Prudence and Pedantry in Early Modern Cosmology: The Trade of Al Ross

E.g. Shapiro B. , John Wilkins 1614–1672: An intellectual biography (Berkeley, 1969), 5, 32–42, 52–54, 76. Shapiro's Ross — “in almost every respect the epitome of obscurantism” — “naturally” attacked Wilkins as representative of the new science; in fact, it was Wilkins who attacked Ross. Other examples include: Wise J. N. , Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici and two seventeenth-century critics (St Louis, 1973), 122–68; Petersson R. T. , Sir Kenelm Digby: The ornament of England, 1603–1665 (London, 1956), 272, 340 n.93; Westfall R. S. , The construction of modern science (Cambridge, 1977), 116–17. The one exception is Glenn J. R. , A critical edition of Alexander Ross's 1647 ‘Mystagogus Poeticus, or the Muses Interpreter’ (New York, 1987), which includes valuable prefatory material. For trenchant critiques of the historiography of “contributions” to a “scientific revolution”, see: Cunningham A. Williams P. , “De-centring the ‘big picture’: The origins of modern science and the modern origins of science”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvi (1993), 407–32; Cunningham A. , “How the Principia got its name: Or, taking natural philosophy seriously”, History of science, xxix (1991), 377–92; Jardine N. , “Writing off the Scientific Revolution”, Journal for the history of astronomy, xxii (1991), 311–18.

Bray W. (ed.), The diary of John Evelyn (4 vols, London, 1906), ii, 6, 47; Ross A. , Medicus medicatus (London, 1645), sigs. A3^r–A4^v; Ross , “A brief chronology”, in Ross , The history of the world … till the end of the year 1640 (London, 1652), sig. Iiii2^r; Hill C. , “Francis Quarles (1592–1644) and Edward Benlowes (1602–76)”, in Hill , Collected essays (3 vols, Brighton, 1985–86), i, 188–206, esp. p. 201; Glenn , Mystagogus, 37.

The implications of a conjoint Anglo-Scottish polity have been much discussed in recent years. See especially Russell C. , The causes of the English Civil War (Oxford, 1990), chap. 2; Russell , The fall of the British monarchies 1637–1642 (Oxford, 1991); Morrill J. , The nature of the English Revolution (London, 1993), 252–72.

Ross A. , “A needfull Caveat or Admonition for them who desire to know what use may be made of, or if there be danger in reading the Alcoran”, in The Alcoran of Mahomet (London, 1649), sigs. Ee^r–Ff3^v; Ross , : Or a view of all religions in the world (London, 1653); Ross , Virgilius evangelisans (London, 1634); Ross , Virgilii evangelisantis Christiados libri XIII (London, 1638); Ross , The marrow of historie (London, 1650); Ross , History of the world; Ross , Virgilius triumphans (Rotterdam, 1661); Johnston A. , Delitiae poetarum Scotorum (2 vols, Amsterdam, 1637), ii, 388–469. For the use of Mystagogus poeticus at Cambridge, see Cressy D. , Education in Tudor and Stuart England (London, 1975), 132. For a full Ross bibliography see Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 618–29.

Butler S. , “Hudibras”, II. 1–2, in Hudibras and selected other writings, ed. by Wilders J. de Quehen H. (Oxford, 1973), 30.

Shapin S. , “‘A scholar and a gentleman’: The problematic identity of the scientific practitioner in early modern England”, History of science, xxix (1991), 279–327, esp. p. 290; compare Biagioli M. , Galileo, courtier: The practice of science in the culture of absolutism (Chicago, 1993), esp. chap. 1. The inspiration for many discussions of the identities available to early modern practitioners remains R. S. Westman's classic “The astronomer's role in the sixteenth century: A preliminary study”, History of science, xviii (1980), 105–47.

Shapin , “‘A scholar and a gentleman’” (ref. 6), 287–95; Shapin , A social history of truth: Civility and science in seventeenth-century England (Chicago, 1994), 174–5, 308; Hunter M. , “The problem of ‘atheism’ in early modern England”, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., xxxv (1985), 135–58; Hunter , “Introduction”, in Hunter (ed.), Robert Boyle reconsidered (Cambridge, 1994), 1–18, esp. p. 4; Axtell J. L. , “The mechanics of opposition: Restoration Cambridge vs. Daniel Scargill”, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, xxxviii (1965), 102–11. In a number of papers, Hunter has strongly questioned whether sectarians, in particular, were so crucial to the self-fashioning of experimental philosophers. See especially his “How Boyle became a scientist”, History of science, xxxiii (1995), 59–103.

Royal Society, Classified Papers xx.75; Oldroyd D. R. , “Geological controversy in the seventeenth century: ‘Hooke vs. Wallis’ and its aftermath”, in Schaffer S. J. Hunter M. (eds), Robert Hooke: New studies (Woodbridge, 1989), 207–33, esp. p. 216; [ Ross A. ], Leviathan drawn out with a hook (London, 1653), 7. See also Ross , The marrow of historie (London, 1650), sig. A4^r-v, the preface to Mystagogus poeticus, and Ross's insistence in a sermon that (referring to a student of astronomy) “He that learnes … must beleeve his masters positions”: CUL Ms. Dd.12.30, fol. 163^r. For a modern identification of Ross as “pedantic”, see Petersson , Digby (ref. 1), 207.

