Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, A production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. So the Heartlib circle
Speaker 1: came up in research recently, and I put it right
Speaker 1: on my list because it is this very unique nexus
Speaker 1: of scientific and philosophical thought in the seventeenth century right
Speaker 1: out of the gate. We got to make a note
Speaker 1: on name pronunciation because we're having a lot of these lately.
Speaker 1: I know this person, Samuel Hartlib, who will talk about
Speaker 1: some more a whole lot today, originally was born in Prussia.
Speaker 1: His name is from the German side of his family,
Speaker 1: his father's side of the family, which would lead one
Speaker 1: to say Heartlib. And it's spelled a million different ways
Speaker 1: if you look at various historical documents. But because he
Speaker 1: did most of his work in Britain and most of
Speaker 1: the writing about him has been in Britain, most scholars
Speaker 1: about him pronounced it Heartlib, and so we're just going
Speaker 1: to roll with that, recognizing that he too. I don't
Speaker 1: know where he landed, if he had a preference or not.
Speaker 1: I suspect probably his contemporaries also pronounced it that way
Speaker 1: once he was living in London. The name Samuel Hartlib
Speaker 1: probably does not exactly spring to mind when people are
Speaker 1: thinking about influential figures of the seventeenth century. But he
Speaker 1: was very connected to a lot of the names you
Speaker 1: would think of, and he served as this sort of
Speaker 1: conduitive information to many of them and made connections among
Speaker 1: them as he sought to promote his own ideas regarding
Speaker 1: theology and education, which he saw as being very closely
Speaker 1: tied to government and successful government, as well as this
Speaker 1: really overarching goal in his life to provide ready access
Speaker 1: to information to anyone and everyone about like the latest
Speaker 1: scientific developments. You'll see references to the Heartlib circle in
Speaker 1: a lot of writing about these people. Heartlib never called
Speaker 1: his network of people that he corresponded with anything. That
Speaker 1: name Heartlib Circle wasn't coined until the twentieth century, and
Speaker 1: that happened then because there was a surge of scholarship
Speaker 1: about his work in the nineteen twenties and thereafter after
Speaker 1: a fortuitous turn of events brought his life's work back
Speaker 1: to light. Samuel Hartlib was born around sixteen hundred, probably
Speaker 1: in Elbing, Prussia, to a German father and an English mother,
Speaker 1: so Elbing is part of modern day Poland, and in
Speaker 1: Polish it's pronounced very differently from that, more like Elblong.
Speaker 1: He's one of the many cases we've had on the
Speaker 1: show recently where this early life is not well documented.
Speaker 1: In a biography written by gh Turnbull in nineteen twenty,
Speaker 1: the biographer notes that there's no record of Heartlib in
Speaker 1: the birth records from Elbeing at the time, and there
Speaker 1: are also not any records in the baptismal records from
Speaker 1: the churches of the city. He doesn't appear in any
Speaker 1: of the school records of Elbing from the time when
Speaker 1: he would have been a child, so there are just
Speaker 1: a lot of question marks about his early life and education.
Speaker 1: There are mentions of a George Hartlib who is believed
Speaker 1: to have been Samuel's brother. Even Samuel's higher education comes
Speaker 1: with a lot of debate. He has long been cited
Speaker 1: as attending the University of Cunningsburg starting in sixteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: but there are once again no solid records to really
Speaker 1: back that up. A more recent biography by Charles Webster,
Speaker 1: which came out in twenty twenty five, says that there's
Speaker 1: actually more substantiation that Samuel was in Silesia and enrolled
Speaker 1: at the Academy at Briggs starting in sixteen five fifteen.
Speaker 1: When did he leave there another unanswered question. We do
Speaker 1: know that hartleb went to the University of Cambridge, but
Speaker 1: that two has inconsistencies regarding the timing. Sixteen twenty eight
Speaker 1: is frequently given as the first year that we can
Speaker 1: conclusively say he was living in England, but in the
Speaker 1: latter twentieth century additional correspondence has come to light that
Speaker 1: indicates that he was definitely there before that, in the
Speaker 1: mid sixteen twenties. And even in saying he went to Cambridge,
Speaker 1: we really have to clarify because he does not appear
Speaker 1: to have actually enrolled in the university, but did study
Speaker 1: informally with some members of its faculty, and even after
Speaker 1: that he returned to Elbing after his time at Cambridge,
Speaker 1: So that whole like right up to the late sixteen twenties,
Speaker 1: so much guesswork going on regarding his background. It's very foggy. Indeed,
Speaker 1: he became friends with John in sixteen twenty eight. Durry
Speaker 1: was born in fifteen ninety six in Edinbargh, Scotland, so
Speaker 1: he was around the same age as Heartland. Durry was
Speaker 1: a Protestant minister and was in Elbing in sixteen twenty eight,
Speaker 1: and the two men met there soon after that this,
Speaker 1: a series of interlocking conflicts known as the Thirty Years War,
Speaker 1: which spanned from sixteen eighteen to sixteen forty eight, made
Speaker 1: Elbing an increasingly more dangerous place to be. Sweden was
Speaker 1: using this port city as a base and a staging
Speaker 1: ground in the struggle for the control of the Baltic Sea.
