THE 17th CENTURY ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC

REVOLUTION(S)
DATES
• major inventions
- 1590: the first microscope is created
- 1608: the telescope is invented
- 1655: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1st scientific journal)
o Peer review, emergence of methodology & technology of modern science

• famous treatises
- 1605: The Advancement of Learning, Francis Bacon (Tripartite division of knowledge)
o Poesy springing from the imagination
o History springing from memory
o Philosophy springing from reason
- 1620: Novum Organum, Francis Bacon
o going beyond the confines of classical science (pillars of Hercules: limits of
knowledge)
o attempts to replace Aristotelian deduction with inductive reasoning from observation
- 1627: The New Atlantis, Francis Bacon
o Utopian land in which collaborative effort to expand knowledge of the natural world
o First attempt to link science & state
- 1628: De Motu Cordis, William Harvey (1st to accurately describe how the blood circulate)
o 1599: went to University of Padua for experiments
o Combined observations, experiments, measurements & hypotheses
o Landmark in history of physiology
- 1660: New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their
Effects, Robert Boyle
- 1664: Sylva, or a Discourse of Forest Trees, John Evelyn
o Response to destruction of forests in England after interregnum
o Inspired landowners of the day to engage in reforestation
o 1st book to be published under Royal Society’s imprimatur
- 1665: Micrographia, Robert Hooke
o 1st book to include illustrations of insects and plants seen through a microscope
o Coined the term “cell” for describing biological organisms
- 1667: The History of the Royal Society of London, Thomas Sprat
o Apology for new experimental science
o Designed to convince Charles II that experimental research = worthwhile investment
- 1687: Principia Mathematica, Isaac Newton

• the beginnings of the Royal Society

- 1645: regular meetings of talented practitioners (“excellent ingenious men”)
o Wadham College, Oxford (embryo of the R.S.)
o Gresham College, Bishopsgate, London
- 1660: “invisible college” (collaborative methodology, teamwork)
o acquisition of knowledge through experimental investigation
o commitment to the advancement of learning, the Baconian project, spirit of inquiry
- 28 November 1660: Royal Society is founded at Gresham College, London
 o Following a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren
- 1662: The Society receives a Royal Charter from Charles II
- 21 Feb 1665: Samuel Pepys elected fellow of the Royal Society
= oldest national scientific institution in the world
• The Royal Greenwich Observatory
- 1675: construction began, designed by Wren
o John Flamsteed was made 1st Astronomer Royal by Charles II
- 1676: building was completed
o Founded by Charles II
o For “the rectifying of the tables of the motions of the heavens, & the places of the
fixed stars
- 1884: adoption of the Greenwich Meridian as the Prime Meridian of the world

• witch trials
- August 1612: The Pendle Trial (most famous witch trial in English history)
o 11 ppl charged w/ murder by witchcraft: 10 were found guilty & handed, 1 died
awaiting
- 1692: Salem witch trials in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony
o 19 convicted witches were hanged & many other suspects imprisoned

TOPICS
• natural philosophy of the 17th century science (“science” : synonym for knowledge or study)
- Svrl scientific revolutions: long process

• Gresham College: built in former mansion of Sir Thomas Gresham

- Was a merchant
- Mediation of finance btw London & Antwerp
o Centre of the sugar business in €pe in the 1570s
= making London a second Antwerp (Royal Exchange, 1571)

• the aim of the Royal Society

- Emphasis on intellectual openness & liberty of new sciences
- Determination to w/stand the domination of authority & verify all statements by an appeal to
facts determined by experiments
- endeavouring to restore peace, correcting the mistakes which had led to the Civil Wars
- strengthening religious belief by demonstrating the elegance, beauty & logic of the Creation
o when examined w/ accurate instruments
= motto: “nullius in verba”, “take nobody’s word for it”

• the Royal Society today: the UK’s national science academy

- A fellowship of some 1,600 of the ⓦ’s most eminent scientists
- Priorities: - Promoting excellence in science
- Supporting international collaboration
- Demonstrating the importance of science to everyone

• evolution of attitudes towards witchcraft

FIGURES
• Giordano Bruno: Italian astronomer, mathematician, philosopher & cosmologist
- Known for his theories of the infinite universe & multiplicity of the worlds
- 1585: gave a lecture at the University of Paris
o Had to escape through a window
= 1600: condemned by the Inquisition for heresy & burned at the stake
- Giving his life for challenging traditional beliefs

• Thomas Harriot: both mathematician & astronomer

- 1585: went on Raleigh’s expedition to Virginia later renamed North Carloina
- Recommended smoking as medificinally beneficial
o “purging superfluous phlegm and other gross humours”
- 1609: Three Drawings of the Moon (same year, same discovery by Galileo Galilei)
- 1631: Artis Analyticae Praxis (signs for “greater than” & “less than”)

• Francis Bacon: heralded the new age of science

- 1626: died after an experiment on chicken (caught bronchitis)

• William Harvey: discovered the circulation of blood in the body

• Christian Huygens: discovered Titan, Saturn’s largest moon (26 March 1655)

• William Petty (1626-87) : anatomist, economist

- 1648: corn engine = mechanical seed drill or grain planter
- Patented a “double-writing” instrument
o Producing an extra copy of a page

• Christopher Wren : English architect, anatomist, astronomer, physicist

- 5 Feb. 1661: elected Savilian Professor of astronomy in Oxford
- 1664-68: Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford
- 1669: appointed surveyor of the King’s Works
= designed & rebuilt churches destroyed after the Great Fire (including St Paul’s Cathedral, 1710)

• Robert Boyle (Anglo-Irish): father to “modern chemistry

- Son to the first Earl of Cork
- Both patron & practitioner
o Used his wealth to support scientific project
= Boyle’s law relation concerning the compression & expansion of a gas at a constant temperature

• Robert Hooke (1653-1703): pioneer in microscopy

• Margaret Cavendish: 1st woman to attend a meeting of the Royal Society

- Duchess of Newcastle
- prominent natural philosopher & writer of poetry, fiction, letters, essays & plays
- Women excluded > mbership of academic institutions
- Protests from the all-male fellows (Pepys recorded the scandal)
= witnessed svrl expriments of “colour, loadstones, microscopes” & was “full of admiration”