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Oldenburg and the art of Scientific Communication*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Marie Boas Hall
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Extract

For fifteen years, from 1662 until his death in 1677, Henry Oldenburg served the Royal Society as second Secretary and was charged with almost the entire burden of its correspondence, domestic and foreign. During this time he acted as a centre for the communication of scientific news, searching out new sources of information, encouraging men everywhere to make their work public, acting as an intermediary between scientists and, through the Philosophical Transactions, providing a medium for the publication of short scientific papers. Oldenburg's contribution to scientific communication was unique in the seventeenth century, not least because he represented the Royal Society (of which he was an original Fellow) and served all its members impartially. It is not too much to say that he invented the professions of scientific administrator and scientific journalist.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , December 1965 , pp. 277 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1965

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References

1 The sources for Oldenburg's early life lie almost entirely in the Bremen Archives. Cf. Introduction (pp. xxxiii ff.)Google Scholar of Volume i of his Correspondence, and Hall, A. Rupert and Hall, Marie Boas, “Some Hitherto Unknown Facts about the Private Career of Henry Oldenburg”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, xviii (1963), 94–103CrossRefGoogle Scholar, the former dealing with his life up to 1662, the latter with his whole life.

2 Cf. his letter to Vossius, G. J., 16 08 1641, Correspondence, i, 3–7.Google Scholar

3 In 1667 he cited the “faithfull and laborious service, I have done for England, both by conducting severall English young Noblemen, and by employing myselfe otherwise…”, Correspondence, iii, 449.Google Scholar Cf. also his letters to various young Englishmen in the 1650's, in Correspondence, i.Google Scholar

4 He wrote (on 6 July 1654): “I have more than once thought of replying to your Latin letters in English, to give you every possible opportunity of writing as well as of speaking English, as I have no doubt you can with equal accuracy. You have indeed learnt to speak our language more accurately and fluently than any other foreigner I have ever known.”

5 See Correspondence, i, 74–76.Google Scholar

6 There is a whole series of letters between Oldenburg and the Senate of Bremen in 1653 and 1654; these are printed with translations in Correspondence, i.

7 Cf. Oldenburg's letter to Adam Boreel of April 1656 (Correspondence, i, 89–92)Google Scholar, and that to Lawrence of the same month (92–95).

8 Scientfiic Organizations in Seventeenth-Century France (Baltimore, 1934).Google Scholar

9 Cf., e.g. Oldenburg, to Hartlib, , 20 04 1659, Correspondence, i, 220.Google Scholar

10 Hooke, 's “Answer to some Particular Claims of M. Cassini's, in his Original and Progress of Astronomy” was first published in Philosophical Experiments (London, 1726), ed. by Derham, W.Google Scholar; the relevant extract was published in Weld, C. R., A History of the Royal Society (London, 1848), i, 37–38.Google Scholar It must be emphasized that Hooke was not associated with the Royal Society until the time of the first charter (1662), whereas Oldenburg was a member from the very beginning of 1661, having been on the list of possible members drawn up 28 November 1660.

11 Letter of 2 August 1659 N.S.; Correspondence, i, 287.Google Scholar

12 Correspondence, i, 404–406.Google Scholar

13 See Birch, T., History of the Royal Society (London, 1756), i, 15, 23, 29, 41, etc.Google Scholar

14 Cf. his correspondence with Henry Power (whom he brought into the Society) in the summer of 1661; British Museum MS. Sloane 1326.

15 On 28 September; cf. Correspondence, ii, 533.Google Scholar

16 Cf. my article “What happened to the Latin edition of Boyle's History of Cold?”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, xvii (1962), 32–35.Google Scholar

17 The documents are printed in Correspondence, iiiGoogle Scholar; see also McKie, Douglas, “The Arrest and Imprisonment of Henry Oldenburg”, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, vi (1948), 28–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Oldenburg believed that the cause of his arrest was his criticism of the incompetent conduct of the Anglo-Dutch War which resulted in the disasters of the Dutch raids of June 1667; it is highly probable that both his arrest and release were the sole responsibility of Lord Arlington, Secretary of State.

18 The final letter is dated 18 February 1662/3, though the draft was dated 7 January. See Correspondence, ii, 25–29.Google Scholar

19 Cf. the letters of the German physician and theologian, Eccard Leichner, printed in Correspondence, ii, 45–48, 130–133.Google Scholar

20 This controversy began in the summer of 1665 and dragged on for two years; the relevant letters will be found in Correspondence, ii and iii.Google Scholar

21 On 3 October 1665 N.S.; cf. Correspondence, ii, 515–520.Google Scholar

22 For Auzout's letter (of 22 August 1665 N.S.) and Oldenburg's translation see Correspondence, ii, 461–475.Google Scholar

23 Cf. Phil. Trans., no. 27 (23 09 1667), 490.Google Scholar

24 Cf. Phil. Trans., no. 25 (6 05 1667), 457–459.Google Scholar

25 Birch, , History, ii, 135 et seq.Google Scholar

26 These volumes were edited by Grew. When they lapsed in 1678 the Society persuaded Hooke to publish what he insisted upon calling Philosophical Collections (1679–82). These were published irregularly, and Phil. Trans., (edited by Robert Plot) was again published at the Society's request in 1683, lapsing only during the troubles of 1688–90; it was once again revived at the insistence of the Society, though it did not officially become the Society's journal until 1750.

27 British Museum Add. MS. 441, f.27. Weld, followed by others, gave this the date 1663, but it must date from a later period—perhaps 1668 or 1669; for before this time the number of correspondents was never so large as this.