Science,Medicine and the Universities of Early Modern England: Background and Sources,Part 2

Brief descriptions of professorial chairs, as well as annotated lists of incumbents, are contained in The historical register of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1900) and The historical register of the University of Cambridge, ed. Tanner J. R. (Cambridge, 1917).

In a reversal of the usual situation, full information on Cambridge benefactions is easily available in Endowments of the University of Cambridge , ed. Clark John Willis (Cambridge) 1904). Wood , History and antiquities , has the best descriptions of Oxford's seventeenth century benefactions; the statutes for the Savilian Professorships and for the Tomlins Readership are to be found in Gibson, Statuta antiqua, 528–40, 551–5; the Savilian statutes are translated in Ward , Oxford University statutes, i, 273–84.

See the samples cited in Nicholas Hans, New trends in education in the eighteenth century (London, 1951), 31–36.

There are few easily accessible guides to the administration of university science chairs. For Cambridge, the medical teaching positions (Linacre Lectureship, Regius Professorship of Medicine, and Professorship of Anatomy) and their incumbents are described in Rolleston, Cambridge medical school. Otherwise, research in printed sources must be confined to biographies of the various professors, readers, and lecturers. A close study of university science teaching will demand examination of university archival records. The Oxford University Archives have classed sets of documents devoted to each of the scientific benefactions; at the Cambridge University Registrary records concerning each position are gathered together in guard books. The general archival records of each university—the Registers of Convocation at Oxford, and the Grace Books at Cambridge—contain numerous, and sometimes lengthy, references to the administration of scientific chairs, but these are interspersed among masses of general university business.

Beginning in 1766 a yearly stipend of £100 was provided by the Crown. The Professors of Chemistry at Cambridge during the eighteenth century are discussed in articles by Coleby L. J. M. in Annals of science, viii (1952) and ix (1953).

This point is made by Rook Arthur , loc. cit., 119–20; he promises forthcoming details on this most interesting contention.

Respectively: BL MS. Rawl. A. 369; (John Woolton) BM MS. Sloane 249; BL MS. Rawl. D. 213; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MSS. 263 and 265; CUL MS. Add. 102; Caius College MS. 50; BM MSS. Sloane 79–80, 587, and 591; Exeter College MSS. 78 and 80; BL MSS. Locke d. 9 and 11, MS. Locke e. 4, MSS. Locke f. 18, 19, 20, and 25, and BM MS. Add. 32, 554; Balliol College MS. 339; (Thomas Alvey) BM MS. Sloane 491, and (Richard Stapley) BM MS. Sloane 2777.

The development of university botanical gardens in England has yet to be explored adequately. Power D'Arcy , “The Oxford physic garden”, Annals of medical history, ii (1919), 109–25, discusses some aspects of the Oxford botanical garden in the 1650s and 1660s.

Bobart Jacob Sr , Catalogus plantarum horti medici Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1648). Philip Stephens and William Browne collaborated with the two Bobarts on a revised edition, Catalogus horti botanici Oxoniensis (Oxford, 1658).

BL MS. Locke c. 41 and MS. Locke b. 7. These items are described briefly in Gough J. W. , “John Locke's herbarium”, Bodleian Library record, vii (1962–7), 42–46.

Wordsworth , Scholae academicae, 210.

Ibid ., 179–81. See also Gunther , Early science in Cambridge, 331–3.

These cabinets were described, and their contents noted, by Gunther , Early science in Cambridge, 472–94.

Ward John Ms. “Diary” (Transcript), i, 147, in the Library of the Medical Society of London.

de Sorbiere Samuel , Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre (Paris, 1664), 105–6.

Keill James , The anatomy of the humane body abridged (London, 1698), and later editions.

For anatomy at Oxford, especially in the eighteenth century, see Sinclair H. M. and Robb-Smith A. H. T. , A short history of anatomical teaching in Oxford (Oxford, 1950); for Nicholls see 26 ff.

ibid., 31–32.

BL MSS. Add. A. 302–4.

See the narrative in [Richard Watkins], Newes from the dead (Oxford, 1651).

Boyle Robert , Works (London, 1772), vi, 466–7, 470–2.

See Robinson H. W. , “An unpublished letter of Dr Seth Ward relating to the early meetings of the Oxford Philosophical Society”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, vii (1949), 68–70.

Wellcome MS. 799A, Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine, London.

Some biographical details on Stahl have been gathered together by Turnbull G. H. , “Peter Stahl, the first public teacher of chemistry at Oxford”, Annals of science, ix (1953), 265–70.

Notes from Stahl's lectures, at Oxford and elsewhere, are in BM MSS. Sloane 499, 1498, 1624, and 2771.

BM MS. Sloane 1243.

Freind John , Praelectiones chymicae (London, 1709); an English translation was published in 1712.

BL MSS. Add. A. 302–4.

Cf. Coleby L. J. M. , “John Francis Vigani, first Professor of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge”, Annals of science, viii (1952), 46–60.

The origins and growth of the library at Oxford are described in The Bodleian library in the seventeenth century (Oxford, 1951).

