Tuesday 24 February, 18.00-19.30
S8.08, History Department, King's College London
We are very pleased to welcome Dr Stephen Pumfrey from the University of Lancaster to speak on ‘Solomon’s House Restored: Innovation, Utility and R.H.’s Alternative Royal Society’ as part of the short seminar series on ‘Innovation, Utility, and Expertise in Early Modern Science’ hosted by the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and the Department of History.
Francis Bacon left unfinished his New Atlantis but with the restoration of Charles II in 1660 it was ‘Continued by R.H. Esquire’. In the first half R.H. added the ‘platform of monarchical government’ planned by Bacon, which invited Charles to rule like King Solomon. In the second half R.H. provided an extensive description of Solomon's House, centred on the lavish investiture of one Verdugo, the ‘triumphant inventour’ of flame-proof paper. Historians have neglected the treatise, perhaps because the author is unknown: the most frequent, obvious but misguided suggestion has been Robert Hooke. Another reason is in R.H.’s vision the heroes of the institution are not gentlemanly experimental philosophers but projectors and inventors of unspectacular though useful improvements: these alone justify their high status and large incomes. Albeit that R.H. was an ardent royalist his vision is much closer to that of Samuel Hartlib’s circle than the Royal Society’s, and it points to other communities of knowledge makers in seventeenth-century England. In this talk the identity of R.H. will be revealed. When we know it, and his successful negotiations with the Stuart court, New Atlantis Continued opens a window on the intersection of science and commerce. In his life and works, R.H. dealt with the tensions between science and technology, self-interest and philanthropy, private and public communication, private enterprise and state control, and support for and resistance (including religious resistance) to the growing number of projectors. The talk will explore these themes.
All are welcome.
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