Academies of Science in the Seventeenth Century, 9-10 Air, And
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Gresham College: Over Four Centuries of Adult Education Raymond Flood
Gresham College: Over four centuries of adult education Raymond Flood Slide: Title Gresham College, in the City of London, was established in 1597 with the founding principle of accessible free education for all. It was funded from the will of the Elizabethan financier Sir Thomas Gresham. In my presentation I will first briefly talk about him and what he wanted to achieve. One of his original seven professorships was in Geometry and this is the oldest professorship of mathematics in England. I will talk about some of the holders of the chair: from Henry Briggs, the first Geometry professor and creator of common logarithms to some of the more recent professors. The final part of the lecture will be about my lectures and some of the excitement, achievements and challenges in giving lectures in mathematics to a general adult audience and I will show some of the approaches I’ve taken Slide: Sir Thomas Gresham Gresham served all but one of the Tudor monarchs. First Henry VIII, then Mary I followed by Edward VI and finally Elizabeth I. He was a very successful merchant banker involved with trade between London and Antwerp and did well for himself and his clients while serving these four monarchs. Slide: Career Gresham began his public career by purchasing gunpowder for Henry VIII. It wasn’t until the end of the century that gunpowder was manufactured in quantity in England. When Henry VIII died he left the country’s finances in a mess due to his extravagance and mismanagement. Gresham was called in to help and was very successful and was appointed Royal Agent under Edward VI. -
Gresham's Bequest to Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn
11 MARCH 2019 Gresham’s Bequest To Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn MARGARET WILLES In his vivid record of the Great Fire of London, Samuel Pepys noted on the 5th September 1666 how he walked into the City and found ‘The Exchange a sad sight, nothing standing there of all the statues or pillars, but Sir Tho. Gresham’s picture in the corner’. 1 By picture, he meant his portrait statue, which had been placed in the courtyard of the Royal Exchange, founded by Gresham just under a century earlier. Ranged around the courtyard were also statues of all the kings of England from Edward the Confessor to the current monarch, Charles II. The survival of just Gresham’s statue was likewise observed by John Evelyn in an entry in his diary two days later. Describing people walking among the ruins as ‘like men in some dismal desart’ he noted how ‘Sir Tho. Gresham’s statue, tho’ fallen from its nich in the Royal Exchange, remain’d entire, when all those of ye kings since ye Conquest were broken to pieces’. 2 Did those wandering citizens, in their state of shock, fear this was a portent for the future? After all, it had been only six years since the Commonwealth had come to an end, and Charles restored to his throne. Perhaps they took comfort in the symbol of the survival of Gresham’s statue presaging that the City would rise again like a phoenix. For the wealthy mercer, Sir Thomas, was still dominating the life of London with two bequests nearly a century after his death in 1579. -
Sir Thomas Gresham and His Vision for Gresham College', London
Sir Thomas Gresham and his Vision for Gresham College Dr Valerie Shrimplin Research Associate, Gresham College Themes ◼ Sir Thomas Gresham – the man ◼ The Will and a Vision for a College ◼ The College’s History and location(s) ◼ Activities and Provision (lectures, professors, students, online) ◼ Going Global ◼ Barnard’s Inn Hall Sir Thomas Gresham (1519-79) Sir Thomas Gresham, Sir Thomas Gresham, Antonis Van 1544 (aged 26) Dashorst, 1565-70 (aged 46-50) Career ◼ Father financier, Lord Mayor of London ◼ London apprenticeship; Mercers’ Company 1543 ◼ Attended Gonville (and Caius) College Cambridge ◼ Employed on Business abroad (France, Flanders) ◼ Royal agent for Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I ◼ Mainly overseas, especially Antwerp (Bourse) but also Germany, France, Spain – and in London ◼ Raised loans and negotiated interest for the Crown; saved Crown from bankruptcy by application of ‘Gresham’s Law’ ◼ Continued under Elizabeth I (1558); association with William Cecil (Lord Burghley). Knighted in 1559 ◼ Expanded estates in England (1560’s); Built Royal Exchange (begun 1565) Sir Thomas Gresham The Gresham grasshopper symbol (grasslands or a lost foundling?) Married Anne Ferneley, widow of Sir William Reade, one son (also had illegitimate daughter c 1550, private and son) collection (age 50+) Son died in 1564 – so left estate for benefit of the City of Lady Gresham London (contested the will) Gresham and Antwerp 43 Lange Nieuwstraat Oude Beurs Hof van Liere – used by the ‘English Nation’ (now part of the University) The Court of Queen Elizabeth -
Worshipful Company of World Traders MASTER's@Home “Technology