The major source for information on members of the university bookselling communities is a set of three biographical collections: McKerrow R. B. , ed., A dictionary of printers and booksellers in England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of foreign printers of English books, 1557–1640 (London, 1910); Plomer Henry R. , A dictionary of the booksellers and printers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667 (London, 1907); idem, A dictionary of the printers and booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1668 to 1725 (London, 1922). Those active at any given time may be derived from the scattered entries in these directories by manual or computer manipulation.

One can trace the science accessions of the Bodleian in a series of library catalogues published in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries: James Thomas , Catalogus librorum bibliothecae publicae quam … T. Bodleius … in Academia Oxoniensi nuper instituit (Oxford, 1605); idem, Catalogus universalis omnium librorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana (Oxford, 1620); idem, Appendix ad catalogum librorum in Bibliotheca Bodleiana (Oxford, 1635); Hyde Thomas , Catalogus impressorum librorum Bibliothecae Bodlejanae in Academia Oxoniensi (Oxford, 1674); Hyde Thomas , Catalogus impressorum librorum Bibliothecae Bodleinae in Academia Oxoniensi (Oxford, 1738), 2 vols. Unfortunately, there are no similar published catalogues for the Cambridge University Library, although a number of manuscript lists exist from the period immediately before and after the Restoration: See CUL MSS Mm. iv. 1 and Oo. vii. 52.

A Catalogus of his books was published in four parts (1686–92) as his collection was auctioned off.

See the regulations governing the use of the Bodleian Library in Gibson, Statuta antiqua, 487–502, translated in Ward , Oxford University statutes, i, 240–71.

Wordsworth , Scholae academicae, 9.

Books published at Oxford from 1468 to 1680 are catalogued exhaustively in Madan Falconer , Oxford books: A bibliography of printed works relating to the University and City of Oxford, or printed or published there (Oxford, 1895–1931), 3 vols. Madan's entries illustrate vividly the explosive growth of the university intellectual community in the seventeenth century; of the 3,287 books and pamphlets published at Oxford before 1680, only 195 were printed before 1600, and only 930 before 1640. There is no comparable source for Cambridge.

Paul G. Morrison has published an Index of printers, publishers, and booksellers (Charlottesville, Virginia, 1950–55), 2 vols, keyed to the Pollard and Redgrave (1475–1640) and Wing (1641–1700) short title catalogues of books published in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Using these, one can reconstruct the printing history of any bookseller.

Harrison John and Laslett Peter , The library of John Locke (Oxford, 1965), especially 269–84.

[ Levinz William ], Bibliotheca Levinziana ([London], 1698).

The greatest portion of Hartlib's correspondence is preserved in the Hartlib Papers, now on deposit in the Sheffield University Library. The correspondence with Worthington has been printed in Diary and correspondence of Dr. J. Worthington, ed. Crossley J. (Manchester, 1847–86), 2 vols. Hartlib's letters to Robert Boyle are printed in Boyle , Works (London, 1772), vol. vi.

The best approach to the Boyle correspondence is Maddison R. E. W. , “A tentative index to the correspondence of the Honourable Robert Boyle, FRS”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xiii (1958), 128–201.

Oldenburg Henry , Correspondence, ed. and trans. Hall A. Rupert and Hall Marie Boas (Madison, Wisconsin, 1965).

Scriba Christoph J. , “A tentative index of the correspondence of John Wallis, FRS”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xxii (1967), 58–93.

BL MSS. Smith 45, 47–66 passim, and 72.

Gunther R. W. T. , Dr Plot and the correspondence of the Philosophical Society of Oxford, which is vol. xii of Early science in Oxford (Oxford, 1923–45), 14 vols.

Lhwyd's letters comprise vol. xiv of Early science in Oxford; the originals are in the Bodleian: BL MSS. Ashmole 1814–17 and 1829–30.

Ray John , Philosophical letters, ed. Derham William (London, 1718); Lankester Edwin , ed., Memorials of John Ray (London, 1846); idem, The correspondence of John Ray (London, 1848); Gunther R. W. T. , ed., Further correspondence of John Ray (London, 1928). Gunther's volume calendars the known correspondence.

BL MSS. Lister 2–4 and 34–37.

Newton Isaac , Correspondence, ed. Turnbull H. W. (Cambridge, 1959-), 4 vols so far published.

Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. R. 4.42.

For a brief description of the Royal Society's holdings, see Bluhm R. K. , “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, xii (1956), 21–39.

Matthews William , British diaries: An annotated bibliography of British diaries written between 1442 and 1942 (Berkeley-Los Angeles, 1950).

D'Arcy Power described the MSS. and gave brief extracts in “John Ward and his diary”, Transactions of the Medical Society of London, xl (1917), 1–26 and xliii (1920), 253–84. Power deposited a partial transcript in the Library of the Medical Society of London. The MSS. were sold by the Society in 1928, and are now in the possession of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.

Hearne Thomas , Remarks and collections, 11 vols (Oxford, 1885–1921).

BL MSS. Rigaud 10–11.

