News-sheet — October 2010

I. Latest news

EE cracks 7,000 correspondents!

This month's update takes EE's biographical database to well over 7,000 entries! The Project's editorial team has worked hard to identify and provide biographical notes for hundreds of famous and not so famous people, from abolitionists and autobiographers to watchmakers and writers of memoirs.

Electronic Enlightenment colloquium on the sociology of the letter

2010 — Enlightenment correspondence: letter-writing and reading in the 18th century,
exploring the links between correspondence and publishing in the Enlightenment.

Programme now available!

We are excited to announce the first in what will become an annual series of colloquia on the "sociology of the letter". Our first meeting will be held on the 13^th November 2010 at St. Anne's College, Oxford. For more information, please see our EE Colloquium 2010 pages.

Map of Ireland

We have added "A pocket companion of Ireland", courtesy of David Rumsey/Cartography Associates. This particular map is described as "Containing all the cities, market towns, boroughs, all ye great roads, and principal cross roads, with the computed miles from town to town". The map appears on page 12 of Herman Moll's Atlas Minor.

II. Miscellany, October 2010

What are holidays for?

This month's Miscellany, "What are holidays for?", takes a look at what EE's correspondents have to say about holidays before we let go of the summer vacation entirely.

III. New Documents

The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, volume 6: 1684–1691

EE is pleased to announce inclusion of the sixth volume of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. Michael Hunter et al. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2001). The sixth volume completes this fascinating edition, adding 496 new letters and documents and over 150 new biographical notes to the collection.

The inclusion of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. Michael Hunter et al. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2001) has been a significant undertaking for the Electronic Enlightenment Project, over 2000 letters and over 300 new biographical notes in total have been added to the database. The subjects contained within this edition are varied and fascinating.

Here are some sample letters from the edition —

26 November 1640 — Robert Boyle to Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork;
16 March 1647 — Robert Boyle to Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh;
25 March 1650 — Robert Boyle, John Sadler, Rev. John Dury, Samuel Hartlib, Benjamin Worsley, Henry Robinson to Cressy Dymock;
21 February 1668 — Henry Oldenburg to Robert Boyle;
28 February 1668 — Henry Oldenburg to Robert Boyle;
2 March 1668 — Robert Boyle to Henry Oldenburg;
7 October 1686 — Lodowick Jackson to Robert Boyle;
23 July 1689 — Rev. James Kirkwood to Robert Boyle;
before 1691 — William Ashton to Robert Boyle;
before 1691 — Translation from Greek into English of William Ashton to Robert Boyle.

Here are some sample lives from the edition —

Richard Boyle, 1st earl of Cork (1566–1643), Irish aristocrat, landowner, government official;
Samuel Hartlib (c. 1600–1662), German educational reformer, author;
George Starkey (1628–1665), Scottish alchemist;
Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk (c. 1646–1666), Native American student, university graduate;
Rev. Israel Tonge (1621–1680), English clergyman, schoolmaster, anti-Catholic propagandist, conspiracy theorist;
Daubeney Turberville (1612–1696), English oculist;
Henry Herringman (c. 1628–1704), English publisher;
Thomas Hyde (1636–1703), English librarian, orientalist;
Marchamont Nedham (1620–1678), English journalist, pamphleteer, medical writer;
Dr Charles Drelincourt (1633–1697), French physician, obstetrician, university professor;
Henry Jones, bishop of Meath (1605–1682), Irish churchman;
Dr William Simpson (d. 1680), English physician, alchemist.