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154-401: Cabinets of curiosities served not only as collections to reflect the particular interests of their curators but also as social devices to establish and uphold rank in society. There are said to be two main types of cabinets. As R. J. W. Evans notes, there could be "the princely cabinet, serving a largely representational function, and dominated by aesthetic concerns and a marked predilection for

308-527: A herbarium vivum with over 4,000 specimens of Carniolan and foreign plants, a smaller number of animal specimens, a natural history and medical library, and an anatomical theatre . A late example of the juxtaposition of natural materials with richly worked artifice is provided by the " Green Vaults " formed by Augustus the Strong in Dresden to display his chamber of wonders. The "Enlightenment Gallery" in

462-502: A virtuoso would find intellectually stimulating. In 1714, Michael Bernhard Valentini published an early museological work, Museum Museorum , an account of the cabinets known to him with catalogues of their contents. In the second half of the eighteenth century, Belsazar Hacquet (c. 1735 – 1815) operated in Ljubljana , then the capital of Carniola , a natural history cabinet ( German : Naturalienkabinet ) that

616-547: A gladiator who, having retired, is free from control. The society's core members are the fellows: scientists and engineers from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth selected based on having made "a substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematics, engineering science and medical science". Fellows are elected for life and gain the right to use the postnominal Fellow of

770-532: A "Colledge for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning". Amongst those founders were Christopher Wren , Robert Boyle , John Wilkins , William Brouncker and Robert Moray . At the second meeting, Sir Robert Moray announced that the King approved of the gatherings, and a royal charter was signed on 15 July 1662 which created the "Royal Society of London", with Lord Brouncker serving as

924-544: A Charters Committee "with a view to obtaining a supplementary Charter from the Crown", aimed primarily at looking at ways to restrict membership. The Committee recommended that the election of Fellows take place on one day every year, that the Fellows be selected on consideration of their scientific achievements and that the number of fellows elected a year be limited to 15. This limit was increased to 17 in 1930 and 20 in 1937; it

1078-659: A Grade I listed building located near Milton Keynes , was bought by the Royal Society for £6.5 million, funded in part by the Kavli Foundation . The Royal Society spent several million on renovations adapting it to become the Kavli Royal Society International Centre, a venue for residential science seminars. The centre held its first scientific meeting on 1 June 2010 and was formally opened on 21 June 2010. The Centre

1232-568: A book when they join the Royal Society. This book is known as the Charter Book, which has been signed continuously since 1663. All British monarchs have signed the book since then, apart from William and Mary, and Queen Anne. In 2019, the book was digitised. The society's motto, Nullius in verba , is Latin for "Take nobody's word for it". It was adopted to signify the fellows' determination to establish facts via experiments and comes from Horace 's Epistles , where he compares himself to

1386-420: A cabinet of curiosities has also appeared in recent publications and performances. For example, Cabinet magazine is a quarterly magazine that juxtaposes apparently unrelated cultural artifacts and phenomena to show their interconnectedness in ways that encourage curiosity about the world. The Italian cultural association Wunderkamern uses the theme of historical cabinets of curiosities to explore how "amazement"

1540-589: A central research institute. Similar schemes were expounded by Bengt Skytte and later Abraham Cowley , who wrote in his Proposition for the Advancement of Experimental Philosophy in 1661 of a "'Philosophical College", with houses, a library and a chapel. The society's ideas were simpler and only included residences for a handful of staff, but Hunter maintains an influence from Cowley and Skytte's ideas. Henry Oldenburg and Thomas Sprat put forward plans in 1667 and Oldenburg's co-secretary, John Wilkins , moved in

1694-403: A council meeting on 30 September 1667 to appoint a committee "for raising contributions among the members of the society, in order to build a college". These plans were progressing by November 1667, but never came to anything, given the lack of contributions from members and the "unrealised—perhaps unrealistic"—aspirations of the society. During the 18th century, the gusto that had characterised

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1848-588: A desire to imitate the French, in having Philosophical Clubs, or Meetings; and that this was the occasion of founding the Royal Society, and making the French the first. I will not say, that Mr Oldenburg did rather inspire the French to follow the English, or, at least, did help them, and hinder us. But 'tis well known who were the principal men that began and promoted that design, both in this city and in Oxford; and that

2002-553: A difficult peace with the Hungarian rebels ( Peace of Vienna ) and the Ottomans ( Peace of Zsitvatorok ). Rudolf was angry with Matthias's concessions and saw them as giving away too much to further his hold on power. That made Rudolf prepare to start a new war against the Ottomans, but Matthias rallied support from the disaffected Hungarians and forced Rudolf to cede the crowns of Hungary, Austria and Moravia to him. Meanwhile,

