Invisible College

Last updated January 14, 2025

Emblematic image of a Rosicrucian College; illustration from Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum, a 1618 work by Theophilus Schweighardt. Frances Yates identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross". Templeofrosycross.png — Emblematic image of a Rosicrucian College; illustration from *Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum*, a 1618 work by Theophilus Schweighardt. Frances Yates identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross".

Invisible College is a term used to describe a non public network of researchers operating in an informal way.^[2]^[3]^[4] Originally used to describe the early association of the Enlightenment-era Royal Society of London, which consisted of a number of natural philosophers such as Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren,^[5] the term has been of considerable interest to scholars since the 1960s with the research of Derek Price and Donald Beaver.^[6] Many faculties have their own groups, and research has focused closely on law schools and the sciences.^[7]^[8]

Background

The name historically originates from a group of individuals in the mid-seventeenth century who eventually formed the Royal Society of London. Prior to that, they met informally, separate from the more prominent groups associated with Wadham College and Gresham College. They corresponded via letters to garner recognition for their work, establish precedence, and stay informed about others' research. Members of this early Royal Society of Scientists did not belong to a formal institution, thus they referred to themselves as an invisible college due to their "geographic closeness and regular meetings based on shared scientific interests".^[4]^[9] In the current academic framework, the term has become less specific, and its meaning and interpretation have varied widely among different authors.^[6] The term accrued currency for the exchanges of correspondence within the Republic of Letters.^[10]

Connection with Robert Boyle and the Royal Society

Detailed evidence

In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college". The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation.^[11] Three dated letters are the basic documentary evidence: Boyle sent them to Isaac Marcombes (Boyle's former tutor and a Huguenot, who was then in Geneva), Francis Tallents who at that point was a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge,^[12] and London-based Samuel Hartlib.^[13]

On the historical movement, Clay Shirky notes in his book Cognitive Surplus that:^[14]

Much of the members’ practical work involved chemistry. They were strongly critical of the alchemists, their intellectual forebears, who for centuries had made only fitful progress. By contrast, the Invisible College put chemistry on a sound footing in a matter of a couple of decades, one of the most important intellectual transitions in the history of science. What did the Invisible College have that the alchemists didn’t? It wasn’t their tools—chemists and alchemists both started out with vials, braziers, and scales. Nor was it insight—no single figure suddenly advanced chemistry, as Newton did with physics. The Invisible College had one big advantage over the alchemists: they had one another.

The Hartlib Circle were a far-reaching group of correspondents linked to Hartlib, an intelligencer. They included Sir Cheney Culpeper and Benjamin Worsley who were interested, among other matters, in alchemy.^[15] Worsley in 1646 was experimenting on saltpetre manufacture, and Charles Webster in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography argues that he was the "prime mover" of the Invisible College at this point: a network with aims and views close to those of the Hartlib Circle with which it overlapped.^[16] Margery Purver concludes that the 1647 reference of "invisible college" was to the group around Hartlib concerned to lobby Parliament in favour of an "Office of Address" or centralised communication centre for the exchange of information.^[13] Maddison suggests that the "Invisible College" might have comprised Worsley, John Dury and others with Boyle, who were interested in profiting from science (and possibly involving George Starkey).^[17]

Richard S. Westfall distinguishes Hartlib's "Comenian circle" from other groups; and gives a list of "invisible college" members based on this identification. They comprise: William Petty, Boyle, Arnold Boate and Gerard Boate, Cressy Dymock, and Gabriel Platte.^[18] Miles Symner may have belonged to this circle.^[19]

Historiography of the Royal Society

Lauren Kassell, writing for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,^[20] notes that the group of natural philosophers meeting in London from 1645 was identified as the "invisible college" by Thomas Birch, writing in the 18th century; this identification then became orthodox, for example in the first edition Dictionary of National Biography .^[21] This other group, later centred on Wadham College, Oxford and John Wilkins, was centrally concerned in the founding of the Royal Society; and Boyle became part of it in the 1650s. It is more properly called "the men of Gresham",^[22] from its connection with Gresham College in London.

