Exploring our archives

Well, we are still not exactly sure! As Lisa Jardine and Robyn Adams wrote in their recent article in Notes of Records of the Royal Society the folio was found under mysterious circumstances. It has been indexed to some extent by Hooke’s posthumous editor William Derham. Based on the original inscription on the cover, Derham suggests that the first hundred pages are extracts from the Journal Books, the official record of meetings, during the period in which Henry Oldenburg was Secretary of the Royal Society. The rest of the manuscript, which runs to 635 pages in total appears to consist of original minutes from the period during which Robert Hooke was Secretary, 1677-1682 with a few additional pages from 1691.

The original minutes of the Royal Society are preserved in the archives, with the exception of the period in which Hooke was Secretary, for which there are binders left empty for the missing pages. It seems, however, that the Royal Society did have some of Hooke’s minutes: in February 1682 the Council demanded that he ‘deliuer up into the hands of either of the Secretary’s all such Books and Papers as any way belong to the society or came to his hands upon the account of his being Secretary’ and later that Spring a committee was appointed to meet in the Repository and correct omissions and mistakes in the journal books. Minutes of a council meeting the next year report having ’stichted paper books of Minutes taken by Mr Hook they begin the 25^th of October 1677 and end the 23^rd of February 1680/1′. Also in their possession ‘Another bound book of Mr. Hookes minutes, about ¼ full, it begins March 1680/1 and ends July 26 1682′. Finally, the council ‘Resolved that the minutes of the Mr Hooke be written into books suiting with the rest’.

So, the mystery deepens. These council minutes imply that at the original copy of the minutes was in the hands of the Council and, if their instructions were carried out, there would have been an additional copy to be entered in the records. Did Hooke reclaim his notes at some point after this, and if so, for what purpose?

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Hi my name is Jenni and I’m working with Anna to transcribe the Hooke Folio as part of a project between the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters and the Royal Society. We’ll be writing a blog each week to keep you updated with all our latest findings and to give you an insight into the project as it unfolds. We’d also really like you to get involved by adding comments or questions you might have about the folio.

My background’s in Museology, so as well as transcribing the folio, I’m also writing my PhD on the life and afterlife of the early Royal Society repository.

Part of my research involves trying to trace what happened to the objects of the repository, whether they are still around today or have been destroyed.  The Hooke Folio talks about a Rhino horn donated by Sir Robert Southwell, so at the moment I’m trying to find that. It also mentions a dogs gall bladder stone and whilst it would be great to find it, I have to confess I’m not quite so keen to see it

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Hi I’m Anna. I’m working with Jenni on transcribing the Hooke folio together with CELL and the archives team at the Royal Society. We are transcribing using the exciting new software Transcription Workbench, using Python, which should let you view the finished product in various different formats, depending whether you want a record of all the original ink blots and doddles, or just a readable version in modern(ish) English.
When I’ve finished looking at this fascinating (and huge!) document, I will go on to look at the connections of the Royal Society with the East India Company and the role of voyages of exploration and discovery. This fits in with my previous interest in Indian Ocean history, which I researched while at the British Institute in Eastern Africa, as well as work at the Science Museum and a rather geeky interest in modern science and web technology, which I write about here.

We will be writing here about things we find interesting in the folio and the other documents we are looking at, whether in terms of how we can relate them to themes or debates in modern science, the point of view of the early history of the Society itself, or the wider history of the period that the folio covers (1667-1691). We’ll also be telling you about the trials, tribulations and highlights of the transcription process itself. Please get back to us with any comment, thoughts or suggestions for the direction of future rants!

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There is a certain romance in the world’s oldest scientific academy being reunited with an historical folio that fills gaps in the knowledge of its own history. The Society was delighted to be re-acquainted with the Hooke Folio - minutes of the Royal Society taken by Robert Hooke which he never entered in to the Society’s records. Among other things, when the folio was returned to the Society, artist Ian LeColbers was comissioned to create a Hooke tableaux to celebrate its return.

The folio is now being studied, and this first foray by the Royal Society in to the blogosphere will initially chart the progress that researchers Anna Winterbottom and Jenni Thomas make as they explore this document. Later, they will move on to other, equally interesting, documents in the Royal Society’s archives.  I hope you enjoy, as I will, sharing in their discoveries. If you have any comments about this service please feel free to leave them on the blog, or e-mail me at the Royal Society.

Rob Fenwick
Royal Society Web Manager, January 2007.

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