Promoting the New Science: Henry Oldenburg and the Early Royal Society

Rupert A. and Hall Marie Boas (eds)., The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg , i-ix (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison and Milwaukee, 1965–73); x-xi (Mansell, London, 1975-76); xii-xiii (Taylor & Francis, London, 1986). Vol. xiii includes 60 pp. of addenda and corrigenda to the earlier volumes, but, unfortunately, no cumulative index. References in both text and notes below in the form “iii, 136” denote volume and page in the edition.

For a recent survey, see McLellan J. E. iii, Science reorganized: Scientific societies in the eighteenth century (New York, 1985).

xiii, 190, 200–1; for lists, e.g. iv, 337–8, vii, 326–7. On provincial virtuosi at the time see Hunter Michael , Science and society in Restoration England (Cambridge, 1981). 48f., 78f.

See Birch Thomas , The history of the Royal Society of London (4 vols, London, 1756–57), i, 22–24, 26, 296, 305, 407. The Halls are, incidentally, therefore wrong to say of Leichner (ii, p. xxi) that “as always in such cases, Oldenburg was deputed to reply”.

British Library MS Sloane 1326, passim; see also Royal Society Boyle Letters, vii, 19; Early Letters P. 1.10. Birch , History (ref. 4), ii, 100, 102–3, 112, 140, 250; Royal Society Early Letters S.1.92. See also Rome R. , “Nicolas Sténon et la ‘Royal Society of London”’, Osiris , xii (1956), 244–68.

Birch, History (ref. 4), i, 34–35. See also Royal Society Miscellaneous Manuscripts, iii, fol. 120 (cf. also ibid., fol. 119); Royal Society Copy Letter Book, i, fols 1–3; Huygens , Oeuvres complètes , iii-vi (The Hague, 1890–95), passim.

These letters are listed in Schuckard's W. E. catalogue in Halliwell J. O. , A catalogue of the miscellaneous manuscripts preserved in the library of the Royal Society (London, 1840), passim. Among these see, e.g., H.1.107–8 for letters to Wallis, or S.1.42f. for letters to the President. In addition, scattered references illustrate that other such letters are lost: E.g. Birch , History (ref. 4), i, 345, for a further letter from Joshua Childrey to Edward Waterhouse in addition to the one that survives as Early Letters C.1.1. The Early Letters also, of course, contain many letters dating from the period after Oldenburg's death.

For the Huygens letters, see ii, 538, 551, 618; iii, 7, 13, 128–30. For Childrey and Newburgh see Early Letters C.1.1, 4 (and above, ref. 7); N.1.1.; cf. v, 384–6, and vi, 225–6.

i, 137. For the background, see Webster Charles , The great instauration (London, 1975).

See Hall A.R. and Hall M. B. , “Philosophy and natural philosophy: Boyle and Spinoza”, in Mélanges Alexandre Koyré (Paris, 1964), ii, 241–56. For a further study that deserves publication, see Wood's Paul B. chapter on Oldenburg in his thesis, “Francis Bacon and the experimentall philosophy” (M.Phil., London, 1978), briefly summarized in Hunter , Science and society (ref. 3), 54.

See, for instance, ix, 65. The Halls' disdain, seen earlier in patronizing remarks (e.g. ii, 12 n.8), reaches its climax at xiii, 341, where Beale's last letter to Oldenburg, though admittedly hard to decipher, has been epitomized rather than included in full.

British Library Additional MS 4441, fol. 93. Cf. ii, 110–11. The committee's reply is, however, only a draft, and it is possibly incomplete.

Hunter Michael , The Royal Society and its Fellows, 1660–1700: The morphology of an early scientific institution (Chalfont St Giles, 1982), 51.

British Library MS Sloane 1942, fols 1–3 (for “The Circular Letter sent to divers of the forreine Correspondents”): For a published version, see Huygens , Oeuvres complètes , viii (The Hague, 1899), 66–67); cf. xiii, pp. xxviii–ix; Letter Book (ref. 6), viii, passim; Birch , History (ref. 4), iii, 369, 515, 518.

Flamsteed to Towneley, 13 Feb. 1680, Royal Society MS 243, no. 45.

Birch , History (ref. 5), iii, 518; iv, 9.

Philosophical transactions , xii–xvii (1677–93); on the finance, see Hunter , Royal society (ref. 13), 42. A proper history of the Philosophical transactions is a desideratum.

See Hunter Michael , “Early problems in professionalising scientific research: Nehemiah Grew and the Royal Society”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxxvi (1982), 202–3.

See Hunter Michael , “Reconstructing restoration science: Problems and pitfalls in institutional history”, Social studies of science, xii (1982), 458–9.

Birch , History (ref. 4), iii, 515.

British Library Additional MS 4458, fols 108–116. See also ibid., fol. 144, for theological notes. On the lost manuscripts, see ix, pp. xxviii–ix, and Birch , History (ref. 4), iii, 355–6: Unlike the Halls, I see no reason to doubt that these once existed although they are now lost.

On the European reception of the news about Sevi, see particularly the now definitive study of Peter Serrarius by, Van der Wall E. G. E. , Der Mystieke Chiliast Petrus Serrarius (1600–1669) en Zijn Wereld (Leiden, 1987), ch. 10. See also McKeon Michael , Poetry and politics in Restoration England (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), 206–8.

On Labadie see Van der Wall , Serrarius, chs 10–11. The endorsement is as follows: “This Inclosed be pleased to direct in Wales, or to send it to Mr Jackson or Mr Isaac Gray and to impart them also these News, and by them others may enjoy it likewise”, while under the address are the words: “in Ladlane[?] at the Swan with 2 necks for Brereton”. The address and the main endorsement, unlike the text of the letter, are in the same hand as the letter published in iii, 446–7, from Public Record Office S.P. 84/183, no. 4.

British Library Additional MS 4299, fols 50–51.

British Library Additional MS 4458, fols 146–7. The work in question is Eenige Prophetien en Revelatien Godts, Aengaende de Christen Werelt in dese Eeuw by “Johannes Den Dienstknecht Godts”, of which an English translation had been published in 1672; I have not been able to trace a copy of the edition used by Oldenburg.

See ix, pp. xxix–xxx. No item on this subject appeared in the London gazette between the start of 1673 and the end of the war.

For a useful synthesis, see Webster Charles , From Paracelsus to Newton (Cambridge, 1982), ch. 2.