It is the identification of the Gresham group with the "invisible college" that is now generally queried by scholars. Christopher Hill writes that the Gresham group was convened in 1645 by Theodore Haak in Samuel Foster's rooms in Gresham College; and notes Haak's membership of the Hartlib Circle and Comenian connections, while also distinguishing the two groups.^[23] Haak is mentioned as convener in an account by John Wallis, who talks about a previous group containing many physicians who then came to Foster's rooms; but Wallis's account is generally seen to be somewhat at variance with the history provided by Thomas Sprat of the Royal Society.^[24]

Modern use

The concept of invisible college was developed in the sociology of science by Diana Crane (1972) building on Derek J. de Solla Price's work on citation networks. It is related to, but significantly different from, other concepts of expert communities, such as epistemic communities (Haas, 1992) or communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Recently, the concept was applied to the global network of communications among scientists by Caroline S. Wagner in The New Invisible College: Science for Development (Brookings 2008).

Alesia Zuccala notes that previous studies on the invisible college have indicated that it functions as "a fairly organized system for scientists" and that "a certain degree of predictable behavior (i.e. information sharing and collaboration)" can be found within this system.^[4]

Lievrow et al note that "In contrast to the considerable research attention that has been paid to examining the communication of scientific knowledge, especially through formal channels like publishing (e.g. Menzel 1968), there has been remarkably little study of why. and how scientific knowledge itself might grow as a function of both formal and informal communication networks."^[25]

Price has stated that some but not all scientists in a particular research area maintain a high level of informal communication and that information received in this manner is essential for the conduct of effective research.^[6]^[26]

Crane has stated that although a social circle may occasionally form within a research field, it is unlikely to be present in every field at all times. In some areas, such circles may never emerge. When they do form, their size and significance to the members are likely to fluctuate over time.^[26]

In the 1960s, a group of academics (including astronomer J. Allen Hynek and computer scientist Jacques Vallée) held regular discussion meetings about UFOs. Hynek referred to this group as The Invisible College.^[27]

In fiction, it is mentioned in the novel The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco. It was the inspiration for the Unseen University in the works of Terry Pratchett, and was one of the main reference points for Grant Morrison's The Invisibles comic book series.

Related Research Articles

Robert Boyle was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, alchemist and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern chemistry, and one of the pioneers of modern experimental scientific method. He is best known for Boyle's law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system. Among his works, The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. He was a devout and pious Anglican and is noted for his works in theology.

John Wilkins was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death.

Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb was a Polish born, English educational and agricultural reformer of German-Polish origin who settled, married and died in England. He was a son of George Hartlib, a Pole, and Elizabeth Langthon, a daughter of a rich English merchant. Hartlib was a noted promoter and writer in fields that included science, medicine, agriculture, politics and education. He was a contemporary of Robert Boyle, whom he knew well, and a neighbour of Samuel Pepys in Axe Yard, London, in the early 1660s. He studied briefly at the University of Cambridge upon arriving in England.

The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it was granted a royal charter by King Charles II and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world.

Henry Oldenburg was a German theologian, diplomat, and natural philosopher, known as one of the creators of modern scientific peer review. He was one of the foremost intelligencers of 17th-century Europe, with a network of correspondents to rival those of Fabri de Peiresc, Marin Mersenne, and Ismaël Boulliau. At the foundation of the Royal Society in London, he took on the task of foreign correspondence, as the first Secretary.

George Starkey (1628–1665) was a Colonial American alchemist, medical practitioner, and writer of numerous commentaries and chemical treatises that were widely circulated in Western Europe and influenced prominent men of science, including Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton. After relocating from New England to London, England, in 1650, Starkey began writing under the pseudonym Eirenaeus Philalethes. Starkey remained in England and continued his career in medicine and alchemy until his death in the Great Plague of London in 1665.

