THE ROBERT BOYLE PROJECT

Queries for The Correspondence of Robert Boyle

A complete edition of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle is in an advanced state of preparation; the text of the entire edition is now in proof, and work is in progress on proof-correcting, indexing, and following up queries that have hitherto proved intractable.

At this stage, the editors are particularly anxious to identify all those who are known to have written letters to Boyle. These fall into two groups. One comprises the authors of letters that are still extant: since the letters in question provide various clues as to the identity of their authors, we have included a brief note of these here, together with a reference to the original MS of the letter in question in the Boyle Letters at the Royal Society: those who have access to the University Publications of America microfilm of the archive will therefore be able to examine the originals for themselves (the Boyle Letters comprise reels 1 and 2 of the UPA Boyle microfilm).

Secondly, a number of letters were tabulated in the years around 1700 by the scholar William Wotton, who made extensive preparations for a life of Boyle that never materialised (for details, see Michael Hunter, Robert Boyle by Himself and his Friends, London, 1994,, pp. xxxviff.). Wotton's list includes a number of correspondents of Boyle's whose letters are now lost, and whom we have not been able to trace: these are as follows (we list the entry for each relevant letter, including its date and its number in Wotton's list, which will be printed in full in volume 6 of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle):

No. in
Wotton's list
Boyle's
correspondent
Date of letter
12 Mr Maundy 1656
41 Mr Willmaine 1661
89 W.B. 1666
126 Msr Reiser 1671
128 Msr Reiselias 1671
141 Dr Herault 1674
150 Msr Porrey 1677
151-2 Msr Vauquelin (or Vanquelin)--
2 letters		 1677
158 Mr Terry 1677
159 Msr Lindenon 1678
171 Msr Gheisler 1678
187 Msr Bourgeois f[rom] Barbadoes 1681
226 Msr Le Sage 1685
246 Sre Plati 1686
281 Msr Tournory 1690
284 Msr Langen 1691
286 Msr. de L'Angle
?
290 Madm. Davigni
?
310 Mezolahi [?]
?
313 Mr. Raworth
?

 

In addition, a list of letters made by Henry Miles, who assisted Thomas Birch in preparing the principal previous edition of Boyle's correspondence in 1744, includes a number of letters, now lost, from figures whom we have not been able to identify. We single out two:

The extant letters of correspondents about whom we would like to know more are as follows:

There are also the following undated letters:

If you can supply the identifications of any of these correspondents, or can provide any further information about these letters, please direct your comments to Michael Hunter (m.hunter@history.bbk.ac.uk)

 

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