About the Book
"The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, 1636-1691" is the first edition of Boyle's correspondence transcribed, mostly for the first time, from the original manuscripts. It is fully annotated, with an introduction and comprehensive general index. "The Correspondence of Robert Boyle" is a British Academy Research Project. Robert Boyle (1627-91) was not only one of the founders of modern Western science but also a key figure in late 17th-century English culture. Himself a prolific and innovative experimenter, he was at the centre of a network of figures with similar interests. These included some of the most important European intellectuals of his day, together with many leading figures in the most innovative and influential scientific institution of the 17th century, the Royal Society. This is the first complete edition of Boyle's correspondence. More than a third of the letters presented here have never before been published, while the text of others is more complete and accurate than hitherto. Boyle's surviving correspondence is with over 300 men and women.
They range from luminaries such as the philosopher, John Locke, or the churchman and politician, Gilbert Burnet, to men who are little known - figures like the shadowy French alchemist, Georges Pierre, or the New England physician, William Avery. Yet these correspondence are hardly less significant than the celebrities for understanding Boyle's milieu, and the new edition is important not least for the light it throws on the circles of alchemists and chemists in Boyle's period in England and abroad, whose activities are otherwise barely known and have yet to be fully explored. Boyle's piety was celebrated, many of this letters are to clergymen who advised him in his spiritual life, while his charity to those in need is reflected by various letters seeking his assistance, not least from Hugenot refugees from the France of Louis XIV. "The Correspondence" also illustrates Boyle's active role in the promotion of Protestant Christianity. For nearly thirty years as Governor of the Corporation for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (the New England Company), his profound interest in the affairs of that body is illustrated by many letters.
Other letters give details of Boyle's involvement in projects to promulgate a Gaelic translation of the Bible in Ireland and in the Scottish Highlands. The correspondence also provides crucial materials for Boyle's own life as a member of a distinguished Anglo-Irish family. His earliest letters are to his father, the great Earl of Cork, while subsequent ones throw light on his land holdings in Ireland and on his relations with his brothers, sisters and other members of his family.
Table of Contents:
Boyle's principal correspondents: John Aubrey (1626-97), virtuoso and author; William Avery (d.1687), Boston doctor; Thomas Barlow (1607-91), Bodley's librarian and bishop; Richard Baxter (1615-91), Presbyterian divine, Pierre Bayle (1647-1706), critic; John Beale (1608-83), divine and natural philosopher; Edward Bernard (1638-96), Oxford professor; Olaus Borrichius (1626-90), Danish chemist and savant; Gilbert Burnet (1643-1715), churchman and politician; Frederick Clodius (fl. 1650-70), chemist and projector; Samuel Colepresse (d.1669), medical student and virtuoso; Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (1566-1643), Boyle's father; Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork (1612-97), Boyle's elder brother; Charles Boyle, Lord Clifford (1639-94), Boyle's nephew; Samuel Collins (1619-70), physician and traveller; Daniel Coxe (1640-1730), physician and natural philosopher; Ralph Cudworth (1617-88), Cambridge Platonist; Peter du Moulin (1601-84), divine and author; John Eliot (1604-90), missionary; John Endecott (1588?-1665), Governor of New England; John Evelyn (1620-1707), diarist and virtuoso; Nicolas Fatio de Duiller (1664-1753), natural philosopher; John Fell (1625-86), Bishop of Oxford; Joseph Glanvill (1636-80), divine and author; Valentine Greatrakes (1629-83), Irish 'stroker'; Samuel Hartlib (c.1600-62), intelligencer; Nathaniel Highmore (1613-85), physician and natural philosopher; Robert Hooke (1635-1703), natural philosopher and inventor; Robert Huntington (1637-1701), orientalist and divine; Thomas Hyde (1636-1703), Bodley's librarian and orientalist; Henry Jones (1605-82), divine; Henri Justel (1620-93), Huguenot librarian; James Kirkwood (1650?