Benjamin Worsley (1618–1673) was an English physician, Surveyor-General of Ireland, experimental scientist, civil servant and intellectual figure of Commonwealth England. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, but may not have graduated.

Theodore Haak was a German Calvinist scholar, resident in England in later life. Haak's communications abilities and interests in the new science provided the backdrop for convening the "1645 Group", a precursor of the Royal Society.

Johannes Sibertus Kuffler (1595–1677) was a German inventor and chemist, from Cologne. He had a 1618 doctorate from the University of Padua. After he married Catherina, daughter of Cornelius Drebbel, he started in a successful dyeing business in Leiden, with his brother Abraham. Supposedly he used a procedure invented by his father-in-law, using stannic chloride as a fixative. He was an associate of Johann Glauber, and went into an alchemical venture with Johann Moriaen and Benjamin Worsley. In 1656 the alchemist Israel Tonge provided a loan of 100 pounds to have the Kuffler family moved from Arnhem in the Netherlands to England so that "his abilities in his profession, his relation to Cornelius Dribellius his life & conversation & concerning the reality & certaintie of the Experiments, hereafter mentioned in these præsents, shall vnto wise & indiferent men be of satisfaction.". He later moved it to Bow, London. The new colour was called "Color Kufflerianus" or "Bow dye". During the Protectorate they also spent much effort promoting a 'secret weapon' for naval warfare, petitioning Richard Cromwell.

John Webster (1610–1682), also known as Johannes Hyphastes, was an English cleric, physician and chemist with occult interests, a proponent of astrology and a sceptic about witchcraft. He is known for controversial works.

John Beale was an English clergyman, scientific writer, and early Fellow of the Royal Society. He contributed to John Evelyn's Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber, and was an influential author on orchards and cider. He was also a member of the Hartlib Circle.

The Hartlib Circle was the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660. Hartlib worked closely with John Dury, an itinerant figure who worked to bring Protestants together.

Ralph Austen was an English writer on gardening and husbandry, who urged the use of concise, plain language. He also worked to popularize cider as a beverage.

The Gresham College group was a loose collection of scientists in England of the 1640s and 1650s, a precursor to the Royal Society of London. Within a few years of the granting of a charter to the Royal Society in 1662, its earlier history was being written and its roots contested. There is still some debate about the effect of other groups on the way the Royal Society came into being. The composition of those other groups is unclear in parts; and the overall historiography of the early Royal Society is still often regarded as problematic. But this group has always been seen as fundamental to the course of events.

Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh, also known as Lady Ranelagh, was an Anglo-Irish scientist in seventeenth-century Britain. She was also a political and religious philosopher, and a member of many intellectual circles including the Hartlib Circle, the Great Tew Circle, and the Invisible College. Her correspondents included Samuel Hartlib, Edward Hyde, William Laud, Thomas Hyde, and John Milton. She was the sister of Robert Boyle and is thought to have been a great influence on his work in chemistry. In her own right, she was a political and social figure closely connected to the Hartlib Circle. Lady Ranelagh held a London salon during the 1650s, much frequented by virtuosi associated with Hartlib.

William Rand was an English physician who projected general reforms in medical education, practice and publication. His views were Paracelsian and Helmontian, and he participated in the Hartlib Circle.

Bengt Skytte af Duderhof (1614–1683) was a Swedish courtier and diplomat. He was a follower of Comenius and proposed a pansophic city, "Sophopolis".

Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700) was an English lawyer, courtier, diplomat and scientific writer. While not a published alchemist, he was a significant figure in English alchemical work from the 1650s onwards; he is known to have used the pen-name "Halophilus".

Thomas Coxe was an English physician. He studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1635 and an MA in 1638. He was among the initial fellows of the Royal Society, but ran into money difficulties in old age.

