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101-539: John Evelyn FRS (31 October 1620 – 27 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener , courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diarist . He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society . John Evelyn's diary , or memoir , spanned the period of his adult life from 1640, when he was a student, to 1706, the year he died. He did not write daily at all times. The many volumes provide insight into life and events at

202-434: A deer moved into a colder climate, it became a reindeer . He wrote that many species were hybrids of other species, for example, armadillos from a combination of turtles and porcupines . He also advocated the theory of spontaneous generation . Because of such hypotheses, some historians have held that Kircher was a proto-evolutionist. Kircher took a modern approach to the study of diseases as early as 1646 by using

303-426: A microscope to investigate the blood of plague victims. In his Scrutinium Pestis of 1658, he observed the presence of "little worms" or " animalcules " in the blood and concluded that the disease was caused by microorganisms . That was correct, although it is likely that what he saw were red or white blood cells and not the plague agent, Yersinia pestis . He also proposed hygienic measures to prevent

404-454: A missionary to that country. In 1667 he published a treatise whose full title was China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae & artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata , and which is commonly known simply as China Illustrata , i.e. "China Illustrated". It was a work of encyclopedic breadth, combining material of unequal quality, from accurate cartography to mythical elements, such as

505-763: A Chair (all of whom are Fellows of the Royal Society ). Members of the 10 Sectional Committees change every three years to mitigate in-group bias . Each Sectional Committee covers different specialist areas including: New Fellows are admitted to the Society at a formal admissions day ceremony held annually in July, when they sign the Charter Book and the Obligation which reads: "We who have hereunto subscribed, do hereby promise, that we will endeavour to promote

606-474: A French taste and bear his motto Omnia explorate; meliora retinete ("explore everything; keep the better") from I Thessalonians 5, 21. His daughter, Mary Evelyn (1665–1685), has been acknowledged as the pseudonymous author of the book Mundus Muliebris of 1690. Mundus Muliebris: or, The Ladies Dressing Room Unlock'd and Her Toilette Spread. In Burlesque. Together with the Fop-Dictionary, Compiled for

707-698: A campaign was started to restore John Evelyn's garden in Deptford. William Arthur Evelyn was a descendant. Things named for Evelyn include: Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society ( FRS , ForMemRS and HonFRS ) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge , including mathematics , engineering science , and medical science ". Fellowship of

808-548: A collection of private and official letters and papers (1642–1712) by, or addressed to, Sir Richard Browne and his son-in-law, now held by the British Library (Add MSS 15857 and 15858). The most influential of his books in his lifetime, long before the Diary was known, was Sylva . Evelyn believed that the country was being rapidly depleted of wood by industries such as glass factories and iron furnaces, while no attempt

909-528: A field of serious study. Kircher's interest in Egyptology began in 1628 when he became intrigued by a collection of hieroglyphs in the library at Speyer . He learned Coptic in 1633 and published its first grammar in 1636, the Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus . Kircher then broke with Horapollon's interpretation of hieroglyphs with his Lingua aegyptiaca restituta . Kircher argued that Coptic preserved

1010-580: A hotel in Baroque Rome by the papal health authorities because of an epidemic of plague. Kircher's theory about the healing power of music is remembered by the protagonists in various flashbacks and finally provides the key to the puzzle. In Where Tigers Are At Home , by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès , the protagonist works on a translation of a bogus 17th-century biography of Kircher. The contemporary artist Cybèle Varela has paid tribute to Kircher in her exhibition Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher , held in

1111-410: A learned tongue many people at the time believed they were correct." Although Kircher's approach to deciphering texts was based on a fundamental misconception, some modern commentators have described Kircher as the pioneer of the serious study of hieroglyphs. The data which he collected were later consulted by Champollion in his successful efforts to decode the script. According to Joseph MacDonnell, it

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1212-412: A major surviving portion of Evelyn's library was sold and dispersed. The British Library holds a large archive of Evelyn's personal papers including the manuscript of his Diary. The Victoria and Albert Museum has in its collection a cabinet owned by Evelyn which is thought to have housed his diaries. In 2006, a new biography by Gillian Darley, based on full access to the archive, was published. In 2011

1313-619: A study of dragons . The work drew heavily on the reports of Jesuits working in China, in particular Michael Boym and Martino Martini . China Illustrata emphasized the Christian elements of Chinese history, both real and imagined: the book noted the early presence of Nestorian Christians (with a Latin translation of the Nestorian Stele of Xi'an provided by Boym and his Chinese collaborator, Andrew Zheng), but also claimed that

1414-465: A time before regular magazines or newspapers were published, making diaries of greater interest to modern historians than such works might have been at later periods. Evelyn's work covers art, culture and politics, including the execution of Charles I , Oliver Cromwell 's rise and eventual natural death, the last Great Plague of London , and the Great Fire of London in 1666. John Evelyn's Diary