Worshipful Company of World Traders MASTER’S@Home “Technology & Trade” 18:00 to 20:00, Thursday, 11 October 2018 Gresham College Barnard's Inn Hall Holborn, London EC1N 2HH Alderman Professor Michael Mainelli FCCA FCSI FBCS It is customary for each Master to organise an ‘At Home’ at an interesting venue of personal importance to him or her. I chose Gresham College, Barnard’s Inn Hall. So a bit about three things: Barnard’s Inn Hall Sir Thomas Gresham Gresham College One of London’s few pre-Great-Fire buildings, Barnard's Inn Hall was built on Roman and Saxon foundations and in its current state dates back at least to the mid-thirteenth century. It was recorded as part of the estate of Sir Adam de Basing (d 1266), one time Lord Mayor of 1/8 Worshipful Company of World Traders London. It had a long relationship with the legal profession. Barnard's Inn was one of two Inns of Chancery linked to Gray's Inn, the other being Staple Inn. The hero of Charles Dickens's novel Great Expectations, Pip, lodged in Barnard's Inn with Herbert Pocket for a number of years following his arrival in London, circa 1820. The Mercers purchased the building in 1888 and in 1894 moved the Mercers School (1542-1959, though some constituent parts date to 1447) there until the closure of the School in 1959. The building is still owned by the Mercers and has housed Gresham College (1597- present) since 1991. It does sometimes feel like home. I have delivered over 40 one-hour recorded lectures here, run over two dozen symposia, written a book, and participated in numerous events from musical soirées to chairing conferences to running school stock market games. -
Gresham Handbook
Professorial Appointments at Gresham College General Candidate Brief and Appointment Details for Professorships in: Business, Divinity, Environment, Information Technology, Music, Physic November 2017 Gresham College Barnard’s Inn Hall Holborn London EC1N 2HH www.gresham.ac.uk Thank you for your interest in undertaking the role of Professor at Gresham College 1. Mercers’ School Memorial Professor of Business (formerly ‘Commerce’) 2. Gresham Professor of Divinity 3. Frank Jackson Foundation Professor of the Environment 4. IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology 5. Gresham Professor of Music 6. Gresham Professor of Physic As the terms of office of the above current Professors come to an end, new appointments will be made to these positions from 1 August 2018. We trust that the new Professors will continue to educate and inspire College audiences, building on the 400 year old traditions of Gresham College, at the same time as developing innovative ideas as it enters its sixth century of existence. The overarching aim of the College is to continue to provide free public lectures of the highest possible standard in an extensive range of academic disciplines in accordance with the Vision of Sir Thomas Gresham as expressed in his Will in 1575. In aiming to fill the above position, we are seeking exceptional candidates with the necessary qualifications and experience to follow in the footsteps of a long tradition of Gresham Professors since 1597. The successful candidates will have a national and/or international reputation and a record of high-level scholarship. Applications will be judged against the person specification and criteria as set out in this document, and applicants should ensure that their application clearly demonstrates how their skills and experience meet these criteria. -
Mathematics in the Modern Age - the 18Th Century: Crossing Bridges Transcript
Mathematics in the modern age - The 18th century: Crossing bridges Transcript Date: Wednesday, 4 October 2006 - 12:00AM Location: Barnard's Inn Hall MATHEMATICS IN THE MODERN AGE - THE 18TH CENTURY: CROSSING BRIDGES Professor Robin Wilson Introduction After Isaac Newton had published his celebrated PrincipiaMathematicain 1687 – the book that explained gravitation and how the planets move – his life changed for ever, and in a way that would also affect the nature of British mathematics for the next 150 years or so. His book was highly praised in Britain, even though few people could understand it, and the reclusive Newton was now a public figure. After spending a year as an ineffective Member of Parliament for Cambridge University – apparently he spoke only once, and that was to ask an official to open a window – Newton became Warden, and later Master, of the Royal Mint, living in the Tower of London, supervising the minting of coins, and punishing counterfeiters. He had now left Cambridge for good. In 1703 Newton’s arch-rival Robert Hooke died, with repercussions for both Gresham College where he was Gresham Professor of Geometry, and the Royal Society which still held its meetings in Sir Thomas Gresham’s former house. The rebuilding of the Royal Exchange after the Great Fire of 1666 had been costly, and attendances at Gresham lectures were then sparse, so proposals were made to save money by rebuilding the College on a smaller scale. Parliament was petitioned for approval, with only Robert Hooke, now frail and the only professor resident in the College, holding out against the plans. -
The Dissenting Tradition in English Medicine of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
