Workdiary 22 ('Promiscuous Addenda to my severall Treatises')

Content: Transcribed extracts on geographical and natural phenomena from natural philosophical and travel books, from the late 1660s and very early 1670s; authors include Samuel Purchas, Marin Mersenne, Julius Caesar Scaliger, Izaak Walton, Isbrand van Diemerbroeck and many others

General Information

• Creation: late 1660s/very early 16670s
• Hands: Hand F (entries 16-26, 28-69, 71-74, 76-67a) Hand E (entries 1-4, 7-8, 27, 70, 75, 68a-73a, 78-100, 105-107, 116, 155-158) Hand G (entries 117-154) Hand Q (entries 158a-174) Hand R (entries 101-104, 108-115) Hugh Greg (entries 205-207) Frederick Slare (entries 189-201) Robin Bacon (entries 202-3) unidentified hand 1 (entries 4-6, 9-15, 73a-77) unidentified hand 2 (entries 175-181) unidentified hand 3 (entries 182-188) unidentified hand 4 (entry 204)
• Source: Royal Society, Boyle Papers 8, fols. 65-116
• Languages: English (85 entries) Latin (83 entries) French (34 entries) Italian (16 entries)
• Length: 222 entries, of which 210 are numbered 1-200 (but see note for details of the complicated numbering scheme used in the workdiary)
• Format: Folded foolscap sheets. The following pages in this workdiary are blank and are therefore recorded here but not reproduced as images: BP 8, fols. 91v, 109v and 113v.
• Note 1: Fol. 63 consists of a paper cover for this workdiary, with the title 'Promiscuous Addenda to my several Treatises/A' written on the recto. A set of names of contacts and their addresses is found on the verso (e.g. 'Mr le Fevre, at Mr Wells a Barber behind Alhalows', Mr Knight living with Mr Gunner near the Hermitage Bridge beyond the Tower). On the verso of fol. 64 (the recto is blank) is a version of "The order of my severall Treatises", for which we see Works, xiv, p. xl-xli, 331-2. The workdiary entries begin on fol. 65, which is headed by another, smaller, version of the same title, 'Promiscuous Addenda to my several Treatises.'
• Note 2: From entry 44 the numbering system of the workdiary becomes confused. The numbers assigned to the entries are from this point too low by 10. Thus entry 44 was originally numbered 34. However these numbers were corrected, and retrospectively made to conform to the proper sequence by changing the first digit of the number. These corrections, though, were only maintained for entries 44-76 (correct numbering). From entry 77 (which is numbered 67 in the manuscript) until the end of the workdiary the correct numbering system is never again adopted and the numbers assigned in the manuscript are too low by ten. For entries 67-76, of which there are two sets (following the authorial numbering), the editors have assigned editorial numbers (i.e. 67a) to distinguish the later, incorrectly numbered, entries from the earlier, properly numbered, ones. From entry 77 we again adopt the original authorial workdiary numbering, even though it is out by ten.
• Note 3: The entire contents of the rectos of fols. 86 and 87, which comprise Latin notes on minerals, are crossed through, and they were excluded from the sequence of numbered entries, which goes from 73 on fol. 85v to 74 on fol. 86v, and from 76 on fol. 86v to 77 on fol. 87v. However, they are written in the same hand as the entries on the versos of the leaves in question, and we have therefore included them here, assigning the content of fol. 86 the entry number '73a' and that of fol. 87 '76b'.
• Note 4: Fol. 88r is badly damaged by some sort of purple stain, which renders most of the text on this page illegible. We have deciphered what we can, but our transcription of it must remain highly doubtful. As the marginal reference to the original source is fairly clear, though, it should be possible to go to the original to see what passage Boyle intended to have transcribed.
• Note 5: The last of the regular numbered series of entries is on fol. 113. Fols. 114-6 consist of miscellaneous unnumbered entries which are written in hands different, and on topics different, from those of the previous entries. However, as they are mainly extracts taken from other books, like the rest of the workdiary, we have included them in the workdiary, assigning them editorial numbers beyond 200.
• Note 6: In these transcriptions of extracts from printed books, we have often compared the passage with the original and, for clarity, have occasionally inserted words which were apparently omitted in the course of transcription.