1515-580: Is Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652–54), a vast study of Egyptology and comparative religion . His books, written in Latin , were widely circulated in the 17th century, and contributed to the wide dissemination of scientific information. Kircher is not considered to have made any significant original contributions, although some discoveries and inventions (e.g., the magic lantern ) have sometimes been mistakenly attributed to him. In his foreword to Ars Magna Sciendi Sive Combinatoria (The Great Art of Knowledge, or

1616-737: Is confirmed by the Council in April, and a secret ballot of Fellows is held at a meeting in May. A candidate is elected if they secure two-thirds of votes of those Fellows voting. An indicative allocation of 18 Fellowships can be allocated to candidates from Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences; and up to 10 from Applied Sciences, Human Sciences and Joint Physical and Biological Sciences. A further maximum of six can be 'Honorary', 'General' or 'Royal' Fellows. Nominations for Fellowship are peer reviewed by Sectional Committees, each with at least 12 members and

1717-421: Is nominated by two Fellows of the Royal Society (a proposer and a seconder), who sign a certificate of proposal. Previously, nominations required at least five fellows to support each nomination by the proposer, which was criticised for supposedly establishing an old boy network and elitist gentlemen's club . The certificate of election (see for example ) includes a statement of the principal grounds on which

1818-885: The Collegio Romano , in the same place where the Museum Kircherianum was. The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles has a hall dedicated to the life of Kircher. His ethnographic collection is in the Pigorini National Museum of Prehistory and Ethnography in Rome. John Glassie's book, A Man of Misconceptions , traces connections between Kircher and figures such as Gianlorenzo Bernini , René Descartes , and Isaac Newton . It also suggests influences on Edgar Allan Poe , Franz Anton Mesmer , Jules Verne , and Marcel Duchamp . In

1919-619: The Directory for Public Worship , Evelyn was able to find and worship at prayer book services, including in London. At one such service–held on Christmas Day , 1657–Evelyn reported that Parliamentarians "held their muskets against us as we came up to receive the Sacred Elements ". Evelyn would also recount regular usage of the prayer book's offices and its calendar with his family inside their home. In 1651 he became convinced that

2020-816: The English Civil War . In October 1644 Evelyn visited the Roman ruins in Fréjus , Provence, before travelling on to Italy. He attended anatomy lectures in Padua in 1646 and sent the Evelyn Tables back to London. These are thought to be the oldest surviving anatomical preparations in Europe; Evelyn later gave them to the Royal Society, and they are now in the Hunterian Museum . In 1644, Evelyn visited

2121-765: The English College at Rome, where Catholic priests were trained for service in England. In the Veneto he renewed his acquaintance with the famous art collector Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel , and toured the art collections of Venice with Arundel's grandson and heir , later Duke of Norfolk . He acquired an ancient Egyptian stela and sent a sketch back to Rome, which was published by Father Kircher, SJ , in Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1650), albeit without acknowledgement to Evelyn. In Florence , he commissioned

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2222-511: The Habsburg court. On the intervention of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc , the order was rescinded, and he was sent instead to Rome to continue with his scholarly work, but he had already embarked for Vienna. On the way, his ship was blown off course and he arrived in Rome before he knew of the changed destination. He based himself in the city for the rest of his life, and from 1634 he taught mathematics, physics and Oriental languages at

2323-648: The John Evelyn Cabinet (1644–46), an elaborate ebony cabinet with pietra dura and gilt-bronze panels, which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum . It was in his London house at his death, then returned to Wotton, and is very likely the "ebony cabinet" in which his diaries were later found. In 1647 Evelyn married Mary Browne , daughter of Sir Richard Browne , the English ambassador in Paris. During

2424-636: The Second Anglo-Dutch War , beginning 28 October 1664, Evelyn served as one of four commissioners on the Sick and Hurt Board (others included Sir William D'Oyly and Sir Thomas Clifford ), staying at his post during the Great Plague in 1665. He found it impossible to secure sufficient money for the proper discharge of his functions, and in 1688 he was still petitioning for payment of his accounts in this business. He briefly acted as one of

2525-500: The magic lantern has been misattributed to Kircher, although he conducted a study of the principles involved in his Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae . A scientific star in his day, towards the end of his life he was eclipsed by the rationalism of René Descartes and others. In the late 20th century, however, the aesthetic qualities of his work again began to be appreciated. One modern scholar, Alan Cutler, described Kircher as "a giant among seventeenth-century scholars", and "one of

2626-426: The post-nominal letters FRS . Every year, fellows elect up to ten new foreign members. Like fellows, foreign members are elected for life through peer review on the basis of excellence in science. As of 2016 , there are around 165 foreign members, who are entitled to use the post-nominal ForMemRS . Honorary Fellowship is an honorary academic title awarded to candidates who have given distinguished service to

2727-532: The tides were caused by water moving to and from a subterranean ocean . Kircher was also puzzled by fossils . He understood that fossils were the remains of animals. He ascribed large bones to giant races of humans. Not all the objects which he was attempting to explain were in fact fossils, hence the diversity of explanations. He interpreted mountain ranges as the Earth's skeletal structures exposed by weathering. Mundus Subterraneus includes several pages about

