Miscellaneous methods: authors, societies and journals in early modern England

Abstract

Historians of science have long acknowledged the important role that journals play in the scientific enterprise. They both secure the shared values of a scientific community and certify what that community takes to be licensed knowledge. The advent of the first learned periodicals in the mid-seventeenth century was therefore a major event. But why did this event happen when it did, and how was the permanence of the learned journal secured? This paper reveals some of the answers. It examines the shifting fortunes of one of the earliest of natural-philosophical periodicals, the Philosophical Transactions, launched in London in 1665 by Henry Oldenburg. The paper shows how fraught the enterprise of journal publishing was in the Europe of that period, and, not least, it draws attention to a number of publications that arose out of the commercial realm of the Restoration to rival (or parody) Oldenburg's now famous creation. By doing so it helps restore to view the hard work that underpinned the republic of letters.And as for natural philosophy, is it not removed from Oxford and Cambridge to Gresham College in London, and to be learned out of their gazettes?Thomas Hobbes, Behemoth (written c. 1668).

Scientific Communication Before and After Networked Science

“…1 Adrian Johns dates the origin of the scientific journal to 1665, when the Royal Society began publishing the Philosophical Transactions. 2 James Surowiecki also regards this as a pivotal moment in the history of science, because of the journal's "fierce commitment to the idea that all new discoveries should be disseminated as widely and freely as possible." 3 This is noteworthy because early periodicals such as the Transactions emerged into an environment so guarded that even major innovators such as Robert Hooke and Sir Isaac Newton waited years to publish the results of their greatest discoveries, usually in the form of a book-length manuscript summarizing decades of research.…”

Creating a specialized discourse: the case of the Philosophical Transactions

“…Oldenburg had always had problems with printers (or "stationers" as they were then called), but these were much increased by the plague since most printers, like many others, had left the capital. It is a sign of Oldenburg's industry that he was able to get the Philosophical Transactions back on its feet so quickly (Johns 2000). The first item in this issue is headed An opportunity being presented to revive the publishing of these Papers, which for some Moneths hath been discontinued by reason of the great Mortality in London, where they were begun to be printed; it hath been thought fit to embrace the same, and to make use thereof for the gratifying of the Curious, that have been pleased to think well of such Communications: […] (Philosophical Transactions 6 November 1665) This issue contains ten items, five of them written by Oldenburg, and five at least partially verbatim.…”

Investigating journal peer review as scientific object of study: unabridged version – Part I

“…In contrast, historical research gives a glimpse into early journals that from their start held to account to sacred texts, the Church, and the State and maintained a legal obligation to perform censorship on scientific texts (Biagioli, 2002;Gould, 2012Gould, , 2013Johns, 1998). Gould brought attention to potential roots of peer review in the early twelfth century at the start of inquisition and into censorship at the beginning of the printing press where scholarly inquisitors and censors performed 'peer' review (Gould, 2013).…”