Shapin and Biagioli both rely heavily on such sources: Shapin , “‘A scholar and a gentleman’” (ref. 6); Shapin , A social history of truth (ref. 7), pp. xx–xxii (for a methodological discussion of the subject); Biagioli , Galileo, courtier (ref. 6), 11–101. For attempts at reconstructions of civility based on both the changing content of conduct books and the changing reading-practices to which they were subjected, see Revel J. , “The uses of civility”, in Chartier R. (ed.), A history of private life. III: Passions of the Renaissance , transl. by Goldhammer A. (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), 167–205, and Chartier R. , “From texts to manners: A concept and its books. Civilité between aristocratic distinction and popular appropriation”, in Chartier , The cultural uses of print in early modern France (Princeton, N.J., 1987), 71–109.

McColley G. , “The Ross–Wilkins controversy,” Annals of science, iii (1938), 153–89; reprinted in Subbiondo J. L. (ed.), John Wilkins and seventeenth-century British linguistics (Amsterdam, 1992), 95–131. In outline the exchange is familiar from McColley's much-cited treatment, and few new facts about it are likely to emerge. But that discussion is more than fifty years old, and overdue for replacement; its interpretation in terms of an “age-old conflict” between “science” and “fundamentalist theology” does not sit easily with the concerns of modern historiography. For other treatments, see Brooke J. H. , Science and religion: Some historical perspectives (Cambridge, 1991), 54–55, 83–84, 107; Moss J. D. , Novelties in the heavens: Rhetoric and science in the Copernican controversy (Chicago, 1993), 301–29; Shapiro , Wilkins (ref. 1), 5, 52–54.

Shapin , Social history of truth (ref. 7), 238.

Aubrey J. (ed. by Barber R. ), Brief lives (Woodbridge, 1982), 325. This account should be compared to constrasting treatments of the formation of Robert Boyle and his authorial self: Shapin S. , “Personal development and intellectual biography: The case of Robert Boyle”, The British journal for the history of science, xxvi (1993), 335–45; Oster M. , “Biography, culture and science: The formative years of Robert Boyle”, History of science, xxxi (1993), 177–226; Hunter , “How Boyle became a scientist” (ref. 7); Principe L. M. , “Virtuous romance and romantic virtuoso: The shaping of Robert Boyle's literary style”, Journal of the history of ideas, lvi (1995), 377–97. The last is especially interesting since it identifies concerns about the imagination and its effects.

E.g. Biagioli M. , “Scientific Revolution, social bricolage, and etiquette”, in Porter R. Teich M. (eds), The Scientific Revolution in national context (Cambridge, 1992), 11–54, esp. pp. 28–29, 37–38; Biagioli , Galileo, courtier (ref. 6), 52–53, 130, 151–4; Iliffe R. , “‘Is he like other men?’ The meaning of the Principia mathematica and the author as idol”, in Maclean G. (ed.), Culture and society in the Stuart Restoration: Literature, drama, history (Cambridge, 1995), 159–78. On gentility and authorship see also McKenzie D. F. , “Speech–manuscript–print”, in Oliphant D. Bradford R. (eds), New directions in textual studies (Austin, 1990), 87–109.

Lindenbaum P. , “Milton's contract”, in Woodmansee M. Jaszi P. (eds), The construction of authorship: Textual appropriation in law and literature (Durham, N.C., 1994), 175–90, esp. p. 190. The literature on the construction of modern authorship is large: Introductions to the issues involved include Chartier R. , The order of books: Readers, authors, and libraries in Europe between the fourteenth and eighteenth centuries (Cambridge, 1994), 25–60, and Rose M. , Authors and owners: The invention of copyright (Cambridge, Mass., 1993).

For the conduct of debates at court, see especially: Biagioli , Galileo, courtier (ref. 6); Findlen P. , Possessing nature: Museums, collecting and scientific culture in early modern Italy (Berkeley, 1994); Tribby J. , “Cooking (with) Clio and Cleo: Eloquence and experiment in seventeenth-century Florence”, Journal of the history of ideas, lii (1991), 417–39; Smith P. , The business of alchemy: Science and culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton, 1994).

On the notion of ‘traditional’ actors, see: Blair A. , “Tradition and innovation in early modern natural philosophy: Jean Bodin and Jean-Cecile Frey”, Perspectives on science, ii (1994), 428–55; Sharpe K. , Politics and ideas in early Stuart England: Essays and studies (London, 1989), 7–9, 11–13, 21–23, 28–30, 35–38, 53; Chartier R. , “Culture as appropriation: Popular cultural uses in early modern France”, in Kaplan S. L. (ed.), Understanding popular culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century (Berlin, 1984), 229–53; Chartier , Cultural history (Cambridge, 1988), 40–41.

Kirk J. , “The influence of Calvinism on the Scottish Reformation”, Records of the Scottish Church Historical Society, xviii (1974), 157–79; Donaldson G. , “The polity of the Scottish Church 1560–1600”, ibid., xi (1955), 212–26.

Kirk J. (ed.), The Second Book of Discipline (Edinburgh, 1980), 187–9, 231; Shaw D. , The general assemblies of the Church of Scotland, 1560–1600 (Edinburgh, 1964), 180–4; Bullock J. M. , “The maker of Marischal College and his ‘happie offspring’”, in Anderson P. J. (ed.), Studies in the history and development of the University of Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1906), 57–72; Lang J. M. , “Hector Boece and the Principals”, in Anderson , Studies , 21–56, esp. p. 40; Rait R. S. , “Andrew Melville and the revolt against Aristotle in Scotland”, English historical review, xiv (1899), 250–60; Anderson P. J. (ed.), Fasti Academiae Mariscallanae Aberdonensis (3 vols, Aberdeen, 1889–98), i, 39–77, esp. pp. 60, 63–73; Henderson G. D. , The founding of Marischal College Aberdeen (Aberdeen, 1947), 56–62; Kearney H. , Scholars and gentlemen: Universities and society in pre-industrial Britain, 1500–1700 (London, 1970), 53–59.

Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 1–2, 41 n.6; CUL Ms. Dd.9.63, fols 4^r–7^v, 9^r–11^r, 40^r–52^r, 92^r–102^r, 128^r–165^v; CUL Ms. Dd.12.38, fols 2^r–35^v, 37^r–39^v; CUL Ms. Dd.6.69, fols 8^r–11^v, 13^r–18^r.

CUL Ms. Dd.9.63, fols 37^v, 39^v, 58^r, 89^r–90^v, 112^r–127^r; CUL Ms. Dd.6.69, fols 32^r–77^v; CUL Ms. Dd.12.38, fols 40^r–59^r. On angelology, see Walzer M. , The revolution of the saints: A study in the origins of radical politics (London, 1966), 160–6.

Blair A. , “Humanist methods in natural philosophy: The commonplace book”, Journal of the history of ideas, liii (1992), 541–51.

CUL Ms. Dd.9.63, fol. 39^v; Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 41 n.8.

Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 3–4; Horrocks J. W. (ed.), The Assembly Books of Southampton (4 vols, Southampton, 1917–25), iv, 43; Hearnshaw F. J. C. Hearnshaw D. M. (eds), Court Leet records (Southampton, 1907), i, 582; Russell C. F. , A history of King Edward VI School Southampton (Cambridge, 1940), 157; Davies H. , Worship and theology in England: From Andrewes to Baxter and Fox, 1603–1690 (Princeton, N.J., 1975), 305.

Ross A. , KOYPEYΣ id est, Tonsor ad cutem rasus (London, 1627), 37–38, 73–75; CUL Ms. Dd.12.30, fols 14^r, 26^r; Ross A. , An exposition on the fourteene first chapters of Genesis (London, 1626), ii, 19, 41, 125–8; Ross , A centurie of divine meditations upon predestination (London, 1646), passim, esp. pp. 94, 108–10 — But see also 78. Walzer Compare , Revolution of the saints , 64ff. Ross also wrote much of a new volume on Genesis, entitled “The first centurie of divine naturall and morall exercises on Genesis”; in 1638 he prepared this for publication to the extent of getting it licensed by William Bray: CUL Ms. L1.5.19 (citing his Commentum on fol. 35^v); see also CUL Ms. Dd.12.38, fols 59^v–66^r. It seems never to have been printed. For such commentaries in general, see Williams A. , The common expositor: An account of the commentaries on Genesis 1527–1633 (Chapel Hill, 1948).

BL Ms. Add. 28001, fols 89^r-v, 90^r. For Oxinden's poems praising Ross as “Scotland's Mars”, see BL Ms. Add. 28009, fols 98^r–99^r; Ross , Mystagogus poeticus, or The muses interpreter, 2nd edn (London, 1648), sigs. A4^v–[A5]^v; Russell , History of King Edward VI School (ref. 23), 161–2.

CUL Mss. Dd.12.30, fols 89^rff, 144^v–151^r; L1.5.19, fols 122^v–123^v; Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 4–5, 12; Davies J. , The Caroline captivity of the Church: Charles I and the remoulding of Anglicanism, 1625–1641 (Oxford, 1992), 39–43; Anderson R. C. (ed.), The book of examinations and depositions, 1622–1644 (4 vols, Southampton, 1929–36), i, 106–7; Figgis J. N. (ed. by Elton G. R. ), The divine right of kings (New York, 1965), 18.

Such opportunism at moments of ‘conjuncture’ was a recognized strategy in early modern courts, and was employed by Galileo: Biagioli , Galileo, courtier (ref. 6), 30–36.

There is a massive literature on this subject. The best starting-point is now Fincham K. (ed.), The early Stuart Church, 1603–42 (London, 1993).