2828-400: The 18th and 19th centuries and feature an inaccurate portrait of Evelyn made by Francesco Bartolozzi . Evelyn had some training as a draftsman and artist, and created several etchings . Most of his published work, produced in the form of drawings to be engraved by others, was to illustrate his own work. Following the Great Fire in 1666, closely described in his diaries , Evelyn presented

2929-763: The 27th day of February 1705/6 being the 86th Year of his age in full hope of a glorious resurrection thro faith in Jesus Christ. Living in an age of extraordinary events, and revolutions he learnt (as himself asserted) this truth which pursuant to his intention is here declared. That all is vanity which is not honest and that there's no solid Wisdom but in real piety. Of five Sons and three Daughters borne to him from his most vertuous and excellent Wife MARY sole daughter, and heiress of Sir RICHARD BROWNE of Sayes Court near Deptford in Kent onely one Daughter SUSANNA married to WILLIAM DRAPER Esq of Adscomb in this County survived him –

3030-634: The Chinese were descended from the sons of Ham , that Confucius was Hermes Trismegistus/Moses and that the Chinese characters were abstracted hieroglyphs. In Kircher's system, ideograms were inferior to hieroglyphs because they referred to specific ideas rather than to mysterious complexes of ideas, while the signs of the Maya and Aztecs were yet lower pictograms which referred only to objects. Umberto Eco comments that this idea reflected and supported

3131-556: The Collegio Romano (now the Pontifical Gregorian University ) for several years before being released to devote himself to research. He studied malaria and the plague , amassing a collection of antiquities , which he exhibited along with devices of his own creation in the Museum Kircherianum . In 1661, Kircher discovered the ruins of a church said to have been constructed by Constantine on

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3232-490: The Combinatorial Art), the inscription reads: "Nothing is more beautiful than to know all." The last known example of Egyptian hieroglyphics dates from AD 394, after which all knowledge of hieroglyphics was lost. Until Thomas Young and Jean-François Champollion found the key to hieroglyphics in the 19th century, the main authority was the 4th-century Greek grammarian Horapollon , whose chief contribution

3333-661: The Copernican ;— as distinct possibilities. The clock has been reconstructed by Caroline Bouguereau in collaboration with Michael John Gorman and is on display at the Green Library at Stanford University. The Musurgia Universalis (1650) sets out Kircher's views on music : he believed that the harmony of music reflected the proportions of the universe . The book includes plans for constructing water-powered automatic organs , notations of birdsong and diagrams of musical instruments . One illustration shows

3434-745: The Evelyn Chapel in St John's Church, Wotton. Evelyn's epitaph (original spelling) reads: Here lies the Body of JOHN EVELYN Esq of this place, second son of RICHARD EVELYN Esq who having served the Publick in several employments of which that Commissioner of the Privy Seal in the reign of King James the 2nd was most Honourable: and perpetuated his fame by far more lasting Monuments than those of Stone, or Brass: his Learned and useful works, fell asleep

3535-439: The Royal Society has been described by The Guardian as "the equivalent of a lifetime achievement Oscar " with several institutions celebrating their announcement each year. Up to 60 new Fellows (FRS), honorary (HonFRS) and foreign members (ForMemRS) are elected annually in late April or early May, from a pool of around 700 proposed candidates each year. New Fellows can only be nominated by existing Fellows for one of

3636-890: The Sayes Court estate) and introduced him to Sir Christopher Wren . There is now an electoral ward called Evelyn in Deptford, London Borough of Lewisham . He remained a royalist, had refused employment from the government of the Commonwealth, and had maintained a cipher correspondence with Charles II ; in 1659 he published an Apology for the Royal Party . It was after the Restoration that Evelyn's career really took off, and he enjoyed unbroken court favour until his death. He never held any important political office, although he filled many useful and minor posts. In 1660, he

3737-1400: The Society, the oldest known scientific academy in continuous existence, is a significant honour. It has been awarded to many eminent scientists throughout history, including Isaac Newton (1672), Benjamin Franklin (1756), Charles Babbage (1816), Michael Faraday (1824), Charles Darwin (1839), Ernest Rutherford (1903), Srinivasa Ramanujan (1918), Jagadish Chandra Bose (1920), Albert Einstein (1921), Paul Dirac (1930), Winston Churchill (1941), Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1944), Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis (1945), Dorothy Hodgkin (1947), Alan Turing (1951), Lise Meitner (1955), Satyendra Nath Bose (1958), and Francis Crick (1959). More recently, fellowship has been awarded to Stephen Hawking (1974), David Attenborough (1983), Tim Hunt (1991), Elizabeth Blackburn (1992), Raghunath Mashelkar (1998), Tim Berners-Lee (2001), Venki Ramakrishnan (2003), Atta-ur-Rahman (2006), Andre Geim (2007), Bai Chunli (2014), James Dyson (2015), Ajay Kumar Sood (2015), Subhash Khot (2017), Elon Musk (2018), Elaine Fuchs (2019) and around 8,000 others in total, including over 280 Nobel Laureates since 1900. As of October 2018 , there are approximately 1,689 living Fellows, Foreign and Honorary Members, of whom 85 are Nobel Laureates. Fellowship of

