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The Hartlib circle and the origins of the Dublin Philosophical Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

K. T. Hoppen
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Type
Correspondence
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Irish Historical Studies , Volume 20 , Issue 77 , March 1976 , pp. 40 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1976

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References

1 This article and my book will be referred to throughout as 4 ‘Barnard’ 5 and ‘Hoppen’ respectively

2 Barnard, pp 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 70. See also his ‘Miles Symner and the new learning in seventeenth-century Ireland’ in R.S.A.LJn., cii (1972), pp 129–42.

3 [ Molyneux, G.], An account of the family and descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux Kt (Evesham, 1820), p. 60.Google Scholar This includes Molyneux’s autobiography written in 1694 and no longer surviving in manuscript. .Another printing (lacking title) is in the Gilbert collection at Dublin Central Library, in which see p. 14. See also Molyneux’s anonymous biographer in the 1730s who noted that his subject c conceived a great dislike to the scholastick learning then [1670s] taught in’ the university (B.M. Add. MS 4223, f. 43V).

4 My italics. See Molyneux’s complaint to John Flamsteed of 22 December 1685 that ‘little has yet been don’ towards promoting astronomy in Ireland. Southampton Corporation Records Office MS D/M 1/1 (Molyneux papers).

5 Barnard’s source merely refers to a ‘Dr Sommers ’, the identification of whom with Symner is surmise.

6 It would be tedious to repeat the details, but see Barnard, pp 59–63, 66–7; Hoppen, 6, 12–13, 26, 55, 62, 113–14, 150, 156, 196–7 I also find it hard to understand Dr Barnard’s remark (p. 67) about my assigning ‘comparatively little space ’ to Petty, as reference to the index of my book will make clear. See also my ‘Sir William Petty’ in History Today χν (1965)5 PP 126–34.

7 Outside the ‘Hartlib circle ’, Dr Barnard can only offer Ware’s antiquarian work (see Hoppen, p. 12), the holding of a medical appointment by William Gurrer, and the botanical researches of Richard Heaton, dean of Glonfert. He does however feel sure that ‘patient research will probably unearth’ more information (Barnard, pp 69–70).

8 In ‘New light on the Invisible College : the social relations of English science in the mid-seventeenth century ” in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5th series, xxiv (1974), pp 19–42, Dr Charles Webster offers a sophisticated reinterpretation of Boyle’s ‘Invisible College ’ and discusses the (largely political) relationships of some of its putative members with Ireland. He does not, however, provide any information of scientific activity in interregnum Ireland additional to that mentioned by Dr Barnard and/or myself.

9 A full biographical list is included in my edition of the papers of the Dublin Philosophical Society which I have completed for the Irish Manuscripts Commission. Formal records are incomplete. No less than nineteen of the society’s members were also fellows (two of them actually presidents) of the Royal Society.

10 Hoppen, p. 11 The ‘rootedness ’ of the society becomes even more apparent when compared with the tenuous evidence presented by Dr Barnard. This evidence is often extraordinarily indirect and tangential, depending as it does on the activities of men ‘but fleetingly in Ireland ’, on Sir Robert King (a settler) having a sister who had married a friend of Hartlib’s, on Viscount Clandeboy’s having ‘considered ’ patronising Comenius (Barnard, p. 71). Despite such ‘man who knew a man who knew Hartlib ’ evidence, Dr Barnard argues that the Hartlib group’s ‘position in Ireland differed little from that of Molyneux and his associates ’ (p. 62).

11 Flamsteed Southampton Corporation Records Office MS D/M I/I Bayle Bayle papers, Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen, MS Thott. 1208 b-c 40 Sloane : B. M. Sloane MSS 4036-8 and Royal Society MS Copy Letter Book 12. Lhuyd Bodl. MS Ashmole 1816 and T.C.D. MS 888/2. Boyle: Royal Society, Boyle Letters, 3, 4, Birch, T., The history of the Royal Society, 4 vols (London, 1756–7), iv, 213–14Google Scholar; The works of the Honourable Robert Boyle, ed. Birch, T., 5 vols (London, 1744), 5 610–11Google Scholar; Royal Society Classified Papers XIV(i), 34. Lister: Bodl. MSS Lister 3, 35–6. Derham : Southampton Corporation Records Office MS D/M 1/2. Evelyn: Evelyn papers, Christ Church Oxford, letters 663, 667 Dodwell Bodl. MS English letters, c.29. Maglia-bechi Magliabechi papers, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence, MS Ol. VIIÌ, ser. I, tom. I. Imhoff : B.M. Add. MS 24929.

12 Molyneux, W, Sciothericum telescopicum (Dublin, 1686),Google Scholar epistle dedicatory ; Royal Society MS Early letters, M.1.86.

13 For an analysis of some of these aspects of the Royal Society’s mores, see my ‘The nature of the early Royal Society ’ in British Journal for the History of Science, ix (1976), 1–24, 243–73.

14 Royal Society MS Early letters, M.1.96. See also B.M. Add. MS 4811, ff 83–4, 140–41, 168V–9, 176; and Bodl. MS English letters, c.29, f. 4v.

15 Bolam, J., ‘The botanical works of Nehemiah Grew F.R.S.’ in Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 27 (1973), p. 225 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also T.G.D. MS 888/i,f.70.

16 Royal Society Classified Papers IX(i), 46c, and XV(i), 51; B.M. Add. MSS 4812, f. 26v, and 4811, f. 96; T.C.D. MS 889, ff 93V-4; Royal Society MS Copy Letter Book 11 (1), pp 192–3; Royal Society MS Early letters, A.41.

17 On this, see several pieces by Charles Webster, including, ‘The authorship and significance of Macaria’ in Past and Present, no. 56 (1972), PP 34–48 ‘The origins of the Royal Society’ in History of Science, no. 6 (1967), pp 106–28, ‘New light on the Invisible College’ in R. Hist. Soc. Trans., 5th series, xxiv (1974), pp 19–42, and the introduction to his edition Samuel Hartlib .and the advancement of learning (Cambridge, 1970). On this general frame of mind, see also the work of Ρ M. Rattansi, including, ‘The intellectual origins of the Royal Society ’ in Notes and Records, xxiii (1968), pp 129–43, ‘The social interpretation of science in the seventeenth century ’ in Science and society 1600–1900, ed. Peter Mathias (Cambridge, 1972), pp 1–32, and ‘Paracelsus and the puritan revolution’ in Ambix, xi (1963), pp 24–32.

18 Hoppen, K.T., ‘The Dublin Philosophical Society and the new learning in Ireland’ in I.H.S., 14 (Sept. 1964), p. 101.Google Scholar

19 Dr Barnard (p. 62) allows that ‘the institutionalisation of science in 1683 was a major change ’, but suggests that’ only pressure of public duties … prevented Hartlib’s friends establishing a formal club 5 This is no more than speculation; no evidence is offered.