Links between politics and the passions are further specified in Johns A. , “The physiology of reading and the anatomy of enthusiasm”, in Cunningham A. Grell O. (eds), Religio Medici: Religion and medicine in seventeenth-century England (Aldershot, 1997), 136–70.

Trevor-Roper H. R. , Archbishop Laud, 2nd edn (London, 1965), 117; Heylyn P. , Cyprianus Anglicus (London, 1668), 314–15. For the puritan reaction see Morgan J. , Godly learning: Puritan attitudes towards reason, learning and education, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1986), chap. 11. Compare Bacon's analogous pronouncements, discussed in Martin J. , Francis Bacon, the state, and the reform of natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1992), 56–63.

Sharpe K. , “Archbishop Laud and the University of Oxford”, in Sharpe , Politics and ideas (ref. 16), 101–22; Tyacke N. , “Science and religion at Oxford before the Civil War”, in Pennington D. Thomas K. (eds), Puritans and revolutionaries (Oxford, 1978), 73–93; Mallet C. E. , A history of the University of Oxford, ii (London, 1924), 303–48.

Ward G. R. M. , Oxford University statutes (2 vols, London, 1845–51), i, passim; Fletcher A. J. Stevenson J. , “Introduction”, in Fletcher Stevenson (eds), Order and disorder in early modern England (Cambridge, 1985), 1–40, esp. p. 35; McGee J. S. , “William Laud and the outward face of religion”, in DeMolen R. L. (ed.), Leaders of the Reformation (London, 1984), 318–44, esp. p. 327; Buxton L. H. D. Gibson S. , Oxford University ceremonies (Oxford, 1935), 30–32. For the “virtuous education of youth” as the function of universities, see Curtis M. H. , Oxford and Cambridge in transition, 1558–1642: An essay on changing relations between the English universities and English society (Oxford, 1959), 228.

Kusukawa S. , The transformation of natural philosophy: The case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge, 1995); Dear P. , “Jesuit mathematical science and the reconstitution of experience in the early seventeenth century”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, xviii (1987), 133–75; French R. K. , William Harvey's natural philosophy (Cambridge, 1994).

Certainly, another apparently conservative field, patristics, was put to such use: Davies , Caroline captivity (ref. 26; to be used with some caution), 51–60, 86; Fincham K. , Prelate as pastor: The episcopate of James I (Oxford, 1990), 9–11; Trevor-Roper H. , “The Church of England and the Greek Church in the time of Charles I”, in Trevor-Roper , From Counter-Reformation to Glorious Revolution (London, 1992), 83–112.

Tyacke , “Science and religion” (ref. 31), 86; Sharpe , Politics and ideas (ref. 16), 8–9, 32–38; Feingold M. , The mathematicians' apprenticeship: Science, universities and society in England, 1560–1640 (Cambridge, 1984), passim; Ward , Statutes (ref. 32), i, 17–22, 28, 272–84; Curtis , Oxford and Cambridge in transition (ref. 32), 227–60; Madan F. , Oxford books (3 vols, Oxford, 1895–1931), i. Kearney , Scholars and gentlemen (ref. 18), 77–82, 86–87, 91, 94 identifies the resurgence of scholasticism as a distinctively “court” philosophy originating in the 1590s. He denies a connection with Laudianism, but notes that the peak in purchasing of such texts was in 1637. Kearney includes evidence of students' experiences as well as of statutes; for more, see Costello W. T. , The scholastic curriculum at early seventeenth-century Cambridge (Cambridge, Mass., 1958).

Strode W. , The floating island (London, 1655), reprinted in Dobell B. (ed.), The poetical works of William Strode (1600–1645) (London, 1907), 137–240; Russell H. K. , “Tudor and Stuart dramatizations of the doctrines of natural and moral philosophy”, Studies in philology, xxxi (1934), 1–27; Heylyn , Cyprianus Anglicus (ref. 30), 317–9; Trevor-Roper , Laud (ref. 30), 287–94. For a hostile puritan response see Burton H. , For God, and the King ([Amsterdam?], 1636), 49.

Strode , Floating island (ref. 36; 1655 edn), title page, sigs.A2^r, [F4]^v; Heylyn , Cyprianus Anglicus (ref. 30), 318; Bentley G. E. , The Jacobean and Caroline stage (7 vols, Oxford, 1941–68), v, 1190–92; Boas F. S. (ed.), The diary of Thomas Crosfield (London, 1935), 91. The day after Strode's play, Charles heard a sermon describing his authority over anabaptists, puritans and papists: Mallet , History (ref. 31), 343.

Similar messages were represented in other ceremonial uses of natural and mathematical knowledge, e.g. The Entertainment of the High and Mighty Monarch Charles King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, into his auncient and royall City of Edinburgh (Edinburgh, 1633), 16ff, esp. p. 21; [ Carew T. ], Coelum Britannicum (London, 1634); Coronae Carolinae quadratura (Oxford, 1636). For Charles's view of the political significance of the passions see Sharpe K. , The personal rule of Charles I (New Haven, Ct, 1992), 189–91, 227–30.