2156-639: A field of collection for the British Museum that was to increase greatly with the explorations of Captain James Cook in Oceania and Australia and the rapid expansion of the British Empire ." Upon his death in 1753, Sloane bequeathed his sizable collection of 337 volumes to England for £20,000. In 1759, George II 's royal library was added to Sloane's collection to form the foundation of

2310-404: A hands-on Cabinet of Curiosities, complete with taxidermied crocodile embedded in the ceiling a la Ferrante Imperato's Dell'Historia Naturale . In Los Angeles , the modern-day Museum of Jurassic Technology anachronistically seeks to recreate the sense of wonder that the old cabinets of curiosity once aroused. In Spring Green, Wisconsin , the house and museum of Alex Jordan, known as House on

2464-403: A lesser extent, by J. V. Andreae 's Christianopolis , dedicated research institutes, rather than the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge , since the founders only intended for the society to act as a location for research and discussion. The first proposal was given by John Evelyn to Robert Boyle in a letter dated 3 September 1659; he suggested a grander scheme, with apartments for members and

2618-529: A long while before Mr Oldenburg came into England. And not only these Philosophic Meetings were before Mr Oldenburg came from Paris; but the Society itself was begun before he came hither; and those who then knew Mr Oldenburg, understood well enough how little he himself knew of philosophic matter. On 28 November 1660, which is considered the official foundation date of the Royal Society, a meeting at Gresham College of 12 natural philosophers decided to commence

2772-524: A love of the marvellous. This love was often exploited by eighteenth-century natural philosophers to secure the attention of their audience during their exhibitions. The earliest pictorial record of a natural history cabinet is the engraving in Ferrante Imperato 's Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples 1599) ( illustration ). It serves to authenticate its author's credibility as a source of natural history information, by showing his open bookcases (at

2926-501: A menagerie of exotic animals, botanical gardens, and Europe's most extensive " cabinet of curiosities " ( Kunstkammer ) incorporating "the three kingdoms of nature and the works of man". It was housed at Prague Castle , where between 1587 and 1605 he built the northern wing to house his growing collections. A lion and a tiger were allowed to roam the castle, as is documented by the account books, which record compensation paid to survivors of attacks or to family members of victims. Rudolf

3080-619: A mix of fact and fiction, including apparently mythical creatures. Worm's collection contained, for example, what he thought was a Scythian Lamb , a woolly fern thought to be a plant/sheep fabulous creature. However he was also responsible for identifying the narwhal 's tusk as coming from a whale rather than a unicorn , as most owners of these believed. The specimens displayed were often collected during exploring expeditions and trading voyages. Cabinets of curiosities would often serve scientific advancement when images of their contents were published. The catalog of Worm's collection, published as

3234-440: A new crusade , he started a long and indecisive war against the Ottomans in 1593. The war lasted until 1606 and is known as the " Long Turkish War ". By 1604, his Hungarian subjects were exhausted by the war and revolted, led by Stephen Bocskai ( Bocskai uprising ). In 1605, Rudolf was forced by his other family members to cede control of Hungarian affairs to his younger brother Archduke Matthias . By 1606, Matthias had forged

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3388-690: A new Cabinet of Curiosities room was opened at The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery in Rawtenstall , Lancashire , curated by artist Bob Frith, founder of Horse and Bamboo Theatre . Several internet bloggers describe their sites as "wunderkammern" either because they are primarily links to interesting things, or inspire wonder similarly to the original wunderkammern (see External Links, below). Researcher Robert Gehl describes such internet video sites as YouTube as modern-day wunderkammern, although in danger of being refined into capitalist institutions "just as professionalized curators refined Wunderkammers into

3542-583: A portrait and a religious picture (the Adoration of the Magi ) intermixed with preserved tropical marine fish and a string of carved beads, most likely amber , which is both precious and a natural curiosity. Sculptures both classical and secular (the sacrificing Libera , a Roman fertility goddess) on the one hand and modern and religious ( Christ at the Column ) are represented, while on the table are ranged, among

3696-486: A prize in a string of diplomatic negotiations for marriages but never in fact married. Rudolf was known to have had a succession of affairs with women, some of whom claimed to have been impregnated by him. He had several illegitimate children by his mistress Catherina Strada . Their eldest son, Don Julius Caesar d'Austria , was likely born between 1584 and 1586 and received an education and opportunities for political and social prominence from his father. Another famous child