-1708), divine; Jean Le Clerc (1657-1736), philosopher and theologian; Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), microscopist; Nicholas Lemery (1645-1715), chemist; John Locke (1632-1704), philosopher; Richard Lower (1631-91), physician and anatomist; Sir John Mallet (c.1623-86), Recorder of Bridgewater and MP; Narcissus Marsh (1638-1713), churchman; Guy de Mesmin, French Protestant physician; Sir Robert Moray (1608-73), statesman; Henry More (1614-87), Cambridge Platonist; Allen Moulin (d.1690), anatomist; New England Company; Isaac Newton (1647-1727), mathematician and natural philosopher; Henry Oldenburg (1618-77?), first Secretary of the Royal Society; Margaret Boyle, Countess of Orrery (1623-89), Boyle's sister-in-law; Denis Papin (1647-c.1712), natural philosopher and inventor; William Penn (1644-1718), Quaker and colonialist; Sir William Petty (1623-87), political economist; Georges Pierre (d.1680), alchemist; Edward Pococke (1604-91), orientalist; Henry Power (1623-68), physician and natural philosopher; Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh (1614-91), Boyle's sister; Richard Jones, 3rd Earl of Ranelagh (1641-1712), Boyle's nephew; Sir Paul Rycaut (1629-1700), diplomat and writer; Andrew Sall (1612-82), Jesuit convert and divine; William Seaman (1607-80), orientalist; Robert Sharrock (1630-84), divine and author; Sir Robert Southwell (1635-1702), statesman and diplomat; George Starkey (1628-65), chemist; Henry Stubbe (1632-76), physician and controversialist; Thomas Sydenham (1624-1718), physician; Daubeney Turberville (1612-96), physician; James Tyrrell (1642-1718), political writer; John Wallis (1616-1703), Oxford professor; Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick (1624-78), Boyle's sister; Heneage Finch, 2nd Earl of Winchilsea (d.1689), diplomat and author; John Winthrop (1606-76), Governor of Connecticut; Benjamin Worsley (1618-77), natural philosopher and projector
About the Author :
Michael Hunter (Author) , Antonio Clericuzio (Author) , Lawrence M Principe (Author)
Review :
'... the most important reason [for emerging research on Boyle] is the extraordinarily intensive and extensive work of Michael Hunter, who has done more for Boyle studies than anyone before him (or, one might almost say, than all previous Boyle scholars put together). Apart from writing and editing volumes of essays on Boyle, he has also produced the first scholarly catalogue of the Boyle papers; he has edited (with Edward Davis) Boyle's works, in fourteen volumes; and now, with Antonio Clericuzio and [Lawrence] Principe, he has produced the first ever edition of Boyle's complete correspondence, in six volumes containing more than 3,000 pages... This is a monumental work of scholarship, an indispensable resource for all future studies of Boyle's life and thought... we should be grateful that a publisher such as Pickering & Chatto is willing to produce such a superbly old-fashioned edition - old fashioned, that is, in its attention to layout, footnotes, indexing and sheer readability... These modern keepers of the flame have done their work so well that it strongly deserves, one feels, to be kept in such a durable form, with no risk of disappearing in an electronic puff of smoke.' - Noel Malcolm, The Times Literary Supplement 'The readers of On the Boyle, who have just started to appreciate the riches of the recently published The Works of Robert Boyle, have now been presented with the worthy sequel to this most important event in the history of the Boyle industry: the eagerly-awaited new edition of Robert Boyle's letters has now come from the press. The Correspondence of Robert Boyle is published in six volumes, by the same publisher, in the same binding-cloth design, and, most importantly, up to the same high scholarly standard which graces The Works. There is also a continuity of editorship between the two editions, exemplified in the person of Michael Hunter; yet, for this project Antonio Clericuzio and Lawrence Principe have taken the torch from Edward Davis, to join Hunter in an effort to master the challenges of this other, quite different, editorial enterprise. Their aim has been achieved with remarkable success; by merit both of what is included and the way it is presented, the new edition is an exceptional book, which is bound to enrich in many ways our understanding of Boyle and the world he lived in.' - Iordan V Avramov, On the Boyle