Barnard J. , Theologo-historicus, Or the true life of the most reverend divine, and excellent historian Peter Heylyn (London, 1683); Lamont W. M. , Godly rule: Politics and religion, 1603–60 (London, 1969), 46, 58–63; Taylor E. G. R. , Late Tudor and Early Stuart geography (1583–1650) (New York, 1968), 130, 138.

Heylyn P. , A briefe and moderate answer, to the seditious and scandalous challenges of Henry Burton (London, 1637), 75–76, 78–79, 117ff; Heylyn , Cyprianus Anglicus (ref. 30), 329–32; Barnard , Theologo-historicus (ref. 39), 86–91, 141, 184, 215, 259–62. A fuller treatment of Heylyn's work is in Johns A. , “Natural history as print culture”, in Jardine N. Secord J. Spary E. (eds.), Cultures of natural history: From curiosity to crisis (Cambridge, 1996), 106–24.

Barnard , Theologo-historicus (ref. 39), 135–40; Heylyn P. , (London, 1681), p. xii; Calendar of state papers, domestic, 1635–6 , 445. For the importance of the mathematical sciences, see: Bennett J. A. , “The challenge of practical mathematics”, in Pumfrey S. Rossi P. L. Slawinski M. (eds), Science, culture and popular belief in Renaissance Europe (Manchester, 1991), 176–90, esp. pp. 188–9; Bennett , “The mechanics' philosophy and the mechanical philosophy”, History of science, xxiv (1986), 1–28; Willmoth F. , Sir Jonas Moore: Practical mathematics and Restoration science (Woodbridge, 1993); Johnston S. , “Mathematical practitioners and instruments in Elizabethan England”, Annals of science, xlviii (1991), 319–44.

Jardine L. Grafton A. , “‘Studied for action’: How Gabriel Harvey read his Livy”, Past and present, cxxix (1990), 30–78. For the historiographical importance of recovering such reading practices, see: Chartier R. , “Texts, printings, readings”, in Hunt L. (ed.), The new cultural history (Berkeley, 1989), 154–75; Chartier (ed.), Pratiques de la lecture (Paris, 1985), passim; Martin H.-J. , “Pour une histoire de la lecture”, in Martin , Le livre français sous l'Ancien Régime (Paris, 1987), 227–46; Darnton R. , “History of reading”, in Burke P. (ed.), New perspectives on historical writing (Cambridge, 1991), 140–67; Sherman W. H. , John Dee: The politics of reading and writing in the English Renaissance (Amherst, 1995), 53–78.

Heylyn , (ref. 41), pp. ix–x; Barnard , Theologo-historicus (ref. 39), 141; Divine and politike observations … upon some lines in the speech of the Arch. B. of Canterbury (n.p., 1638), 10; Greg W. W. , A companion to Arber (Oxford, 1967), 314; Prynne W. , A new discovery of the prelates tyranny (London, 1641), 9; Gardiner S. R. (ed.), Documents relating to the proceedings against William Prynne, in 1634 and 1637 (London, 1877), 16, 18, 20, 32, 34; Butler M. , Theatre and crisis 1632–1642 (Cambridge, 1984), 314 n.2; CUL MS. Dd.6.23, p. 29.

Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 11–12; Ross A. , Arcana microcosmi: Or, The hid secrets of mans body disclosed (London, 1651), sig. G3^r-v; Ross , Gods House, or the House of Prayer, vindicated from prophanenesse and sacriledge (London, 1642). For earlier sermons on the same theme, see CUL Ms. Dd.12.30, fols 14^r, 26^r. In his unpublished tract on Genesis, Ross defended the ecclesaistical legitimacy of music, another of Laud's idées fixes, as well as of ceremonies: CUL Ms. L1.5.19, fols 79^v, 124^v–125^r.

Anderson , Book of examinations (ref. 26), iv, 36; Ross , Gods House, or the House of Prayer (ref. 44), sig. A2^r-v; Ross A. , Gods House made a den of theeves. Delivered in a second sermon in Southampton (London, 1642), passim; [ Ross? A. ], Religions lotterie (London, 1642), passim, esp. sig. A2^r. Heylyn Compare , Cyprianus Anglicus (ref. 30), 315. For Simon Magus see Flint V. , The rise of magic in early medieval Europe (Oxford, 1991). See also another Ross sermon: CUL Ms. Dd.12.30, fols 25^r–31^v, 96^r–100^r. By August the royal magistrates too had left Southampton: Two petitions (London, 1642: BL E.112(9)); Good newes from South-Hampton (London, 1642: BL E.130(13)). Ross was formally deprived in 1645: Matthews A. G. , Walker revised (Oxford, 1948), 189.

Cudworth R. , A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons (Cambridge, 1647), reprinted in Patrides C. A. (ed.), The Cambridge Platonists (Cambridge, 1980; orig. 1969), 90–127, esp. pp. 90–91.

Webster C. , The Great Instauration: Science, medicine and reform, 1626–1660 (London, 1975), esp. pp. 73–74, 183.