The family memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, ed. Lukis W. C. (Durham, 1882–87), 3 vols.

Kearney , Scholars and gentlemen, 193–9.

See especially BM MSS. Sloane 545, 577, 579, 581.

For a calendar of these MSS., although one not entirely current, see Long Philip , A summary catalogue of the Lovelace collection of the papers of John Locke in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1956).

BM MS. Sloane 3565. A later notebook, MS. Sloane 2148, is also quite interesting.

BM MS. Sloane 810.

Respectively: Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS. 254; Exeter College MSS. 74 and 75; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS. 40; BL MS. Selden supra 79; BL MS. Rawl. D. 233; Pembroke College, Cambridge, MSS. [unclassified]; Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS. 471–475.

Respectively: BL MS. Rawl. D. 985; BL MS. Rawl. D. 274; BL MS. Rawl. C. 753; Queen's College, Oxford, MSS. 196, 197, 200; BL MS. Savile 90; BL MS. Bodl. 15; Pembroke College, Cambridge, MS. [unclassified]; BL MS. Rawl. D. 975; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS. 300 and BL MS. Rawl. D. 258; BL MS. Lat. misc. f. 4; BL MS. Rawl. D. 286; Balliol College MSS. 318–19; BL MS. Rawl. C. 304; BL MS. Rawl. D. 1147 and Trinity College, Cambridge, MSS. 578, 1338 and Pembroke College, Cambridge, MS. 266.

Respectively: BL MS. Bodl. 616; Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. 949; Queen's College, Oxford, MSS. 221 and 224; BL MS. Rawl. D. 1146; BM MS. Sloane 3085; University College MS. 153; St John's College, Oxford, MS. 22; Queens' College, Cambridge, MS. 30; BM MS. Sloane 2781; University College MS. 46; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, MS. 289; BL MS. Rawl. D. 254; CUL MSS. Add. 2640, 3307; CUL MSS. Dd. vi. 46 and Dd. xii. 33; Queen's College, Oxford, MS. 65; Trinity College, Cambridge, MS. 1352.

BL MSS. Lat. misc. f. 7 and 9, and BM MS. Sloane 825.

Curtis , Oxford and Cambridge in transition, 285–6.

See CUL MS. Mm. i. 37, 280.

This “failure” of the universities has been exhaustively documented in Kearney, Scholars and gentlemen.

For example, see Locke's Account Book, BL MS. Locke f. 11 ff. 10v-14v.

Kearney , Scholars and gentlemen, 198–9, prints a bibliography of “guides to study”.

Daniel Waterland's guide is printed in Wordsworth, Scholae academicae, 330–7.

Robert Green's guide is printed ibid., 338–42.

Chapter Book (1648–88), Christ Church, Oxford.

See Cranston Maurice , John Locke: A biography (London, 1957), 95–99.

The state of College Admissions Registers for Cambridge in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is surveyed by Venn John and Venn J. A. , The book of matriculations and degrees, 1544–1659 (Cambridge, 1913), vi–x. To my knowledge there is no comparable description for Oxford colleges; archival materials must be ferreted out by inquiries to either the head of the college or to the librarian.

See my article, “John Aubrey, FRS, John Lydall and science at Commonwealth Oxford”, Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, xxvii (1972–3), 193–217.

Age cohorts may be assessed conveniently and accurately by ranking men, not by their absolute chronological age, but by their seniority in the university; the year of incepting MA is often a convenient benchmark. The Oxford “Admissiones ad regendum, 1634–1852”, Oxford University Archives S.P. 65, gives a visually dramatic view of changing intellectual generations within that university. The cohort admitted to regency during the five year period 1654–58 included Christopher Wren, Nathaniel Hodges, Richard Lower, Henry Stubbe, George Castle, Thomas Sprat, John Locke, David Thomas, Nathaniel Crew, Joseph Glanvill, Thomas Brancker, and Joseph Williamson; all were virtuosi who knew and associated with each other as Oxford students, and some continued that relationship in the Royal Society years later.

Hartlib's Ephemerides, a diary-like series of jottings on scientific subjects, is to be found among his papers now on deposit at the Sheffield University Library.

BM MS. Sloane 577, especially ff. 64r-81r; Highmore Nathaniel , Corporis humani disquisitio anatomica (The Hague, 1651), 168–72.

Highmore , Disquisitio, 171, 189–90; Harvey William , Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinis in animalibus (Frankfort, 1628), 17.

Bathurst Ralph , “Praelectiones tres de respiratione”, in Warton Thomas , The life and literary remains of Ralph Bathurst, MD (London, 1761), 153–5.

BL MS. D.D. All Souls College b. 88–91 (Steward's Books, 1655–64).

The Disbursement Books at Christ Church, Oxford, for example, show this kind of pattern.

“Collegii Mertonensis Registrum, 1567–1731”, Merton College, Oxford, 410.

Burrows Montagu , ed., The register of the visitors of the University of Oxford, from A.D. 1647 to A.D. 1658 (London, 1881), 335.

Hans , New trends, 31–36.