3838-663: The Society, we shall be free from this Obligation for the future". Since 2014, portraits of Fellows at the admissions ceremony have been published without copyright restrictions in Wikimedia Commons under a more permissive Creative Commons license which allows wider re-use. In addition to the main fellowships of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS & HonFRS), other fellowships are available which are applied for by individuals, rather than through election. These fellowships are research grant awards and holders are known as Royal Society Research Fellows . In addition to

3939-529: The Use of the Fair Sex is a satirical guide in verse to Francophile fashion and terminology, and its authorship is often jointly credited to John Evelyn, who seems to have edited the work for press after his daughter's death. In 1694 Evelyn moved back to Wotton, Surrey , as his elder brother, George, had no living sons available to inherit the estate. Evelyn inherited the estate and the family seat Wotton House on

4040-501: The award of Fellowship (FRS, HonFRS & ForMemRS) and the Research Fellowships described above, several other awards, lectures and medals of the Royal Society are also given. Athanasius Kircher Kircher claimed to have deciphered the hieroglyphic writing of the ancient Egyptian language , but most of his assumptions and translations in the field turned out to be wrong. He did, however, correctly establish

4141-612: The cause of science, but do not have the kind of scientific achievements required of Fellows or Foreign Members. Honorary Fellows include the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (2022), Bill Bryson (2013), Melvyn Bragg (2010), Robin Saxby (2015), David Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Turville (2008), Onora O'Neill (2007), John Maddox (2000), Patrick Moore (2001) and Lisa Jardine (2015). Honorary Fellows are entitled to use

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4242-557: The clock's motion supported the Copernican cosmological model, arguing that the magnetic sphere in the clock rotated by the magnetic force of the sun . Kircher's model disproved that hypothesis, showing that the motion could be produced by a water clock in the base of the device. Although Kircher disputed the Copernican model in his Magnes , supporting instead that of Tycho Brahe , his later Itinerarium exstaticum (1656, revised 1671), presented several systems — including

4343-438: The commissioners of the privy seal . In 1695 he was entrusted with the office of treasurer of Greenwich hospital for retired sailors, and laid the first stone of the new building on 30 June 1696. He was known for his knowledge of trees , and had a friend and correspondent, Philip Dumaresq , who "devoted most of his time to gardening, fruit, and tree culture." Evelyn's treatise, Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664),

4444-550: The context of his Coptic studies. However, according to Steven Frimmer, "none of them even remotely fitted the original texts". In Oedipus Aegyptiacus , Kircher argued under the impression of the Hieroglyphica that ancient Egyptian was the language spoken by Adam and Eve , that Hermes Trismegistus was Moses , and that hieroglyphs were occult symbols which "cannot be translated by words, but expressed only by marks, characters and figures." This led him to translate

4545-720: The death of his brother in 1699. Sayes Court was made available for rent. Its most notable tenant was Russian Tsar Peter the Great , who lived there for three months in 1698 (and did great damage to both house and grounds). The house no longer exists, but a public park of the same name can be found off Evelyn Street. Evelyn died in 1706 at his house in Dover Street , London. Wotton House and estate were inherited by his grandson John (1682–1763) later Sir John Evelyn, Bt. John and Mary Evelyn had eight children: Mary Evelyn died in 1709, three years after her husband. Both are buried in

4646-426: The differences between the ears of humans and other animals. In Phonurgia Nova (1673) Kircher considered the possibilities of transmitting music to remote places. Other machines designed by Kircher include an aeolian harp , automatons such as a statue which spoke and listened via a speaking tube , a perpetual motion machine , and a Katzenklavier ("cat piano"). The Katzenklavier would have driven spikes into

4747-590: The disaster via astrology, though Kircher privately insisted that he had not relied on it. This was the year that Kircher published his first book (the Ars Magnesia , reporting his research on magnetism ), but having been caught up in the Thirty Years' War he was driven to the papal University of Avignon in France . In 1633 he was called to Vienna by the emperor to succeed Kepler as Mathematician to

4848-504: The end, Glassie writes, Kircher should be acknowledged “for his effort to know everything and to share everything he knew, for asking a thousand questions about the world around him, and for getting so many others to ask questions about his answers; for stimulating, as well as confounding and inadvertently amusing, so many minds; for having been a source of so many ideas—right, wrong, half-right, half-baked, ridiculous, beautiful, and all-encompassing.” Kircher's life and research are central to

4949-617: The estate was therefore left to a remote cousin descended from the diarist's grandfather's first marriage, in whose family it remains to this day though they no longer occupy the house. The title died out in 1848. However, there are many living descendants of John Evelyn through his daughter Susanna, Mrs William Draper, and his granddaughter Elizabeth, Mrs Simon Harcourt. There are many descendants of John Evelyn's great-great-grandson, Charles Evelyn Jnr, through his daughter Susanna Prideaux (Evelyn) Wright living in New Zealand. Charles Evelyn Jnr

