ABSTRACT
The analysis of the frontispiece to Sprat’s History has thus led us on an extraordinary voyage of discovery, throwing light on many aspects of the early Royal Society and its milieu and not least on the interests and aspirations of John Evelyn. In the course of it, we have been led down avenues of investigation in which we would never have expected to fi nd ourselves, and have benefi ted from the advice of an extraordinary range of experts in a variety of fi elds, whose names are recorded in our notes and acknowledgements and to all of whom we are immensely grateful. The overall outcome of the enterprise recorded in this book may be summarised as follows. Evelyn rose to the challenge of John Beale’s request for a plate to illustrate his celebration of Lord Bacon and his legacy, producing a powerful composition which, when rerouted to Sprat’s History , has been infl uential ever since. An exploration of his sources has revealed how directly Evelyn’s overall design followed an exemplar which linked the Royal Society to the legacy of Raphael and of Renaissance Italy. Yet Evelyn adapted this in ways which illustrate much about what he and his Royal Society colleagues considered important about the enterprise in which they were involved, including the institutional status of the new society and the profuse paraphernalia of instruments by which its leading fi gures set such store. Indeed, the systematic account that has been given of these instruments reveals how closely they refl ect the inventions and experiments associated with the society during the years when the frontispiece was being conceived and executed, and particularly the role in devising them of the society’s Curator of Experiments, Robert Hooke. Lastly, the way in which copies of the print were evidently printed on special paper itself throws light on the connoisseurial aspirations which formed so important a part of Evelyn’s cultural role, yet which were integral to his commitment to the Royal Society’s enterprise.
