Catalogue description The Boyle Collection

The Boyle Collection comprises the Boyle Papers, 31 Miscellaneous Manuscripts formerly in the Manuscripts General Collection and the Boyle Letters. Produced by Robert Boyle in the course of his career. Comprising his letter, notes, drafts, memoranda and records of experiments, it covers the entire range of his intellectual activities, including science, medicine, philosophy and theology; it also documents various aspects of his lilfe. Among the records many aspects of Boyle's life and work are represented, covering his philosophical, scientific, theological and other interests.

Michael Hunter and Edward B. Davis (ed) 'Works of Robert Boyle' (1999-2000), Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzio, Lawrence M. Principe (eds) ' The Correspondence of Robert Boyle' (2001). 'The Work Diaries of Robert Boyle' (website)

Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691, scientist, chemist, natural philosopher

After his death, Robert Boyle left a huge archive, which, after various vicissitudes, was presented to the Royal Society in 1769

Boyle Papers and Boyle Letters have contents list in each volume. The collection was sorted and arranged in its present form in the nineteenth century. A catalogue was first published in 1992 in conjunction with a microfilm edition of the bulk of its content, and the current catalogue represents a revised and updated version of that. The 1992 catalogue appeared in a printed version accompanied be a lengthy essay detailing the history of the archive and exploring the significance of handwriting eveidence for dating material within it, to which rerference may be made (Hunter, in 'Introduction' to 'Letters and Papers', revised as 'The Boyle Archive' in Hunter and others, in 'The Boyle Papers').

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