Henry Oldenburg

Oldenburg, Henry (c. 1618–1677), secretary to the Royal Society of London. Henry Oldenburg was born in Bremen, Germany, around 1618. After graduating with an M.A. from the Gymnasium Illustre in Bremen in 1639, he traveled in Europe until 1653, when he went to England on a diplomatic mission for Bremen. Thereafter he resided in London, where he made the acquaintance of John Dury, Samuel Hartlib, John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle, and Boyle's sister Lady Ranelagh, to whose son, Richard Jones, future earl of Ranelagh, he became tutor. In 1660 he was associated with Boyle's circle at Gresham College. In 1661 he joined the newly founded Royal Society, to which he was appointed as one of two secretaries in 1662. Oldenburg was twice married, first to Dorothy West (d. 1665), whom he married in 1663, and secondly to his ward, Katherina Dury, whom he married in 1668 and with whom he had two children, Rupert and Sophia.

As secretary to the Royal Society, Oldenburg was responsible for keeping records of the Society's meetings and for maintaining its correspondence with thinkers and scientists throughout Europe, including such figures as Johannes Hevel, Christiaan Huygens, Marcello Malpighi, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and Nicolaus Steno. In this capacity, Oldenburg played an important role as publicist, promoter, and information gatherer for the new science. The success of this owed much to him personally, to his wide command of languages, his broad range of contacts, and his personal interest in the new science. He established the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (first published in 1665) as an important vehicle for scientific interchange that helped to shape the Baconian and experimentalist character of Royal Society science.

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Oldenburg, Henry. The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg. Edited by A. Rupert Hall and M. Boas Hall. 13 vols. Madison, Wisc., 1965–1986.

——. Philosophical Transactions. London, 1665–1677.

Secondary Sources

Boas Hall, M. "Henry Oldenburg and the Art of Scientific Communication." British Journal for the History of Science 2 (1964–5): 277–290.

——. "Oldenburg, the Philosophical Transactions and Technology." In Uses of Science in the Age of Newton, edited by J. G. Burke, 21–47. Berkeley, 1976.

Hall, A. R. "Oldenburg, Henry." Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Edited by Charles Coulston Gillispie. New York, 1974.

Hall, A. R., and M. Boas Hall. "Philosophy and Natural Philosophy: Boyle and Spinoza." In Mélanges Alexandre Koyré. Paris, 1964.

—SARAH HUTTON

Henry Oldenburg (c.1619 - September, 1677) worked as a diplomat and a natural philosopher. Born in Bremen, Germany, he trained in theology and received his degree on 2 November 1639. He became a tutor before settling in England during the English interregnum, where he forged a strong relationship with his lifelong patron Robert Boyle. After the Restoration he became an early member (original fellow) of the Royal Society (founded in 1660), and served as its first secretary, maintaining an extensive network of scientific contacts through Europe. He also became the founding editor of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Oldenburg began the practice of sending submitted manuscripts to experts who could judge their quality before publication. This was the beginning of both the modern scientific journal and the practice of peer review.[1].

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society continues today and is the longest running scientific journal in the world.

Oldenburg enjoyed good health in his lifetime, but he fell seriously ill on 3 September 1677, and he died two days thereafter at his Pall Mall home. He was interred on 7 September at St Mary the Virgin, Bexley. His widow died ten days later.

Further reading

• Marie Boas Hall, Henry Oldenburg; Shaping the Royal Society, Oxford University Press, 2002.
• Jean-Pierre Vittu, "Henry Oldenburg 'Grand intermédiaire'", in "Les grands intermédiaires culturels de la République des Lettres", pub. by Christiane Berkvens-Stevelinck, Hans Bots and Jens Häseler, Paris, Honoré Champion, 2005, pp. 184-209
• Archival record of Oldenburg at the Royal Society

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