Speaker 1: So Heartland went to England, and this time he stayed there.
Speaker 1: Durry did as well for a time, and the two
Speaker 1: of them continued to be close friends. On January twentieth,
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty nine, Samuel married a woman named Mary Birmingham.
Speaker 1: Some accounts show her last name with an M like Birmingham.
Speaker 1: Unclear to me which of those is accurate. We also
Speaker 1: just don't know a whole lot about Mary, although the
Speaker 1: two of them were married for years and they had
Speaker 1: at least six children together. Most of what we know
Speaker 1: about their kids is because later in their lives they
Speaker 1: lived near samuel peeps and he wrote about them. Heartlib
Speaker 1: was an active promoter of the need for reform within
Speaker 1: schools and Protestant churches. John Durry was his friend, but
Speaker 1: also one of his influences and ultimately a collaborator on
Speaker 1: many reformist texts. Derry sought to reform the church by
Speaker 1: uniting the fractured Protestant factions. Heartlib agreed with this idea,
Speaker 1: and he put forth the idea that if the church
Speaker 1: could be united in England, then the whole country would benefit.
Speaker 1: And this is also where a little bit of a
Speaker 1: confession has to come in for me. I wanted so
Speaker 1: much to include lots of Heartlib's writings in this episode,
Speaker 1: but let me tell you that is a slog He
Speaker 1: was deeply verbose, and in addition to the somewhat stilted
Speaker 1: writing of the day that you might see in any text,
Speaker 1: he was even more stilted than that. As an example,
Speaker 1: here is a portion of a pamphlet that he wrote
Speaker 1: in sixteen forty seven titled Considerations tending to the Happy Accomplishment.
Speaker 1: So the point of this work is to make the
Speaker 1: case that if England can reform its religion, everyone will benefit.
Speaker 1: As Tracy just mentioned, this is the most easily accessible
Speaker 1: passage in terms of messaging that I could find quote,
Speaker 1: and least any might make a doubt of this last position,
Speaker 1: let us a little enlarge ourselves thereon, to make it
Speaker 1: more apparent from the undoubted maxims and reasons of a
Speaker 1: true reformed Christian state, such as we are now called
Speaker 1: to be. If we take notice of our condition first,
Speaker 1: then we conceive that the glory and happiness of a
Speaker 1: state go hand in hand together, so that everything which
Speaker 1: may add unto the true glory is also fit to
Speaker 1: increase the happiness, a vice versa. On the other side,
Speaker 1: whatsoever doth add unto the true happiness, is also fit
Speaker 1: to increase the glory of a state. Basically, if we're
Speaker 1: all happy, the whole country will be happy. But he
Speaker 1: has to put a lot of extra words in there.
Speaker 1: Samuel Hartlib also believed that education was vital for everyone,
Speaker 1: and one of the efforts he made early on during
Speaker 1: his time in England was the establishment of a school.
Speaker 1: This attempt was in Chichester in sixteen thirty. Although that
Speaker 1: school did not draw enough students to stay open, Heartlb
Speaker 1: closed it almost immediately after founding it. It lasted for
Speaker 1: less than a year. Not long after that, he started
Speaker 1: a correspondence with John Amos Comenius, who became another huge influence.
Speaker 1: For a little background, John Amos Comenius was born in Moravia,
Speaker 1: in an area that is now part of the Czech Republic.
Speaker 1: You'll often see him described as being Czech if you
Speaker 1: look him up today. He was a minister and an educator,
Speaker 1: and he developed an ideology that he thought could lead
Speaker 1: to a deeper connection among the warring countries and cultures
Speaker 1: of Europe, and that was universal education. Comenius thought that
Speaker 1: if everyone was truly educated, they would understand and accept
Speaker 1: their fellow humans better and would be less likely to
Speaker 1: start conflicts with one another. One of the cornerstones of
Speaker 1: this idea was that everyone should learn to read Latin.
Speaker 1: He thought that this would improve access to a wide
Speaker 1: range of historical information and open up the wealth of
Speaker 1: Western knowledge to all to heartlive in a lot of
Speaker 1: his colleagues, these ideas of educational access and a united
Speaker 1: religion were two sides of the same coin. This was
Speaker 1: at the heart of Hartleeb's thinking. He believed that God
Speaker 1: granted every person a talent, and that if they shared
Speaker 1: that talent with others, everyone would learn from one another.