3850-434: A range of cupboards contain specimen boxes and covered jars. In 1587 Gabriel Kaltemarckt advised Christian I of Saxony that three types of items were indispensable in forming a "Kunstkammer" or art collection: firstly sculptures and paintings; secondly "curious items from home or abroad"; and thirdly "antlers, horns, claws, feathers and other things belonging to strange and curious animals". When Albrecht Dürer visited

4004-630: A small number of scientists who were required to resign their fellowship on employment. The current executive director is Dame Julie Maxton DBE . The society has a variety of functions and activities. It supports modern science by disbursing over £100 million to fund almost 1,000 research fellowships for both early and late-career scientists, along with innovation, mobility and research capacity grants. Its awards, prize lectures and medals all come with prize money intended to finance research, and it provides subsidised communications and media skills courses for research scientists. Much of this activity

4158-546: A smooth transition to the presidency of Earl Macclesfield , whom Hardwicke helped elect. Under Macclesfield, the circle reached its "zenith", with members such as Lord Willoughby and Birch serving as vice-president and secretary respectively. The circle also influenced goings-on in other learned societies, such as the Society of Antiquaries of London . After Macclesfield's retirement, the circle had Lord Morton elected in 1764 and Sir John Pringle elected in 1772. By this point,

4312-700: A teaching tool for young physicians. Just prior to Mütter's death in 1859, he donated 1,344 items to the American College of Physicians in Philadelphia, along with a $ 30,000 endowment for the maintenance and expansion of his museum. Mütter's collection was added to ninety-two pathological specimens collected by Doctor Isaac Parrish between 1849 and 1852. The Mütter Museum began to collect antique medical equipment in 1871, including Benjamin Rush 's medical chest and Florence Nightingale 's sewing kit. In 1874

4466-587: A time of decline for the society; of 662 fellows in 1830, only 104 had contributed to the Philosophical Transactions . The same year, Charles Babbage published Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes , which was deeply critical of the society. The scientific Fellows of the society were spurred into action by this, and eventually James South established

4620-559: A twelve-volume herbarium from her gardens at Chelsea and Badminton upon her death in 1714. Reverend Adam Buddle gave Sloane thirteen volumes of British plants. In 1716, Sloane purchased Engelbert Kaempfer 's volume of Japanese plants and James Petiver 's virtual museum of approximately one hundred volumes of plants from Europe, North America, Africa, the Near East, India, and the Orient. Mark Catesby gave him plants from North America and

4774-489: A wide variety of personal hobbies such as horses, clocks, collecting rarities, and being a patron of the arts. He suffered from periodic bouts of " melancholy " (depression), which was common in the Habsburg line. These became worse with age and were manifested by a withdrawal from the world and its affairs into his private interests. Like Elizabeth I of England , whose birth was 19 years before his, Rudolf dangled himself as

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4928-448: Is Adrian Smith , who took over from Venki Ramakrishnan on 30 November 2020. Historically, the duties of the president have been both formal and social. The Cruelty to Animals Act, 1876 left the president as one of the few individuals capable of certifying that a particular experiment on an animal was justified. In addition, the president is to act as the government's chief (albeit informal) advisor on scientific matters. Yet another task

5082-455: Is Adrian Smith , who took up the post and started his five-year term on 30 November 2020, replacing the previous president, Venki Ramakrishnan . Since 1967, the society has been based at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace , a Grade I listed building in central London which was previously used by the Embassy of Germany, London . The Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to

5236-504: Is a Grade I listed building and the current headquarters of the Royal Society, which had moved there from Burlington House in 1967. The ground floor and basement are used for ceremonies, social and publicity events, the first floor hosts facilities for Fellows and Officers of the society, and the second and third floors are divided between offices and accommodation for the President, Executive Director and Fellows. Carlton House Terrace

5390-407: Is contrary to the heraldic rules, as a society or corporation normally has an esquire's helmet (closed helmet); it is thought that either the engraver was ignorant of this rule, which was not strictly adhered to until around 1615, or that he used the peer's helmet as a compliment to Lord Brouncker , a peer and the first President of the Royal Society. Fellows and foreign members are required to sign

5544-528: Is currently 52. This had a number of effects on the society: first, the society's membership became almost entirely scientific, with few political Fellows or patrons. Second, the number of Fellows was significantly reduced—between 1700 and 1850, the number of Fellows rose from approximately 100 to approximately 750. From then until 1941, the total number of Fellows was always between 400 and 500. The period did lead to some reform of internal Society statutes, such as in 1823 and 1831. The most important change there

5698-579: Is manifested within today's artistic discourse. In May 2008, the University of Leeds Fine Art BA programme hosted a show called "Wunder Kammer", the culmination of research and practice from students, which allowed viewers to encounter work from across all disciplines, ranging from intimate installation to thought-provoking video and highly skilled drawing, punctuated by live performances. The concept has been reinterpreted at The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History . In July 2021