5050-472: The ethnocentric European attitude toward Chinese and native American civilizations: "China was presented not as an unknown barbarian to be defeated but as a prodigal son who should return to the home of the common father". (p. 69) In 1675, he published Arca Noë , the results of his research on the biblical Ark of Noah — following the Counter-Reformation , allegorical interpretation

5151-532: The famous Diary they are of considerable interest. They include: Some of these were reprinted in The Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn , edited (1825) by William Upcott . Evelyn's friendship with Margaret Blagge , afterwards Mrs Godolphin, is recorded in the diary, when he says he designed "to consecrate her worthy life to posterity". This he effectually did in a little masterpiece of religious biography which remained in manuscript in

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5252-528: The fellowships described below: Every year, up to 52 new fellows are elected from the United Kingdom, the rest of the Commonwealth of Nations , and Ireland, which make up around 90% of the society. Each candidate is considered on their merits and can be proposed from any sector of the scientific community. Fellows are elected for life on the basis of excellence in science and are entitled to use

5353-425: The first of several plans ( Christopher Wren produced another) for the rebuilding of London, all of which were rejected by Charles II largely due to the complexities of land ownership in the city. He took an interest in the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral by Wren (with Gibbons' artistry a notable addition). Evelyn's interest in gardens even led him to design pleasure gardens, such as those at Euston Hall . Evelyn

5454-457: The first recorded drawings of complete bipartite graphs , extending a similar technique used by Llull to visualize complete graphs . Kircher also employed combinatorics in his Arca Musarithmica , an aleatoric music device capable of composing millions of church hymns by combining randomly selected musical phrases. For most of his professional life, Kircher was one of the scientific stars of his world: according to historian Paula Findlen, he

5555-430: The first researchers to observe microbes through a microscope , Kircher was ahead of his time in proposing that the plague was caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggesting effective measures to prevent its spread. Kircher also displayed a keen interest in technology and mechanical inventions; inventions attributed to him include a magnetic clock, various automatons and the first megaphone . The invention of

5656-540: The good of the Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, and to pursue the ends for which the same was founded; that we will carry out, as far as we are able, those actions requested of us in the name of the Council; and that we will observe the Statutes and Standing Orders of the said Society. Provided that, whensoever any of us shall signify to the President under our hands, that we desire to withdraw from

5757-489: The last development of ancient Egyptian . For this Kircher has been considered the true "founder of Egyptology", because his work was conducted "before the discovery of the Rosetta Stone rendered Egyptian hieroglyphics comprehensible to scholars". He also recognized the relationship between hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts. Between 1650 and 1654, Kircher published four volumes of "translations" of hieroglyphs in

5858-432: The last thinkers who could rightfully claim all knowledge as his domain". Another scholar, Edward W. Schmidt, referred to Kircher as "the last Renaissance man ". In A Man of Misconceptions , his 2012 book about Kircher, John Glassie wrote "many of Kircher's actual ideas today seem wildly off-base, if not simply bizarre," but he was "a champion of wonder, a man of awe-inspiring erudition and inventiveness," whose work

5959-534: The legendary island of Atlantis including a map with the Latin caption "Situs Insulae Atlantidis, a Mari olim absorpte ex mente Egyptiorum et Platonis Description," translating as "Site of the island of Atlantis, in the sea, from Egyptian sources and Plato's description." In his book Arca Noë , Kircher argued that after the Flood new species were transformed as they moved into different environments, for example, when

6060-480: The link between the ancient Egyptian and the Coptic languages, and some commentators regard him as the founder of Egyptology . Kircher was also fascinated with Sinology and wrote an encyclopedia of China , where he revealed the early presence of Nestorian Christians while also attempting to establish links with Egypt and Christianity. Kircher's work in geology included studies of volcanoes and fossils . One of

6161-522: The next few years he travelled back and forth between France and England, corresponding with Browne in the royalist interest, including a meeting with Charles I in 1647. During the Commonwealth of England period, Evelyn desired to maintain using the Church of England 's Anglican practices. Among these was worship according to the Book of Common Prayer . Though prayer book had been outlawed and replaced by

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6262-620: The possession of the Harcourt family until it was edited by Samuel Wilberforce , bishop of Oxford, as the Life of Mrs Godolphin (1847), reprinted in the "King's Classics" (1904). The picture of Mistress Blagge's saintly life at court is heightened in interest when read in connexion with the scandalous memoirs of the comte de Gramont , or contemporary political satires on the court. Numerous other papers and letters of Evelyn on scientific subjects and matters of public interest are preserved, including

6363-460: The post nominal letters HonFRS . Statute 12 is a legacy mechanism for electing members before official honorary membership existed in 1997. Fellows elected under statute 12 include David Attenborough (1983) and John Palmer, 4th Earl of Selborne (1991). The Council of the Royal Society can recommend members of the British royal family for election as Royal Fellow of the Royal Society . As of 2023 there are four royal fellows: Elizabeth II