Speaker 1: They would all know more, They would understand each other better,
Speaker 1: and people would recognize a divine fine hand in play
Speaker 1: for all of that to happen. Teaching everyone to read
Speaker 1: would also ensure that they could study the scriptures and
Speaker 1: become better Christians. Coming up, we will talk more about
Speaker 1: the influence of Comenius on Heartlib, and we will get
Speaker 1: to that after a sponsor break. The writings of Comenius
Speaker 1: were very important to Heartlib in his ideology Comenius is
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty two. Writing the Gait of Tongues Unlocked was
Speaker 1: one of many that really captured Heartlib's attention and formed
Speaker 1: the foundation of his thinking regarding education. He started translating
Speaker 1: the writing of Comenius for the English audience, and this
Speaker 1: offers another opportunity to share his proclivity for using just
Speaker 1: lots and lots of words. The title for this translation
Speaker 1: of Comenius, as one of his many writings, was a
Speaker 1: Reformation of Schools, designed in two excellent treatises, The first
Speaker 1: whereof summarily showeth the great necessity of a general reformation
Speaker 1: of common learning? What grounds of hope there are for
Speaker 1: such a reformation? How it may be brought to pass?
Speaker 1: Written many years ago in Latin by the reverend godly
Speaker 1: learned and famous divine mister John Amos Comenius, one of
Speaker 1: the seniors of the exiled Church of Moravia, and now
Speaker 1: upon the request of many, translated into English and published
Speaker 1: by Samuel Hartlib for the general good of this nation.
Speaker 1: So brevity was not his strong sush we love a
Speaker 1: long title on this, but I was reading many of
Speaker 1: his titles, I was like, oh, oh, my friend, goodness.
Speaker 1: But that relationship that he developed with Comenius really established
Speaker 1: Heartlib as a connecting point of European intellectuals. Comenius actually
Speaker 1: visited England in sixteen forty one on the invitation of Heartlib,
Speaker 1: and he stayed there for several months, meeting with many
Speaker 1: of London's preeminent thinkers and scientists. Heartlib was associated with
Speaker 1: so many other famous names of the seventeenth century in
Speaker 1: the Western world. I don't think Holly mentioned in the outline,
Speaker 1: but he came up in our John Evelyn episode like
Speaker 1: somebody had given him a paper and he gave that
Speaker 1: to John Evelin was another example. John Milton's pamphlet of
Speaker 1: Education was dedicated to Heartlib, and that's because the Reformer
Speaker 1: had convinced Milton to write it. The entire thing is
Speaker 1: addressed to Heartlib. It opens with quote, mister Hartlib, I
Speaker 1: am long since persuaded that to say or do ought
Speaker 1: worth memory and imitation, no purpose or respect should sooner
Speaker 1: move us than simply the love of God and of mankind. Nevertheless,
Speaker 1: to write now the reforming of education, though it be
Speaker 1: one of the greatest and noblest designs that can be
Speaker 1: thought on, and for the want whereof this nation perishes,
Speaker 1: I had not yet at this time been induced, but
Speaker 1: by your earnest entreaties and serious conjurements. Milton goes on
Speaker 1: to share there at the beginning of the book that
Speaker 1: Hartley is somebody who deeply respects and at the same
Speaker 1: time could be said of quote men of most approved
Speaker 1: wisdom and some of highest authority among us. Yeah, basically
Speaker 1: just saying, like all of us smart guys think Hertleib
Speaker 1: is great. But despite the numerous people that Hartlib was
Speaker 1: connected to and the network of correspondence he developed, it
Speaker 1: was the friendships Heartlib had with John Durry and Comenius
Speaker 1: that were the most important to him. On March thirteenth,
Speaker 1: sixteen forty two, the three men signed a pact written
Speaker 1: in Latin that outlined their shared goals for promoting reform
Speaker 1: and education and religious unity. And the document is really
Speaker 1: fascinating because, in addition to those goals, it also has
Speaker 1: this very cute vibe, in my opinion, of we will
Speaker 1: BFFs forever, and this is our secret. We are going
Speaker 1: to read only the most abbreviated versions of the points
Speaker 1: of the pact, and they are as follows. Number One,
Speaker 1: that we shall have before us the sole aim of
Speaker 1: manifesting God's glory and of promoting public support for our
Speaker 1: fellow men. Two, so that with God in his goodness,
Speaker 1: we may pursue this end, We set ourselves the task
Speaker 1: of recalling to a better and fuller accord in their
Speaker 1: profession of religion, those who have already been called to
Speaker 1: acknowledge Christ. Three to the end that we may have
Speaker 1: God's favor toward us. In this our purpose, we shall
Speaker 1: strive in daily prayers before Him, in turn, both for
Speaker 1: ourselves and for all those others wheresoever they may be, who,
Speaker 1: whether we are aware of them or not, are now
Speaker 1: stirred by God to like endeavors, or will be stirred hereafter.
