Robert Boyle: By Himself and His Friends: With a Fragment of William Wotton's 'Lost Life of Boyle'

by Hunter,Michael

• ISBN13: 9781851960859
• ISBN10: 1851960856
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1994-12-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The image of the 17th-century scientist Robert Boyle owes much to a series of evaluations of him written shortly after his death by men who had known him well, such as John Evelyn, Gilbert Burnet and Sir Peter Pett. These key early appraisals of Boyle by friends and contemporaries were selectively drawn on by Thomas Birch in his 1744 "Life of Boyle" and, through him, they have influenced all subsequent accounts of Boyle. Some of the most important of these documents - including texts by Burnet and Pett - have never been published. In this book, these unpublished and, in some cases, previously suppressed texts, provide a new and fuller image of Robert Boyle and allow a revaluation of his life and work. The book includes Boyle's own autobiographical sketch, "An Account of Philaretus during his Minority", amongst other early biographical texts, and also contains the hitherto unpublished surviving fragment of an ambitious early life of Boyle by William Wotton.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Note on Citations and Abbreviations
Note on Frontispiece
Introduction
The Volume and its Contents
Boyle's Account of Philaretus in Context
Boyle's Later Reminiscences and the 'Burnet Memorandum'
Burnet's 'Official' View of Boyle and the Notes of Sir Peter Pett
Wotton's Life, i: Its Progress and Demise
Wotton's Life, ii: From Panegyric to Intellectual Biography
From Wotton to Birch
The Boyle We Have Lost
Principal Events in the Life of Robert Boyle
Biographical Guide
Note on Texts
An Account of Philaretus during his Minority by Robert Boyle	p. 1
Biographical Notes Dictated by Boyle to his Amanuensis	p. 23
The 'Burnet Memorandum': Notes by Gilbert Burnet on his Biographical Interview(s) with Boyle	p. 26
Burnet's Funeral Sermon, 1692	p. 35
Sir Peter Pett's Notes on Boyle	p. 58
John Evelyn's Letters to William Wotton, 30 March 1696 and 12 September 1703, together with George Stanhope's Letter to Evelyn, 6 September 1703	p. 84
Thomas Dent's Letter to William Wotton, 20 May 1699	p. 103
James Kirkwood's Letter to William Wotton, 22 June 1702	p. 107
Chapter from William Wotton's Life of Boyle	p. 111
Notes to Documents	p. 149
Bibliography	p. 168
Index	p. 180
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