6464-493: The proposal is being made. There is no limit on the number of nominations made each year. In 2015, there were 654 candidates for election as Fellows and 106 candidates for Foreign Membership. The Council of the Royal Society oversees the selection process and appoints 10 subject area committees, known as Sectional Committees, to recommend the strongest candidates for election to the Fellowship. The final list of up to 52 Fellowship candidates and up to 10 Foreign Membership candidates

6565-432: The rabbis in the court of King Solomon ). Kircher stressed that exhibitors should take great care to inform spectators that such images were purely naturalistic, and not magical. Kircher constructed a magnetic clock, which he explained in his Magnes (1641). The clock had been invented by another Jesuit, Fr. Linus of Liege , and was described by an acquaintance of Line's in 1634. Kircher's patron Peiresc had claimed that

6666-407: The royalist cause was hopeless, and decided to return to England. The following year, the couple settled in Deptford (present-day south-east London). Their house, Sayes Court (adjacent to the naval dockyard ), was purchased by Evelyn from his father-in-law in 1653; Evelyn soon began to transform the gardens. In 1671, he encountered master wood-worker Grinling Gibbons (who was renting a cottage on

6767-404: The setting for a Borges story that was never written", while Umberto Eco has written about Kircher in his novel The Island of the Day Before , as well as in his non-fiction works The Search for the Perfect Language and Serendipities . In the historical novel Imprimatur by Monaldi & Sorti (2002), Kircher plays a major role. Shortly after his death, some travelers are locked up in

6868-412: The simple hieroglyphic text ḏd Wsr ("Osiris says") as "The treachery of Typhon ends at the throne of Isis; the moisture of nature is guarded by the vigilance of Anubis" Egyptologist E. A. Wallis Budge mentioned Kircher as the foremost of writers who "pretended to have found the key to the hieroglyphics" and called his translations in Oedipus Aegyptiacus "utter nonsense, but as they were put forth in

6969-624: The site of Saint Eustace 's vision of a crucifix in a stag's horns. He raised money to pay for the church's reconstruction as the Santuario della Mentorella  [ it ] , and his heart was buried in the church upon his death. Kircher published many substantial books on a wide variety of subjects such as Egyptology , geology , and music theory . His syncretic approach disregarded conventional boundaries between disciplines: his Magnes , for example, ostensibly discussed magnetism , but also explored other modes of attraction such as gravity and love . Perhaps Kircher's best-known work

7070-450: The spread of disease, such as isolation, quarantine , burning clothes worn by the infected and wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation of germs . In 1646, Kircher published Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae , concerning the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to the magic lantern developed by Christiaan Huygens and others. Kircher described the construction of a "catoptric lamp" that used reflection to project images on

7171-539: The story and of the origin of the manuscript itself exists. In his Polygraphia Nova (1663), Kircher proposed an artificial universal language . On a visit to southern Italy in 1638, the ever-curious Kircher was lowered into the crater of Vesuvius , then on the brink of eruption, to examine its interior. He was also intrigued by the subterranean rumbling which he heard at the Strait of Messina . His geological and geographical investigations culminated in his Mundus Subterraneus of 1664, in which he suggested that

7272-446: The tails of cats, which would yowl to specified pitches , but was never constructed. In Phonurgia Nova , literally "new methods of sound production", Kircher examined acoustic phenomena. He explored the use of horns and cones in amplifying sound for architectural applications. He also examined echoes in rooms using domes of different shapes, including the muffling effect of an elliptical dome from Heidelberg. In one section he explored

7373-485: The therapeutic effects of music in tarantism , a theme from southern Italy. Although Kircher's work was not mathematically based, he did develop systems for generating and counting all combinations of a finite collection of objects (i.e., a finite set ), based on the previous work of Ramon Llull . His methods and diagrams are discussed in Ars Magna Sciendi, sive Combinatoria , 1669. They include what may be

7474-580: The title of Memoirs illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, comprising his Diary from 1641 to 1705/6, and a Selection of his Familiar Letters . Other editions followed, including those of H. B. Wheatley (1879) and Austin Dobson (3 vols, 1906). The modern edition is by Guy de la Bédoyère , who has also edited Evelyn's correspondence with Samuel Pepys . Evelyn's active mind produced many other works, and although many of these have been overshadowed by

7575-498: The two others dying in the flower of their age, and all the sons very young except one nam'd John who deceased 24 March 1698/9 in the 45th year of his age, leaving one son JOHN and one daughter ELIZABETH. Wotton House and estate passed down to Evelyn's great-great-grandson Sir Frederick Evelyn, 3rd Bt (1733–1812). The baronetcy next passed to Frederick Evelyn's cousins, Sir John Evelyn, 4th Bt (1757–1833), and Sir Hugh Evelyn, 5th Bt (1769–1848). Both these two were of unsound mind and

