Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First Arachnologist

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-90-04-20703-5
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 16, 480 Seiten, Format (B × H): 165 mm x 246 mm, Gewicht: 953 g

Reihe: Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science

This first full-length biography of Dr. Martin Lister (1639-1712), vice-president of the Royal Society, Royal Physician, and the first arachnologist and conchologist, provides an unprecedented picture of a seventeenth-century virtuoso. Lister is recognized for his discovery of ballooning spiders and as the father of conchology, but it is less well known that he invented the histogram, provided Newton with alloys, and donated the first significant natural history collections to the Ashmolean Museum. Just as Lister was the first to make a systematic study of spiders and their webs, this biography is the first to analyze the significant webs of knowledge, patronage, and familial and gender relationships that governed his life as a scientist and physician.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Roos, Anna Marie

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Wirbellose (Invertebrata) Spinnentiere (Arachnide)
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements



PART ONE: THE BIRTH OF A NATURALIST, 1663-1668

1. Introduction

2. Early Life and Letters, 1639-1663

3. French Connection: The Voyage to Montpellier, 1663-1666

4. Early Contributions to Natural History, 1666-1668: The Influence of John Ray

PART TWO: IN LOCATION AT THE PERIPHERY OF THE WEB, IN THE MIND AT ITS VERY CENTER: LISTER’S YEARS IN YORK (1669-1683)

5. Spider Threads and a Tangled Web of Misunderstanding, 1668-1671

6. "My Dear Hart": Lister's Marriage to Hannah Parkinson and his Medical Practice in York

7. The Circulation of Knowledge: Lister and the Royal Society's Debates about Plant Circulation in the 1670s

8. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? Crinoids, and the Fossil Debate in the Royal Society

9. "All that Glitters": Martin Lister and Fools' Gold, 1677-1684

10. A Speculum of Chemical Practice: Lister, Newton, and Telescopic Mirrors

PART THREE: AT THE WEB'S CENTER: LISTER IN LONDON, THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MASTERWORKS: 1684-1692

11. Lister's London Beginnings: Virtuoso, Antiquarian and Benefactor

12. The Art of Science: The Historiae Conchyliorum and the Historia Piscium

PART FOUR: TIME SPINS AWAY: 1692-1712

13. Publication and Prestige, Sex Exercitationes Medicinales and the Royal College of Physicians

14. The Spice of Life: A Journey to Paris and a Cookery Book

Epilogue: The Tragedy at Burwell Park

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Anna Marie Roos, Ph.D. (1997) in History, University of Colorado, is the Lister Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has published extensively on early modern English science including The Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650–1750 (Brill, 2007).