The Royal Society’s role in the diffusion of information in the seventeenth century

Abstract

Abstract THE modern scientist or historian looking back at the first quarter-century of The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge (to give it its original full name, for once), sees an organization of scientists and lovers of science which successfully fostered, encouraged and honoured the best scientific brains of a seminal period in science, when an extraordinary number of these brains were English. It is not easy to decide which among its many aims was responsible for its noted success, nor is it necessary to assume that a simple analysis would suffice. Many would see the prime factor to lie in its adherence to principles of experimental science; others to its bringing together of diverse kinds of men and the encouragement of virtuosi everywhere; others to the social background of the age (2). One, possibly minor but nevertheless important factor, was its role in diffusing information throughout the world of learning, and its encouragement to Fellows and non-Fellows alike to communicate to the world the information they possessed and the discoveries they had made.