Medical History, 1995, 39: 197-218 The Dissenting Tradition in English Medicine of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries WILLIAM BIRKEN* In England, medicine has always been something of a refuge for individuals whose lives have been dislocated by religious and political strife. This was particularly true in the seventeenth century when changes in Church and State were occurring at a blinding speed. In his book The experience of defeat, Christopher Hill has described the erratic careers of a number of radical clergy and intellectuals who studied and practised medicine in times of dislocation. A list pulled together from Hill's book would include: John Pordage, Samuel Pordage, Henry Stubbe, John Webster, John Rogers, Abiezer Coppe, William Walwyn and Marchamont Nedham.1 Medicine as a practical option for a lost career, or to supplement and subsidize uncertain careers, can also be found among Royalists and Anglicans when their lives were similarly disrupted during the Interregnum. Among these were the brilliant Vaughan twins, Thomas, the Hermetic philosopher, and Henry, the metaphysical poet and clergyman; the poet, Abraham Cowley; and the mercurial Nedham, who was dislocated both as a republican and as a royalist. The Anglicans Ralph Bathurst and Mathew Robinson were forced to abandon temporarily their clerical careers for medicine, only to return to the Church when times were more propitious. In the middle of the eighteenth century the political and religious disabilities of non-juring Anglicanism were still potent enough to impel Sir Richard Jebb to a successful medical career. But by and large the greatest impact on medicine came from the much larger group of the displaced, the English Dissenters, whose combination of religion and medicine were nothing short of remarkable. -
Puritans and the Royal Society
Faith and Thought A Journal devoted to the study of the inter-relation of the Christian revelation and modern research Vol. 92 Number 2 Winter 1961 C. E. A. TURNER, M.Sc., PH.D. Puritans and the Royal Society THE official programme of the recent tercentenary celebrations of the founding of the Royal Society included a single religious service. This was held at 10.30 a.m. at St Paul's Cathedral when the Dean, the Very Rev. W. R. Matthews, D.D., D.LITT., preached a sermon related to the building's architect, Sir Christopher Wren. Otherwise there seems to be little reference to the religious background of the Society's pioneers and a noticeable omission of appreciation of the considerable Puritan participation in its institution. The events connected with the Royal Society's foundation range over the period 1645 to 1663, but there were also earlier influences. One of these was Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, 1561-1626. Douglas McKie, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, University College, London, in The Times Special Number, 19 July 1960, states that Bacon's suggested academy called Solomon's House described in New Atlantis (1627) was too often assumed to be influential in the founding of the Royal Society, much in the same way as Bacon's method of induction, expounded in his Novum Organum of 1620, has been erroneously regarded as a factor in the rise of modern science. But this may be disputed, for Bacon enjoyed considerable prestige as a learned man and his works were widely read. -
Part One: Welcome and Introduction Transcript
Part One: Welcome and Introduction Transcript Date: Thursday, 25 November 2010 - 10:00AM Location: Wadham College, Oxford 25 November 2010 Welcome and Introduction Professor Tim Connell When the Pilgrim Fathers arrived in Plymouth Sound in 1620 they might have been surprised to learn that there were already cities in North America with street lighting, main drainage and libraries, only they were on the West Coast, and had names like Nuestra Señora de los Angeles and San Francisco de Asís. By the time Gresham College opened its doors in 1597, universities had already been operating in Mexico City and Lima for over fifty years, and Santo Domingo had had one since 1538. Harvard (1636) and Yale (1701) are positive newcomers by comparison. In the New World at least, Early Science was based firmly on observation and overwhelming intellectual curiosity in the face of so many wonders, ranging from some of the world's highest volcanoes, to an abundance of flora and fauna. On my window sill at home, I have a rather curious plant called the Marvel of Peru (Mirabilis Jalapa), the only one in the natural world to grow flowers of three different colours on the same stem without being a hybrid. (This is due, needless to say, to cytoplasmic inheritance.)[i] The leaves and roots, as well as the flowers, all have medicinal properties. It was discovered in 1542 in the Andes, not unlike its more celebrated neighbour the cinchona tree, also known as Peruvian or Jesuit's Bark which is the original source for quinine. It was indeed discovered by a Jesuit in the 1620s as a cure for malaria, or rather a Jesuit was treated for malaria by someone local. -
Gresham College Professorship in Astronomy November 2018