7676-418: The wall of a darkened room. Although Kircher did not invent the device, he improved it, and suggested methods by which exhibitors could use his device. Much of the significance of his work arises from Kircher's rational approach towards the demystification of projected images. Previously, such images had been used in Europe to mimic supernatural appearances (Kircher himself cites the use of displayed images by

7777-485: The years between 1641 and 1697, and is continued in a smaller book – which brings the narrative down to within three weeks of its author's death. Despite entries going back to 1641, Evelyn only actually started writing his diary much later, relying on almanacs and accounts of other people for many of the previous events. A selection from this was edited by William Bray , with the permission of the Evelyn family, in 1818, under

7878-600: Was ordained to the priesthood in 1628 and became professor of ethics and mathematics at the University of Würzburg , where he also taught Hebrew and Syriac. Beginning in 1628, he began to show an interest in Egyptian hieroglyphs. In 1631, while still at Würzburg , Kircher allegedly had a prophetic vision of bright light and armed men with horses in the city. Würzburg was attacked shortly afterwards and captured, leading to Kircher being accorded respect for predicting

7979-495: Was "because of Kircher's work that scientists knew what to look for when interpreting the Rosetta stone". Another scholar of ancient Egypt, Erik Iversen, concluded: It is, therefore, Kircher's incontestable merit that he was the first to have discovered the phonetic value of an Egyptian hieroglyph. From a humanistic as well as an intellectual point of view Egyptology may very well be proud of having Kircher as its founder. Kircher

8080-432: Was "the first scholar with a global reputation". His importance was twofold: to the results of his own experiments and research he added information gleaned from his correspondence with over 760 scientists, physicians and above all his fellow Jesuits in all parts of the globe. The Encyclopædia Britannica calls him a "one-man intellectual clearing house". His works, illustrated to his orders, were extremely popular, and he

8181-551: Was a lifelong bibliophile , and by his death his library is known to have comprised 3,859 books and 822 pamphlets, his personal manuscripts, and correspondence with noble figures among England and France. It would be called the John Evelyn Archives and placed in the British Library. Included in this would be his diaries broken down into four volumes with over half a million words. Many were uniformly bound in

8282-597: Was a member of the group that founded the Royal Society . The following year, he wrote the Fumifugium (or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated ), a pamphlet on the growing air pollution problem in London. He was commissioner for improving the streets and buildings of London, for examining into the affairs of charitable foundations, commissioner of the Royal Mint , and of foreign plantations. During

8383-459: Was a prolific author and produced books on subjects as diverse as theology, numismatics, politics, horticulture , architecture and vegetarianism , and he cultivated links with contemporaries across the spectrum of Stuart political and cultural life. In September 1671 he travelled with the Royal court of Charles II to Norwich where he called upon Sir Thomas Browne . Like Browne and Pepys, Evelyn

8484-582: Was also actively involved in the erection of the Pamphilj obelisk , and added "hieroglyphs" of his design in the blank areas. Rowland 2002 concluded that Kircher made use of Pythagorean principles to read hieroglyphs of the Pamphili Obelisk , and used the same form of interpretation when reading scripture. Kircher had an early interest in China , telling his superior in 1629 that he wished to become

8585-412: Was also the father of Sir John Evelyn, 4th Bt, and the last baronet, Sir Hugh Evelyn, 5th Bt. In 1992 the skulls of John and Mary were stolen by persons unknown who hacked into the stone sarcophagi on the chapel floor and tore open the coffins. They have not been recovered. John Evelyn's Diary remained unpublished as a manuscript until 1818. It is in a quarto volume containing 700 pages, covering

8686-439: Was being made to replace the damage by planting. In "Sylva", Evelyn pleaded for afforestation and asserted in his preface to the king that he had induced landowners to plant millions of trees. It was a valuable work on arboriculture containing many engravings of trees and their foliage to assist with identification. He spent much of his later life working on the enormous Elysium Britannicum , covering all aspects of gardening. This

8787-529: Was brought to feed carnivores and what the daily schedule of feeding and caring for animals must have been. Kircher was sent the Voynich Manuscript in 1666 by Johannes Marcus Marci in the hope of Kircher being able to decipher it. The manuscript remained in the Collegio Romano until Victor Emmanuel II of Italy annexed the Papal States in 1870, though scepticism as to the authenticity of

8888-490: Was caught and nearly hanged by a party of Protestant soldiers. From 1622 to 1624 Kircher was sent to begin his regency period in Koblenz as a teacher. This was followed by assignment to Heiligenstadt , where he taught mathematics , Hebrew and Syriac , and produced a show of fireworks and moving scenery for the visiting Elector Archbishop of Mainz , showing early evidence of his interest in mechanical devices . He

8989-463: Was educated at Lewes Old Grammar School , refusing to be sent to Eton College . After this he was educated at Balliol College, Oxford , and at the Middle Temple . In London, he witnessed important events such as the trials and executions of William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford , and Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford . In 1640 his father died, and in July 1641 he crossed to Holland . He