Gardiner D. (ed.), The Oxinden and Peyton Letters 1642–1670 (London, 1937), 74–77, 133–4; Urquhart T. , EKΣKYBAAAYPON (London, 1652), 171–6; Wise , Thomas Browne's Religio Medici (ref. 1), 165–7; Whitlocke R. , ZOOTOMIA: Or, Observations on the present manners of the English (London, 1654), sig. Q4^v; Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 16, 625; Osborne F. , A miscellany of sundry essayes, paradoxes, and problematicall discourses (London, 1659), sig. (a)4^r-v. See also bookseller Saywell's John defences of Ross, in (2nd edn, London, 1655), sig. A3^r-v.

For Royston, see Potter L. , Secret rites and secret writing: Royalist literature 1641–1660 (Cambridge, 1989), 7–12. For Flesher Young , see Blagden C. , The Stationers' Company: A history, 1403–1959 (London, 1960), 138ff.

This and the following paragraph are based on my forthcoming The nature of the book: Knowledge and print in early modern England (Chicago), esp. chap. 2. See also Shapin , Social history of truth (ref. 7), 43–52.

Wither G. , The schollers purgatory (London, 1624).

Ross , Medicus medicatus (ref. 2), 79–80; Ross , “A needfull Caveat” (ref. 4), title page.

Ross , The marrow of historie (ref. 4), sig. A5^r-v.

van Lansberg P. , Commentationes in motum Terrae diurnum, & annum (Middelburg, 1630), sig. A2^r-v, 1–14, 61–65; Lansberg , Progymnasmatum astronomiae restitutae (Middelburg, 1628), 61. See also Lansberg , Chronologiae Sacrae Libri III (Middelburg, 1625), Uranometriae libri tres (Middelburg and Leiden, 1631), and Tabulae motuum coelestium perpetuae (Middelburg, 1632). Westman , “Astronomer's role” (ref. 6), and Jardine N. , The birth of history and philosophy of science: Kepler's A defence of Tycho against Ursus with essays on its provenance and significance (Cambridge, 1984), 225–57, address the disciplinary issue at stake in Lansberg's argument. There is a comprehensive survey of Calvinist approaches to Copernicanism in Marcel P. , “Calvin et Copernic: La légende ou les faits? La science et l'astronomie chez Calvin”, Revue Réformée, xxxi (1980), 1–210.

Froidmont L. , Meteorologicum libri sex (Antwerp, 1627), sig. **2^r, 41, 45, 196; Froidmont , Labyrinthus sive de compositione continui liber unus (Antwerp, 1631), esp. pp. 131, 176; Froidmont , Ant-Aristarchus sive orbis-terrae immobilis (Antwerp, 1631), sigs. *4^r–**2^r, 100–9; Froidmont , Vesta, sive Ant-Aristarchi Vindex (Antwerp, 1634), passim, esp. pp. 24–25, 82, 96–97, 142 (this last tract also defended the 1633 condemnation of Galileo).

Birch T. , The history of the Royal Society of London (4 vols, London, 1756–7), iv, 445.

Carpenter N. , Achitophel: Or, the picture of a wicked politician ([London], 1629), 10–13, 28; Carpenter , Geography delineated (Oxford, 1625), 75–77, 93 and passim; Carpenter , Chorazin and Bethsaide's woe (London, 1633), sig. E1^r-v; Carpenter , Philosophia libera (Oxford, 1622), 271–99, 389; Wood A. À , Athenae Oxoniensis , 3rd edn (4 vols, London, 1813–20), ii, 422; Tyacke , “Science and religion” (ref. 31), 80–81; Russell J. L. , “The Copernican system in Great Britain”, in Dobrzycki J. (ed.), The reception of Copernicus' heliocentric theory (Dordrecht, 1973), 189–239, esp. p. 210.

Ross A. , Commentum de Terrae motu circulari (London, 1634), sigs A2^r–A3^r; compare his 1638 tract on Genesis: CUL Ms. L1.5.19, fol. 129^r.

Ross , Commentum (ref. 58), 61–62; [Ross] , Leviathan drawn out with a hook (London, 1653), 93.

Ross , Commentum (ref. 58), 17. Ross consistently maintained that astrologers were “pestilent members in a commonwealth” who must not be tolerated: E.g. CUL Ms. L1.5.19, fol. 36^r. Contrast a mathematical practitioner's assertion that in Old Testament times only “mathematici” could be made “Bishops or Priests“: Wing V. Leybourne W. , Urania practica (London, 1649), sig. A3^v.

Contrast, for example, Carew's Coelum Britannicum, a masque performed by Charles and his courtiers at Whitehall in early 1634, the subject of which was the king's disciplining of the passions personified by the celestial constellations. It was reckoned an enormous success. For Ross's dismissal by Gassendi and Boulliaud, see de Waard C. Pintard R. (eds), Correspondance du Père Marin Mersenne (Paris, 1932–70), iv, 324–6, 348.