Speaker 1: Or we meanwhile promise one another that in these matters
Speaker 1: we shall do nothing except it be by mutual design
Speaker 1: and consent. Five. We promise that no one of us
Speaker 1: will conceal from the other any of his thoughts, even
Speaker 1: his innermost thoughts, which have to do with this proposed goal. Six,
Speaker 1: That no one of us will take an inflexible stand
Speaker 1: against the purposes agreed among the others, but will rather
Speaker 1: yield to them, even if he may not perhaps be
Speaker 1: able to perceive fully the strength and weight of the
Speaker 1: reasons that are put forward. Seven, we promise that we
Speaker 1: will preserve complete faithfulness in our dealings with one another. Eight.
Speaker 1: We also take it upon ourselves to freely admonish one another,
Speaker 1: but as between close friends, for any errors that may
Speaker 1: be committed out of human ignorance. Nine it has seemed proper,
Speaker 1: and we faithfully so promise not to divulge to others
Speaker 1: these conditions of our pact entered into in the side
Speaker 1: of God, chiefly for our conscience's sake, unless by common consent,
Speaker 1: and then to those alone of whose suitability for future
Speaker 1: association in our treaty we are assured. Ten. Finally, if
Speaker 1: anything further is discerned by common accord as likely to
Speaker 1: benefit this our religious fellowship in God. It must be
Speaker 1: subscribed to. These conditions of this are packed and will
Speaker 1: be equal to them in force. So they struck this
Speaker 1: pact just as the conflict between parliamentarians and the Crown
Speaker 1: in England was reaching a boiling point. We've talked about
Speaker 1: the English Civil War and its causes in a bunch
Speaker 1: of other episodes, so we won't go into depth here.
Speaker 1: But the shorthand is that Charles the first, with no
Speaker 1: checks within the government that could stop him, enacted a
Speaker 1: number of policies that were damaging for a lot of
Speaker 1: his subjects that made him really disliked. That included dissolving
Speaker 1: the parliament. He re stated it when he needed help
Speaker 1: in the form of financial backing for his war with
Speaker 1: the Scots. Parliament began to use its reinstated power immediately,
Speaker 1: including prosecuting members at the King's Circle. Five months and
Speaker 1: two weeks after Heartlib, Durry, and Commenius signed their pack,
Speaker 1: the English Civil War began. Heartlib and his friends were parliamentarians.
Speaker 1: He and Durry stayed in the country, but Comenius left. Still,
Speaker 1: the pact remained very important to the three men, and
Speaker 1: sometimes it is cited as a guiding force in Heartlib's life. Yeah. Also,
Speaker 1: just for clarity, Durry didn't stay in England all the time.
Speaker 1: He is sometimes described as being sort of itinerant. He
Speaker 1: moved around Europe a lot, so just in case shelike,
Speaker 1: did he live there the whole time? No. But in
Speaker 1: addition to his translation work and his prodigious correspondence was
Speaker 1: seemingly everyone, Heartlib also wrote original works. Many of these
Speaker 1: works were influenced by by other reformers and thinkers of
Speaker 1: the day. For example, Francis Bacon is often cited when
Speaker 1: scholars mentioned Heartlib's seventeen page pamphlet An Essay for Advancement
Speaker 1: of Husbandry Learning, or Propositions for the erecting a College
Speaker 1: of Husbandry, and in order therein too for the taking
Speaker 1: in of pupils or apprentices, and also friends or fellows
Speaker 1: of the same college or society. He published that in
Speaker 1: sixteen fifty one. In it, he laid out the need
Speaker 1: for agricultural education that offered a continuous stream of the
Speaker 1: latest information and advancements in the field, so that farmers
Speaker 1: could produce the best possible livestock and crops. Throughout all
Speaker 1: of this work, Hertleib was connecting people to people and
Speaker 1: more importantly, people to information. He was supported throughout his
Speaker 1: time in England by personal patronage, with people and families
Speaker 1: paying him with some degree of regularity so he could
Speaker 1: continue in his work, but he wanted to establish something
Speaker 1: more official means to disseminate information that would not just
Speaker 1: be him working alone, but would have a dedicated staff
Speaker 1: sending out published materials and recording new information. This was
Speaker 1: what he called the Office of Address. In sixteen forty eight,
Speaker 1: Heartlib published a pamphlet that was written either by him
Speaker 1: or by John Durry. That comes up a lot when
Speaker 1: you look at the HEARTLB papers, where it's like either
Speaker 1: Dirry or Heartlib because they've worked on things together sometimes
Speaker 1: and their writing style developed in a very similar way.
Speaker 1: But that paper was titled a further discovery of the
Speaker 1: Office of Public Address for Accommodations, and this read in
Speaker 1: part quote, whereby the good of the Kingdom and the
Speaker 1: benefit of all inhabitants thereof may be greatly advanced. There
Speaker 1: is one very easy to be set afoot, which is
Speaker 1: called an office of Address, whereby an orderly and effectual
Speaker 1: correspondence and agency will be settled for the advancement of
Speaker 1: universal learning, and all manner of arts in ingenuity, whereby
Speaker 1: ready helps will be offered to supply the wants of
Speaker 1: everyone without prejudice, unto any whereby all manner of commerce
Speaker 1: will be mainly facilitated, and whereby everyone will be easily
Speaker 1: accommodated with such things as may be lawfully used and
Speaker 1: are usefully communicable unto everyone from each other in a
Speaker 1: well ordered society or commonwealth, as it is more fully
Speaker 1: specified and explained in the printed discourses that describe the
Speaker 1: foreset office. Listen, This is one tiny part of a
Speaker 1: very very verbose paper. Continuing, it is therefore most humbly
Speaker 1: desired that the Parliament would be pleased to resolve upon
Speaker 1: these following particulars as the matter of ordinance to be
Speaker 1: passed by both houses. One that Samuel hartlib Esquire be
Speaker 1: appointed Superintendent General of an offices of address Number one
Speaker 1: indicates that there were additional points, and there were points
Speaker 1: two through four. Asked that heartlib be paid two hundred
Speaker 1: pounds annually for this work, that he could charge users
Speaker 1: a small fee to pay the wages of the clerks
Speaker 1: and registers, and that quote a convenient great house be
Speaker 1: set aside for Heartlib to establish this office. The rest
Speaker 1: of the document goes over the particulars of how the
Speaker 1: office would be run and emphasizes the great benefit this
Speaker 1: would be to all. While the Office of Address was
Speaker 1: never formally established, Heartlib was granted an annual pension of
Speaker 1: three hundred pounds. That number is sometimes reported as two
Speaker 1: hundred or even one hundred pounds, depending on the source,
Speaker 1: But as biographer George Turnbull explained in the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: that payment was not really the portent of success that
Speaker 1: it seemed to be. He wrote quote, Ultimately Parliament officially
Speaker 1: recognized him and made arrangements for financial support, thereby raising
Speaker 1: Heartlib's hopes of the near approach of the millennium to
Speaker 1: the highest pitch, but they only flattered to The political
Speaker 1: atmosphere was too troubled to allow of the prosecution of
Speaker 1: such magnanimous designs, and as has already been indicated, the
Speaker 1: financial support promised was irregularly paid and finally ceased altogether.
Speaker 1: So this annual payment was more like lip service to
Speaker 1: Playkate Heartlib. They didn't even keep up with it. This
Speaker 1: must have become a men'sly frustrating for Samuel Hartlib, as
Speaker 1: he believed the Office of Address would be the culmination
Speaker 1: of all of his life's work. It would enable him
Speaker 1: to fully manifest his goal of education for all. He'd
Speaker 1: already been doing this sort of work at his own
Speaker 1: personal expense, and he knew that people found it valuable,
Speaker 1: but it was simply not perceived as valuable enough for
Speaker 1: Parliament to put money and resources behind it, Just the
Speaker 1: same with the money he was awarded when it was
Speaker 1: paid out. Heartlib did continue to expand his personal efforts
Speaker 1: to sending materials and correspondents throughout his wide network of associates.
Speaker 1: He continued to publish pamphlets offering information on a variety
Speaker 1: of topics, although agricultural subjects were particularly frequent. We will
Speaker 1: talk about some of Hartlib's other writing and the nature
Speaker 1: of his connection to the Royal Society after we hear
Speaker 1: from some of the sponsors that keep the show going.
Speaker 1: One of the projects that Samuel Hartlib worked on for
Speaker 1: decades was something he called ethe Verities. This was an
Speaker 1: ongoing record snippets really of information about interesting developments in
Speaker 1: the realms of science and culture and things of note
Speaker 1: that were related to advancements in human knowledge. It was
Speaker 1: sort of like Peep's diary, but it didn't include any
Speaker 1: of Hartlib's own day to day doings unless it was
Speaker 1: specifically about acquiring some of this information. He started writing
Speaker 1: Femerites in sixteen thirty five, and it continued until sixteen
Speaker 1: fifty nine. For example, an entry from sixteen thirty five
Speaker 1: reads Bortwit knows a countryman of his who is about
Speaker 1: to make a collection out of English divinity books nb.
