Article ID: CBB825993922

A gunpowder controversy in the early Royal Society, 1667–70 (2020)

unapi

In 1667, ‘The History of Saltpetre and Gunpowder’ by Thomas Henshaw was published in Thomas Sprat's The History of the Royal Society. Three years later, Henshaw's work was subject to a scathing review by the notorious anti-Royal Society pamphleteer, Henry Stubbe. I argue that, for Stubbe, Henshaw was not merely a passive representative of the Royal Society through which he could direct his ire, but gunpowder, the subject of Henshaw's research, was important. Both Henshaw and Stubbe employed gunpowder deliberately and strategically. In this article I explore the reasons behind the Royal Society deciding to publish a ‘Baconian history’ of gunpowder. First I argue that the high status of gunpowder was used as a justification for experimental pursuits, and it provided a direct connection to the Society's forebear Francis Bacon. But Stubbe, who was already a critic of the Royal Society, happened to have knowledge that made him uniquely placed to write animadversions against Henshaw's paper. Secondly, gunpowder can shed light on the Baconian histories and the challenges faced by Baconian scholars in putting this project into practice.

...More
Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB825993922/

Similar Citations

Book Cressy, David; (2013)
Saltpeter: The Mother of Gunpowder (/isis/citation/CBB001201311/)

Article Hyeok Hweon Kang; (2022)
Cooking Niter, Prototyping Nature: Saltpeter and Artisanal Experiment in Korea, 1592–1635 (/isis/citation/CBB231312398/)

Article Dickson, Donald R.; (1998)
The hunt for red elixir: An early collaboration between Fellows of the Royal Society (/isis/citation/CBB000077694/)

Chapter Jacob, James R.; (1980)
Aristotle and the new philosophy: Stubbe versus the Royal Society (/isis/citation/CBB000006700/)

Article Francesco Luzzini; (2013)
La sofferta chiusura del cerchio. Il contributo di Edmond Halley all’idrologia (/isis/citation/CBB810604430/)

Article Mordechai Feingold; (2020)
An Anatomy of a Religio-Scientific Polemic: The Wilkins-Ross Controversy Revisited (/isis/citation/CBB973483524/)

Article Dana Jalobeanu; (2022)
Dissecting Nature ad vivum: Parts and Wholes in Francis Bacon’s Natural Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB815665162/)

Book Jacob, James R.; (1983)
Henry Stubbe, radical Protestantism, and the early Enlightenment (/isis/citation/CBB000022726/)

Thesis Caryn Maureen O'Connell; (2017)
Vegetal Life From Bacon to Milton: Incarnate Science (/isis/citation/CBB946145704/)

Article Jed Buchwald; Chen-Pang Yeang; Noah Stemeroff; Jenifer Barton; Quinn Harrington; (2021)
What Heinrich Hertz discovered about electric waves in 1887–1888 (/isis/citation/CBB521367913/)

Authors & Contributors
Jacob, James R.
Hunter, Michael Cyril William
Dickson, Donald R.
O'Connell, Caryn Maureen
Yeang, Chen-Pang
Barton, Jenifer
Concepts
Experimental method
Baconianism
Saltpeter
Controversies and disputes
Gunpowder
Science and religion
Time Periods
17th century
19th century
16th century
Renaissance
18th century
Early modern
Places
British Isles
England
Great Britain
Venice (Italy)
Minnesota (U.S.)
Korea
Institutions
Royal Society of London
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment