1560 to 1640.