Speaker 1: It will confer with Darius about it, as also about
Speaker 1: his own work, which is a catechism of conscience. A
Speaker 1: sixteen fifty note states, quote the twenty eighth of February,
Speaker 1: mister Worsley sent me the receipt to be given to
Speaker 1: mister Osmusingh concerning the spirit of Tartar, which he got
Speaker 1: from mister Morion as a special present, who seriously affirmed
Speaker 1: unto him that it cost five hundred guilders. Spirit of
Speaker 1: Tartar was a reference to a distillate that was used
Speaker 1: in alchemical experiments, probably why it was so pricey. Uh.
Speaker 1: One of these entries from sixteen fifty five reads a
Speaker 1: woman in England burning a smock one of her women
Speaker 1: neighbors came bouncing at the door and entreated with all
Speaker 1: entreaties that she might come in, which if she had
Speaker 1: a obtained she would have killed. But not prevailing, she
Speaker 1: went home and was found dead. This is a true
Speaker 1: story related by doctor Mayerne to the King. These are
Speaker 1: the kind of entries in the f Marites in more
Speaker 1: Tame Fair. In sixteen fifty four, Hartlib published True and
Speaker 1: Ready Way to Learn the Latin Tongue, which was of
Speaker 1: course part of his effort to make more religious texts
Speaker 1: readable to a wider range of people. He published several
Speaker 1: dozen pamphlets and various short books throughout his life. In
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, the Restoration reshaped England's government, as Charles the
Speaker 1: Second became king and the monarchy was re established. As
Speaker 1: many of the decisions of the Long Parliament were rolled back.
Speaker 1: Hartlib officially lost his annual pension. That was also the
Speaker 1: same year that the Royal Society was founded, but Heartlib
Speaker 1: was not invited to be a member, neither was John Durry.
Speaker 1: There were eight fellows elected in the original sixteen sixty group,
Speaker 1: and there was some crossover among them with Heartlib's unofficial circle.
Speaker 1: You may have heard if you've done any reading about
Speaker 1: the early years of the Royal Society of the Invisible College,
Speaker 1: and that was another similar group to the Heartlib Circle,
Speaker 1: which included men who shared information with one another through
Speaker 1: correspondence and in person meetings. George Turnbull and other scholars
Speaker 1: have written about this and just how much connection there
Speaker 1: was between Heartlib and the founding fellows of the Royal Society.
Speaker 1: Many of those men are certainly mentioned in his correspondence.
Speaker 1: Irish chemist Robert Boyle, who came up recently in Our
Speaker 1: Modern Inventions that Aren't Episode and who is on my
Speaker 1: short list, wrote to Heartlib on more than one occasion,
Speaker 1: and there's evidence of direct connection with others who were
Speaker 1: Founding Fellows and even Mormon who were invited to become
Speaker 1: fellows later. There were clearly a number of them in
Speaker 1: his correspondence network, and quite a few of them sent
Speaker 1: information to him to be cataloged and shared, and in
Speaker 1: some cases he consulted with them to get their take
Speaker 1: on various scientific matters. In some cases, Samuel Hartlib also
Speaker 1: acted as a sort of informational middleman, receiving information from
Speaker 1: one of these men with instructions to give it only
Speaker 1: to one specific person. Another one of these men who
Speaker 1: became a fellow. He was clearly trusted and was considered
Speaker 1: knowledgeable about all manner of subjects. So for a lot
Speaker 1: of people, the question arises, why then, was Heartlib not
Speaker 1: included in the Royal Society. Turndall lays out some reasons.
Speaker 1: For one, Heartland may have been seen as a trusted
Speaker 1: friend and a conveyor of information, but maybe not as
Speaker 1: an equal quote Heartlib seems to have gone little further
Speaker 1: with these men than to act as a receiver, seeker
Speaker 1: and disseminator of information, including letters and writings about them
Speaker 1: and them, and thereby to help them in their work.
Speaker 1: Turnbull also cites several instances where people mentioned that Heartlib
Speaker 1: appears to be very interested in the collection and dissemination
Speaker 1: of their scientific writing, but not in the writing itself.
Speaker 1: And in one case there's a letter to Hartlib from
Speaker 1: German theologian Henry Oldenberg that states that, quote, you care
Speaker 1: not much for the philosophical discourses of our clubs. So
Speaker 1: he wasn't directly involved in the activities of the group
Speaker 1: that eventually became the Royal Society, although he was clearly
Speaker 1: on friendly terms with its members. It also seems like
Speaker 1: Hartlib himself was not all that interested in the Royal Society.