Gresham College Professorship in Astronomy November 2018 Gresham College Barnard’s Inn Hall Holborn London EC1N 2HH www.gresham.ac.uk 1 Dear Applicant: Thank you for your interest in the role of Professor of Astronomy at Gresham College. The mission of Gresham College is to provide free public lectures of the highest possible standard in a range of academic disciplines. As the term of office of the current holder of the Gresham Professorship in Astronomy Professor Joseph Silk comes to an end, a new appointment will be made to this position with effect from 1 August 2019. The college is seeking a Professor of Astronomy who will continue to educate and inspire audiences, building on the 400-year-old traditions of Gresham College, at the same time as developing innovative ideas for the transmission of knowledge. In aiming to fill the post, we are seeking an exceptional candidate with the necessary qualifications and experience to follow in the footsteps of a long tradition of Gresham Professors since 1597. Previous postholders have included Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Martin Ryle, Lord Rees, and Heather Couper. The successful candidate will have a record of high-level scholarship, and a demonstrable ability to communicate complex ideas to an intelligent and interested public. In recent years, the professorship has expanded to consider other physical sciences, and a range of topics from particle physics to astrophysics has been covered. Gresham Professors are contracted to provide six one-hour lectures annually, as well as participating in occasional promotional filming, and engaging in a small number of meetings and social events, including attendance at the College’s Academic Board. -
A Brief History of Gresham College 1597-1997, Richard Chartres and David Vermont
A Brief History of Gresbam College I5974997 Richard Chartres and David Vermont GRESHAM -COLLEGE- This edition first published in 1998 Copyright 01997 Gresham College British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A Catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library ISBN 0 947822 16 X All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing of the publishers Typeset in 11/14pt Garamond Designed and Produced by Robin Ollington and Frank Lee Printed in England by St Edmundsbury Press Ltd. Bury St Edrnunds, Suffolk A Brief History of Gresham College 15974997 Thbomas Gresham 1544portraZt at Mercers' Hall Reproduced hy kind pcrmirrion of the Meners' Company FOREWORD is survey of the history of the College in its Tquatercentenary year not only discharges a debt of piety but also concentrates the mind on the prospects for Gresham College in its fifth century. Like some mythlcal island, the College has emerged from the engulfig waters and disappeared again on several occasions. Each time very similar questions have arisen. What were the Founder’s intentions and how can they be honoured in vastly changed circumstances? What kind of educational constituency should the Professors of the College seek to address? Would it be wise for the College to associate itself with complementary institutions? Who should in the last analysis make decisions about these matters and how can a consistent policy be developed? The following sketch is intended to be a small contribution to this debate while telling the story of the College in the past four hundred years. -
UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Small Mites for the Treasury of Learning: the Everyday Life of the New Science in Late Seve
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Small Mites for the Treasury of Learning: The Everyday Life of the New Science in Late Seventeenth-Century London A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Laura Ritchie Morgan 2016 © Copyright by Laura Ritchie Morgan 2016 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Small Mites for the Treasury of Learning: The Everyday Life of the New Science in Late Seventeenth-Century London by Laura Ritchie Morgan Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2016 Professor Margaret C. Jacob, Chair Drawing on experimental notebooks, account books, estate inventories, and bureaucratic memoranda, this dissertation demonstrates that the investigation and manipulation of the natural world in Restoration London stretched beyond the well-known Royal Society. The Society relied on skills, labor, and unexpected expertise outside its Fellowship to shape its work, while skills valued by the Society’s Fellows were found in pre-existing industries. In addition, the experimentation, observation, and collection practices essential to the new science occurred in small shops, Royal palaces, and the streets of metropolis. Chapter Two argues that the Society’s first home at Gresham College was an uncontrolled space, neither public nor private, through which many Londoners moved. While some servants, craftspeople, and experts were invited in to contribute skill or labor, the experience and knowledge outsiders unexpectedly brought into the Society, the College, or London itself also influenced the questions investigated by the Society. ii Chapter Three is a detailed examination of apothecary John Conyers’s years-long efforts to disprove the theory of air pressure by observing changes in atmospheric moisture.