Robert Child (1613–1654) was an English physician, agriculturalist and alchemist. A recent view is that his approach to agriculture belongs to the early ideas on political economy.

References

↑ Detailed discussion in The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, pp. 94–95.
↑
"Even though today's invisible college is very much a twenty-first century phenomenon, it also represents the reemergence of an old idea. A review of history shows that the invisible college is not new to science—the same term was used to describe the group of like-minded independent scholars who first pioneered observation and experimentation to study nature in the seventeenth century. Science in those early days was the work of natural philosophers, usually those of independent means like Sir Isaac Newton and Irish chemist Robert Boyle. These individuals, who were largely free from government influence, shared information and insight in a universal language (Latin) without regard for disciplinary boundaries....Then as now, networks characterized scientific organization and inquiry, with the early scientists corresponding and exchanging ideas as part of a common search for knowledge."
- The New Invisible College: Science for Development, by Candice S. Wagner
↑ Díaz-Andreu, M. (2008). Revisiting the'Invisible College'. Archives, Ancestors, Practices: Archaeology in the Light of its History, 121.
1 2 3 Zuccala, Alesia. "Modeling the invisible college." Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology 57.2 (2006): 152-168.
↑ Higgitt, Rebekah (20 October 2014). "Google Doodle forgets to celebrate Christopher Wren the man of science". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 21 February 2023.
1 2 3 De Solla Price, D. J., & Beaver, D. (1966). Collaboration in an invisible college. American Psychologist, 21(11), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0024051
↑ Schachter, O. (1977). Invisible college of international lawyers. Nw. UL Rev., 72, 217.
↑ Wagner, C. S. (2009). The new invisible college: Science for development. Rowman & Littlefield.
↑ Bartle, R. G. (1995). A brief history of the mathematical literature. Publishing Research Quarterly, 11, 3-9.
↑ David A. Kronick, The Commerce of Letters: Networks and "Invisible Colleges" in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe, The Library Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan., 2001), pp. 28–43; JSTOR 4309484
↑ http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Societies/RS.html JOC/EFR: The Royal Society, August 2004 retrieved online: 2009-05-14
↑ "Tallents, Francis (TLNS636F)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
1 2 Margery Purver, The Royal Society: Concept and Creation (1967), Part II Chapter 3, The Invisible College.
↑ Shirky, Clay (10 June 2010). Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-43472-7.
↑ John T. Young, Faith, Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy (1998), pp. 234–236.
↑ Webster, Charles. "Worsley, Benjamin". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38153.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
↑ R. E. W. Maddison, The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle F.R.S, Taylor & Francis (1969), p. 69.
↑ Galileo Project page
↑ Dorothy Moore; Lynette Hunter (2004). The Letters of Dorothy Moore, 1612–64: The Friendship, Marriage and Intellectual Life of a Seventeenth-century Woman. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-7546-3727-1 . Retrieved 11 March 2013.
↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, theme Invisible College.
↑ "Wilkins, John" . Dictionary of National Biography . London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
↑ "The Invisible College (1645–1658). | technical education matters.org". Archived from the original on 19 October 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2011.
↑ Christopher Hill, Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution (1991), p. 105.
↑ Johnson, Francis R. (October 1940). "Gresham College: Precursor of the Royal Society". Journal of the History of Ideas. 1 (4): 413–438. doi:10.2307/2707123 . Retrieved 25 November 2024.
↑ Lievrouw, L. A., Rogers, E. M., Lowe, C. U., & Nadel, E. (1987). Triangulation as a research strategy for identifying invisible colleges among biomedical scientists. Social Networks, 9, 217-248.
1 2 Crane, D. (1977). Social structure in a group of scientists: A test of the “invisible college” hypothesis. In Social networks (pp. 161-178). Academic Press.
↑ Eghigian, Greg (4 August 2021). "UFOs and the Boundaries of Science". Boston Review. Retrieved 25 November 2024.