Compare the difficulties faced by Galileo's would-be successors, as speculated upon by M. Biagioli: “Scientific revolution, social bricolage, and etiquette”, in Porter R. Teich M. (eds), The Scientific Revolution in national context (Cambridge, 1992), 11–54, esp. p. 22.

For Saye, see Kishlansky M. A. , “Saye no more”, Journal of British studies, xxx (1991), 399–448, and Kishlansky's long debate with J. S. Adamson cited therein.

Blagden C. , “The Stationers' Company in the Civil War period”, The library, 5th ser., xiii (1958), 1–17. For the little that is known about the reception of Wilkins's early works, see Shapiro , Wilkins (ref. 1).

By analogy with Darnton R. , The business of enlightenment: A publishing history of the ‘Encyclopédie,’ 1775–1800 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979). For Sparke , see (with caution) Rostenberg L. , Literary, political, scientific, religious and legal publishing, printing and bookselling in England, 1551–1700 (New York, 1965), 161–202, and Plomer H. R. , “Michael Sparke, Puritan bookseller”, The bibliographer, i (1902), 409–19.

Hilberry C. (ed.), The poems of John Collop (Madison, 1962), 68–69; Suckling J. Sir , Fragmenta aurea , 3rd edn (London, 1658), “Last remains”, 7; Sparke M. , Crumms of comfort , 6th edn (London, 1627); [ Sparke ], The second part of crums of comfort (London, 1652), 7–9; PRO SP 16/142.22.

[Wilkins] J. , The discovery of a world in the Moone: Or, A discourse tending to prove, that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet (London, 1638), sigs π^v, A3^r-v, 4–5, 22. There were two printings of The discovery in 1638, with minor changes between them: McColley G. , “The second edition of The discovery of a world in the Moone”, Annals of science, i (1936), 330–4. In the seventeenth century, a “paradox” was a statement true but regarded commonly as absurd. In the OED, three of the five seventeenth-century uses cited relate to Copernicanism. Carpenter's Philosophia libera was a set of such “paradoxes” (sig ¶8^v).

Reynolds E. , Meditations on the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Last Supper (London, 1638), 73–74, 103. The second edition (1639) used the same ornaments as Wilkins's Discovery.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 67, 1638), 36–37; [Wilkins] J. , The discovery of a new world or, a discourse tending to prove, that 'tis probable there may be another habitable world in the Moone (London, 1640: Book I of A discourse concerning a new world & another planet. In 2 bookes), 30–33.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 67, 1638), 39, 50; [Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 69, 1640), 39, 46.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 67, 1638), 83–84, 86, 121, 144–5; [ Wilkins ], Discovery (ref. 69, 1640), 81–82, 84, 119–21, 146.

For Wilkins's probabilism see Shapiro B. J. , Probability and certainty in seventeenth-century England (Princeton, 1983), 40, 46.

[Wilkins] J. , A discourse concerning a new planet. Tending to prove, that 'tis probable our Earth is one of the planets (London, 1640: Book II of A discourse concerning a new world & another planet. In 2 bookes), sig. aa3^r.

Peacham H. (ed. by Heltzel V. B. ), The complete gentleman (Ithaca, 1962), 189; [ More H. ], Enthusiasmus triumphatus (London, 1656), 52; Casaubon M. , Of credulity and incredulity (London, 1668), 31; Hobbes T. , “A dialogue between a philosopher and a student of the Common Laws of England”, in Molesworth W. (ed.), The English works of Thomas Hobbes (11 vols in 12, London, 1839–45), vi, 1–160, esp. p. 97; Lawson G. (ed. by Condren C. ), Politica sacra et civilis (Cambridge, 1992), 3–5. For Hobbes on the imagination and its restraint, see Skinner Q. , Reason and rhetoric in the philosophy of Hobbes (Cambridge, 1996), 188–98, 370–374.

Davis J. C. , “Religion and the struggle for freedom in the English Revolution”, Historical journal, xxxv (1992), 507–30, esp. pp. 514–15; Shapiro , Wilkins (ref. 1), 55.

[Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), sig. aa4^r-v, 4–5.

[Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 19–20, 94–95.

[Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 179; compare Wilkins , Of the principles and duties of natural religion (London, 1678), 138–9, 203–4.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 69, 1640), 18–20, 38–39, 119, 136–7, 189–90; [ Wilkins ], Discourse (ref. 73), 4, 11–14, 17–22, 30–36, 38–40, 103, 193.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 69, 1640), 203–42, 118–20, 189–90; [Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 32. See also Wilkins J. , A discourse concerning the beauty of Providence (London, 1649), sig. A3^r, 47, and passim; Democritus turned states-man (London, 1659: BL E985.12), 3–4.

[Wilkins] , Discovery (ref. 69, 1640), 77–91; [Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 14–23. The descent warrants comparison with that proposed by Galileo, one of its most likely sources: “Letter to the Grand Duchess Christina”, in Finocchiaro M. A. (ed.), The Galileo affair: A documentary history (Berkeley, 1989), 87–118, esp. p. 97. For the continuing importance of constructing such traditions, and their uses in the defence of original claims, see Dear P. , Discipline and experience: The mathematical way in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago, 1995), 93–123, and Jardine , Birth of history and philosophy of science (ref. 54), 258–86.

[Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 217–34.

[Wilkins] , Discourse (ref. 73), 237 and 233–46 passim.

Glenn , Mystagogus (ref. 1), 9. Robert Watt cited a 1640 edition of “The vanishing of the new planett or a Refutation of a late discourse tending to prove that the Earth may be one of he Plannetts. by Alexander Rosse”, as the Stationers' Register called it: Bibliotheca Britannica (4 vols, Edinburgh, 1824), ii, 816.

Ross , Medicus medicatus (ref. 2), 80; Ross , “Needfull caveat” (ref. 4), passim; Champion J. A. I. , The pillars of priestcraft shaken: The Church of England and its enemies, 1660–1730 (Cambridge, 1992), 104–5.

Ross A. , The new planet no planet: Or, the Earth no wandring star: Except in the wandring heads of Galileans (London, 1646), 1–2, 61.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), 116–18.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), 113–14.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), sig. A2^r-v, 2, 5, 47. The dedication of Ross's tract to Lord Berkeley, for four years Wilkins's patron, was accompanied by an explicit hint that he knew perfectly well who his opponent was.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), sig. A2^v, 1–2, 6–10; Ross , Gods House, or the House of Prayer (ref. 44), 10–11.

The Kings Maiesties speech, as it was delivered the second of November before the University and City of Oxford (London, 1642), 6–7; Ross A. , The picture of conscience drawne to the life (London, 1646), sigs. A5^r-v.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), 60, 63; compare Collop J. , Medici Catholicon (London, 1656), 40.

Ross , New planet no planet (ref. 86), 13.

Shapin S. Schaffer S. J. , Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the experimental life (Princeton, N.J., 1985), 79, 92–109, 344; Latour B. , We have never been modern (New York, 1993), 26.

Apart from Newton, Galileo and Boyle (all cited above), figures struggling with similar problems of reconciling civility with authorship included Descartes and Gassendi (for whom see Kroll R. W. F. , The material word: Literate culture in the Restoration and early eighteenth century (Baltimore, 1991)).

Keeble N. H. Nuttall G. F. , Calendar of the correspondence of Richard Baxter (2 vols, Oxford, 1991), i, 158; see also p. 152. Tillotson maintained in his introduction to Wilkins's posthumous Sermons preached upon several occasions (London, 1682) that all that had been saved at Oxford during the Interregnum was to be attributed to him: Sigs. A3^v–A4^r. For “World in the Moon” Wilkins, see Lord have mercy upon us, or the Visitation at Oxford (“Pembrook and Montgomery” [i.e. Oxford], 1648), 7, and Pegasus, or the flying horse from Oxford (“Printed, at Montgomery, heretofore called Oxford“, 1648), 10; Shapiro , Wilkins (ref. 1), 81–87.

Wilkins , Sermons (ref. 96), 188–9; [ Wilkins J. Ward S. ], Vindiciae academiarum (Oxford, 1654), 5–6, 29–32.

Ross A. , Mel Heliconium (London, 1642), 2–3 (and 57–60 for astronomers); Stillingfleet E. , Irenicum: A weapon-salve for the Churches wounds (London, 1661), sig. A3^v; Wilkins , Sermons (ref. 96), 165–96, esp. pp. 170–1, 173–6, 184; Wilkins J. , Ecclesiastes, or, A Discourse concerning the gift of preaching as it fals under the rules of art (London, 1646), 8–10; Shapiro , Wilkins (ref. 1), 94–95, 102–3.

Wilkins , Sermons (ref. 96), 235–61, 268, 392–5, 407–8, 413–15. Compare the account of civility in the Republic of Letters in Goldgar A. , Impolite learning: Conduct and community in the republic of letters, 1680–1750 (New Haven, 1995). For Wilkins's continuing advocacy of the maintenance of peace through communication, see Stillman R. E. , “Invitation and engagement: Ideology and Wilkins' philosophical language”, Configurations, i (1995), 1–26.

Lloyd W. , A sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, John late Lord Bishop of Chester (London, 1678), 40–47; Tillotson J. , “The Publisher to the Reader”, in Wilkins , Sermons (ref. 96), sigs. A2^r–A4^v, esp. A2^v; Lamont W. M. , Richard Baxter and the millennium: Protestant imperialism and the English Revolution (London, 1979), 213–14, 220. It is worth stating explicitly that the Ross–Wilkins exchange has little to tell us of the specific practice of experimenting. Wilkins used the term ‘experiment’ most often to refer to a celestial observation that was uncontroversial among astronomers, such as the diurnal rising and setting of comets (Discourse, 209 (ref. 73); compare 19). He referred only rarely to contrived terrestrial trials.

Grafton A. , “Kepler as a reader”, Journal of the history of ideas, liii (1992), 561–72; Blair A. , “Tycho Brahe's critique of Copernicus and the Copernican system”, Journal of the history of ideas, li (1990), 355–77.