9090-733: Was enrolled as a volunteer, and then encamped before Genep, on the Waal river , but his military experience was limited to six days of camp life, during which, however, he took his turn at "trailing a pike". He returned in the autumn to find England on the verge of civil war. Having briefly joined the Royalist army and arrived too late for the Royalist victory at the Battle of Brentford in 1642, he spent some time improving his brother's property at Wotton, but then went abroad to avoid further involvement in

9191-514: Was first published posthumously in 1818, but over the years was overshadowed by that of Samuel Pepys . Pepys wrote a different kind of diary, in the same era but covering a much shorter period, 1660–1669, and in much greater depth. Among the many subjects Evelyn wrote about, gardening was an increasing obsession, and he left a huge manuscript on the subject that was not printed until 2001. He published several translations of French gardening books, and his Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees (1664)

9292-515: Was giving way to the study of the Old Testament as literal truth among Scriptural scholars. Kircher analyzed the dimensions of the Ark; based on the number of species known to him (excluding insects and other forms thought to arise spontaneously ), he calculated that overcrowding would not have been a problem. He also discussed the logistics of the Ark voyage, speculating on whether extra livestock

9393-672: Was highly influential in its plea to landowners to plant trees, of which he believed the country to be dangerously short. Sections from his main manuscript were added to editions of this, and also published separately. Born into a family whose wealth was largely founded on gunpowder production, John Evelyn was born in Wotton, Surrey , and grew up living with his grandparents in Lewes, Sussex . While living in Lewes, in Southover Grange, he

9494-499: Was largely neglected until the late 20th century. One writer attributes his rediscovery to the similarities between his eclectic approach and postmodernism . As few of Kircher's works have been translated, the contemporary emphasis has been on their aesthetic qualities rather than their actual content, and a succession of exhibitions have highlighted the beauty of their illustrations. Historian Anthony Grafton has said that "the staggeringly strange dark continent of Kircher's work [is]

9595-449: Was never completed, and was finally published in 2001, from his 1,000-page manuscript now in the British Library (Add MS 78432). Parts of it were published as he began to realize the main task would never be completed. These included Kalendarium Hortense, or The Gardener's Almanac – a monthly list of tasks for the gardener, Pomona on apples, and Acetaria on "sallets" (salad plants). In 1977 and 1978 in eight auctions at Christie's ,

9696-421: Was not a Royal Fellow, but provided her patronage to the society, as all reigning British monarchs have done since Charles II of England . Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (1951) was elected under statute 12, not as a Royal Fellow. The election of new fellows is announced annually in May, after their nomination and a period of peer-reviewed selection. Each candidate for Fellowship or Foreign Membership

9797-683: Was read "by the smartest minds of the time." Kircher was born on 2 May in either 1601 or 1602 (he himself did not know) in Geisa , Buchonia , near Fulda ( Thuringia , Germany ). From his birthplace, he took the epithets Bucho, Buchonius and Fuldensis which he sometimes added to his name. He attended the Jesuit College in Fulda from 1614 to 1618, when he entered the novitiate of the Society. The youngest of nine children, Kircher studied volcanoes owing to his passion for rocks and eruptions. He

9898-401: Was taught Hebrew by a rabbi in addition to his studies at school. He studied philosophy and theology at Paderborn , but fled to Cologne in 1622 to escape advancing Protestant forces. On the journey, he narrowly escaped death after falling through the ice crossing the frozen Rhine — one of several occasions on which his life was endangered. Later, traveling to Heiligenstadt , he

9999-548: Was the first scientist to be able to support himself through the sale of his books. His near-exact contemporary, the English philosopher-physician, Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82) collected his books avidly while his eldest son Edward Browne in 1665 visited the Jesuit priest resident at Rome. Towards the end of Kircher's life, however, his stock fell, as the rationalist Cartesian approach began to dominate (Descartes himself described Kircher as "more quacksalver than savant"). Kircher

10100-789: Was the misconception that hieroglyphics were "picture writing" and that future translators should look for symbolic meaning in the pictures. The first modern study of hieroglyphics came with Piero Valeriano Bolzani 's Hieroglyphica (1556). Kircher was the most famous of the "decipherers" between ancient and modern times and the most famous Egyptologist of his day. In his Lingua Aegyptiaca Restituta (1643), Kircher called hieroglyphics "this language hitherto unknown in Europe, in which there are as many pictures as letters, as many riddles as sounds, in short as many mazes to be escaped from as mountains to be climbed". While some of his notions are long discredited, portions of his work have been valuable to later scholars, and Kircher helped pioneer Egyptology as

10201-423: Was written as an encouragement to landowners to plant trees to provide timber for England's burgeoning navy. Further editions appeared in his lifetime (1670 and 1679), with the fourth edition (1706) appearing just after his death and featuring the engraving of Evelyn shown on this page (below) even though it had been made more than 50 years prior by Robert Nanteuil in 1651 in Paris. Various other editions appeared in

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