Speaker 1: He saw it as a piece of a bigger vision
Speaker 1: that he had of a democratized knowledge utopia. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: wrote about this idea of a utopia many times, and
Speaker 1: the founding of a society like this seemed like, of course,
Speaker 1: that's the next step to get to my utopia. Following
Speaker 1: the loss of his occasional pension from Parliament, Hartley really
Speaker 1: had a very difficult time financially. He had never really
Speaker 1: had a lot of money, and what he did have
Speaker 1: he largely funneled into this universal Education project. Even before
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty, though, when that money was cut off, Hartlebb
Speaker 1: was having a variety of health issues, including ulcers and
Speaker 1: possibly kidney stones. His son in law, Amanding Claudius, was
Speaker 1: his doctor and worked to manage his various ailments, although
Speaker 1: it sounds like there really wasn't a lot of relief there.
Speaker 1: When he did get relief, it was quite temporary. In
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty he had some sort of attack that left
Speaker 1: him with temporary limb paralysis, although he did recover. I
Speaker 1: was reading various descriptions of it, and it didn't quite
Speaker 1: sound like a stroke to me, although it could have been.
Speaker 1: But that incident scared him a lot, and he became
Speaker 1: constantly fearful that it was going to happen again and
Speaker 1: that he would be what he called useless to make
Speaker 1: things worse. He also had a number of significant life
Speaker 1: stressers in the early sixteen sixties. His wife Mary died
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty. In sixteen sixty one, he had some
Speaker 1: sort of problem with the business associate that had been
Speaker 1: storing his books and he lost all the remaining copies
Speaker 1: of his book catalog. Then there was a fire at
Speaker 1: his house. He blamed a young member of the house
Speaker 1: staff for mishandling a stove for starting that fire. While
Speaker 1: the fire was caught before it could burn the house down,
Speaker 1: it did cause a lot of damage. Heartlib died on
Speaker 1: March twelfth, sixteen sixty two, in his London home. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is possible he had another one of those intense
Speaker 1: events that caused some paralysis, may or may not have
Speaker 1: been a stroke, etc. Were it not for a somewhat
Speaker 1: wild series of events, Heartlib may have faded almost entirely
Speaker 1: from history. His papers, which were extensive and included his
Speaker 1: years and years of correspondence were purchased after his death
Speaker 1: by a man named William Brereton, a member of the
Speaker 1: Royal Society, who took them to his family's estate. After
Speaker 1: they were organized with the help even of some of
Speaker 1: Hertlb's associates. They were stored there at Brereton Hall, and
Speaker 1: then everybody kind of forgot them. The Brereton estate stayed
Speaker 1: in the family until eighteen seventeen, when it was sold
Speaker 1: to a merchant named John Howard, and then the house
Speaker 1: changed hands at least one more time, and possibly more
Speaker 1: than that before George Turnbull, who we've referenced a couple times,
Speaker 1: who wrote that nineteen twenty biography we mentioned earlier, was
Speaker 1: contacted by a lawyer who said that he had a
Speaker 1: huge stash of HEARTLB papers that had been brought to
Speaker 1: him by the current owner of the property because they
Speaker 1: had found them, did not want them, but thought they
Speaker 1: might be useful. Turnbull, who was teaching at the University
Speaker 1: of Sheffield at that time, and this, by the way,
Speaker 1: happened after he had published his biography, had become the
Speaker 1: or most Heartlib scholar that anybody could think of, so
Speaker 1: he was the obvious recipient of these papers. And he
Speaker 1: accepted them, and he brought them home where he worked
Speaker 1: with them until the end of his life in the
Speaker 1: nineteen sixties, and at that point Turnbull's wife gave the
Speaker 1: papers to the University of Sheffield. The school started a
Speaker 1: digitization project with the collection in the nineteen nineties and
Speaker 1: today the entirety of the heartlib papers is available online
Speaker 1: for free. And it is through these papers that modern
Speaker 1: historians have really learned and understood the true extent of
Speaker 1: Heartlib's influence and impact, and new analyzes of these connections
Speaker 1: continue to be published today. As we said, that other
Speaker 1: biography just came out months ago, and that biography is
Speaker 1: also in the spirit of Heartlib, available for free online.
Speaker 1: Even though it's a nice book, it is in our
Speaker 1: show notes, so to a look for it. It is
Speaker 1: the one that is written by Charles Webster. It is
Speaker 1: going to be one of the last ones in our
Speaker 1: show notes. Paid yeah, and you can go there's literally
Speaker 1: on the publisher's page. It's like get book for free
Speaker 1: and you just pop right there and get the whole
Speaker 1: thing is PDF, nice, perfect, perfect. So if you want
Speaker 1: to get the in depth, real real on Samuel Hartlin,
Speaker 1: do it there. You go. You have some listener mail.
