Michael Hunter's key research papers on Boyle

These papers were initially published in various journals and edited volumes, mainly in the 1990s, and many were collected in Professor Hunter's Robert Boyle (1627-91): Scrupulosity and Science (2000). They are now available in full-text form on the Birkbeck Institutional Research Online (BIROn) site as follows:

• How Boyle Became a Scientist (PDF) - explains how he first discovered science only in 1649, when he was 22, and explains why.
• Alchemy, Magic and Moralism in Boyle's Thought (PDF) - shows how he was fascinated by alchemy, but worried lest he be ensnared by the Devil.
• The Conscience of Robert Boyle (PDF) - shows how preoccupied he was by matters of conscience, which yet made him a great experimenter.
• Casuistry in Action (PDF) - publishes the text of Boyle's casuistical interviews with his ecclesiastical advisors in his final year.
• Boyle versus the Galenists (PDF) - publishes Boyle's critique of orthodox medicine and explains why he suppressed it.
• The Reluctant Philanthropist (PDF) - explains Boyle's ambivalence about publishing medical recipes, despite his charitable urge to do so.
• Mapping the Mind of Robert Boyle (PDF) - uses his inventories to explore how he organised his voluminous papers.
• Dilemma of Biography (PDF) - expounds the difficulties faced by his successors in writing a satisfactory life of Boyle
• Magic, Science and Reputation (PDF) - explores the reasons for Boyle's appeal to 'discretion' in deciding not to publish his collection of occult phenomena.
• Self-definition through self-defence (PDF) - expounds Boyle's profuse apologies for the imperfections of his writings and offers a rationale for them.
• Boyle and the Early Royal Society (PDF) - indicates how Boyle learned a sophisticated approach to knowledge-collecting from the Royal Society, rather than vice versa.
• Editing Boyle's Works (PDF) - outlines how the 1999-2000 edition of Boyle provides new insights through careful collation of all extant manuscript and printed texts of his writings.

Note: The image link to this page on the Boyle landing page shows a mezzotint portrait of Bishop Gilbert Burnet, by John Smith. Burnet was a confidant to whom Boyle divulged intimate information.