Speaker 1: I do, and this is how to title an email
Speaker 1: to make sure I read it. Boys and Barry Murder. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is from our listener. I don't know if it's
Speaker 1: pronounced Andrea or Andrea either who writes. I'm a high
Speaker 1: school history teacher, so I just wanted to thank you
Speaker 1: for the continual outlet to learn and grow. I am
Speaker 1: very behind and just listen to the eponymous Fruits episode.
Speaker 1: I grew up in Anaheim, California, very near Pearson Park
Speaker 1: that was mentioned as part of Rudy Boysen's development project
Speaker 1: for the city. The park also has a cactus garden
Speaker 1: named after him. We also have a boys in Park
Speaker 1: in Anaheim named after him as well. I currently live
Speaker 1: in Fullerton, that was mentioned as the city mister Boyson
Speaker 1: lived in. My house is over one hundred and ten
Speaker 1: years old, which is ancient for the West Coast. When
Speaker 1: I moved in, there was a strange growth of boison
Speaker 1: berries in my backyard. When you mentioned boison had berries
Speaker 1: growing in a ditch in his yard, I immediately had
Speaker 1: an overwhelming feeling of guilt. What if my house was
Speaker 1: mister Boyson's house. I felt guilt because I intentionally killed
Speaker 1: those berries a few years back. They were riding my
Speaker 1: last nerve and pricked me one too many times. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I may have murdered a historic plant, and I will
Speaker 1: feel guilty until I'm able to find mister Boyson's exact
Speaker 1: address to vindicate myself. I plan on doing some research
Speaker 1: in the City Library history room during my summer break.
Speaker 1: I've had my PhD in stuff you missed a history class,
Speaker 1: but since having twins, I have been continually behind. Listen,
Speaker 1: no shame in that game. I don't have twins and
Speaker 1: I can't keep up with anything. No uh, Andrea continues
Speaker 1: only my second time emailing. In these frustrating times, I
Speaker 1: have appreciated the allusions to fred strations in politics because
Speaker 1: I have had to deactivate social media and stop listening
Speaker 1: to NPR as a form of self preservation. The positive
Speaker 1: is I am catching up on your podcast much faster.
Speaker 1: Attached are some pictures of pie from a three fourteen
Speaker 1: Pie Day celebration. The moon pie reminded me of George Maliez,
Speaker 1: and I just thought you would enjoy the Lichtenstein pie.
Speaker 1: My pet tax is my dogs, Barack Obama and my
Speaker 1: cane Corso mix Rosie the riveter German shepherd and Loki,
Speaker 1: my twelve year old black cat. Wishing you positive vibes
Speaker 1: in these wild times. I can't remember and I did
Speaker 1: not go back and look at my outline for that one,
Speaker 1: but I think the original ditch got identified, so I
Speaker 1: think you're probably safe because you would know, and those
Speaker 1: original you know, the bois And farm that is still
Speaker 1: producing boisonberries today has plants in some cases that are
Speaker 1: from or directly related to those original plants. So I'm
Speaker 1: here to you of your guilt. You're fine. You didn't
Speaker 1: kill anything historical. The history grows on in many places. Also, man,
Speaker 1: Loki looks like my kind of cat, and Tracy's all black,
Speaker 1: but the facial expression is the real cell that is
Speaker 1: a like yeah for real with the pictures kind of face.
Speaker 1: Your pups are so sweet. I want to kiss those snoots.
Speaker 1: And I love pictures of pie for sure. The moonpie
Speaker 1: is very beautiful and I love it. These are spectacular.
Speaker 1: So thank you, thank you, thank you, because this is
Speaker 1: a very fun email to read. Thank you again for
Speaker 1: being an educator. I feel like we cannot think educators
Speaker 1: enough right now. Thank you for sharing your story and
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I can banish your guilt. I hope.
Speaker 1: I had this vision in my head of like a
Speaker 1: rosary meat out of boys and berry somebody else, but
Speaker 1: to anybody but me anyway, Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: If you would like to write to us and tell
Speaker 1: you about plants that may or may not be historical
Speaker 1: that you're worried you've killed somehow destroyed history again you haven't,
Speaker 1: you can do that history podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.
Speaker 1: You can find the show notes for all of our episodes,
Speaker 1: and this one, of course included at Mistonhistory dot com.
Speaker 1: Like I said, that last openly available biography that was
Speaker 1: written by a really well researched scholar just last year
Speaker 1: is available online and it's the last entry in the
Speaker 1: show notes there. Just scroll on down and click right through.
Speaker 1: If you would like to subscribe to the podcast and
Speaker 1: you haven't done that yet, you can do that on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your face for shows, m