5852-495: Is similarly divided into two parts. Biology Letters publishes short research articles and opinion pieces on all areas of biology and was launched in 2005. Journal of the Royal Society Interface publishes cross-disciplinary research at the boundary between the physical and life sciences, while Interface Focus , publishes themed issue in the same areas. Notes and Records is the society's journal of

6006-612: Is still awarded on an annual basis and is considered the most important Royal Society prize for the biological sciences. Although the Croonian Lecture was created in 1701, it was first awarded in 1738, seven years after the Copley Medal . The Copley Medal is the oldest Royal Society medal still in use and is awarded for "outstanding achievements in research in any branch of science". Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612)

6160-679: Is supported by a grant from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills , most of which is channelled to the University Research Fellowships (URF) . In 2008, the society opened the Royal Society Enterprise Fund, intended to invest in new scientific companies and be self-sustaining, funded (after an initial set of donations on the 350th anniversary of the society) by the returns from its investments. Through its Science Policy Centre,

6314-442: Is that of entertaining distinguished foreign guests and scientists. The society is assisted by a number of full-time paid staff. The original charter provided for "two or more Operators of Experiments, and two or more clerks"; as the number of books in the society's collection grew, it also became necessary to employ a curator. The staff grew as the financial position of the society improved, mainly consisting of outsiders, along with

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6468-536: The Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Places of exhibitions of and places of new societies that promoted natural knowledge also seemed to culture the idea of perfect civility. Some scholars propose that this was "a reaction against the dogmatism and enthusiasm of the English Civil War and Interregum [sic]." This move to politeness put bars on how one should behave and interact socially, which enabled

6622-484: The British Museum , installed in the former "Kings Library" room in 2003 to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the museum, aims to recreate the abundance and diversity that still characterized museums in the mid-eighteenth century, mixing shells, rock samples and botanical specimens with a great variety of artworks and other man-made objects from all over the world. Some strands of the early universal collections,

6776-505: The British royal family , representing the British monarchy 's role in promoting and supporting the society, who are recommended by the society's council and elected via postal vote. There are currently four royal fellows: The King of the United Kingdom , The Duke of Kent , The Princess Royal , and The Prince of Wales . Honorary fellows are people who are ineligible to be elected as fellows but nevertheless have "rendered signal service to

6930-530: The Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle in Austria. "The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater. The Kunstkammer conveyed symbolically the patron's control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction." Of Charles I of England 's collection, Peter Thomas states succinctly, "The Kunstkabinett itself was a form of propaganda." Two of

7084-886: The Duke of Albemarle offered Sloane a position as personal physician to the West Indies fleet at Jamaica. He accepted and spent fifteen months collecting and cataloguing the native plants, animals, and artificial curiosities (e.g. cultural artifacts of native and enslaved African populations) of Jamaica. This became the basis for his two volume work, Natural History of Jamaica , published in 1707 and 1725. Sloane returned to England in 1689 with over eight hundred specimens of plants, which were live or mounted on heavy paper in an eight-volume herbarium. He also attempted to bring back live animals (e.g., snakes, an alligator, and an iguana) but they all died before reaching England. Sloane meticulously cataloged and created extensive records for most of

7238-637: The Hradschin at Prague, was unrivalled north of the Alps; it provided solace and retreat for contemplation that also served to demonstrate his imperial magnificence and power in the symbolic arrangement of their display, ceremoniously presented to visiting diplomats and magnates. Rudolf's uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria , also had a collection, organized by his treasurer , Leopold Heyperger , which put special emphasis on paintings of people with interesting deformities, which remains largely intact as

7392-501: The Kunstkammer and in 1609 published Gemmarum et Lapidum , the finest gemological treatise and encyclopedia ever written for this time. As was customary at the time, the collection was private, but friends of the emperor, artists and professional scholars were allowed to study it. The collection became an invaluable research tool during the flowering of 17th-century European philosophy . Rudolf's successors did not appreciate

7546-537: The Museum Wormianum (1655), used the collection of artifacts as a starting point for Worm's speculations on philosophy, science, natural history, and more. Cabinets of curiosities were limited to those who could afford to create and maintain them. Many monarchs , in particular, developed large collections. A rather under-used example, stronger in art than other areas, was the Studiolo of Francesco I ,

7700-595: The Netherlands in 1521, apart from artworks he sent back to Nuremberg various animal horns, a piece of coral , some large fish fins and a wooden weapon from the East Indies . The highly characteristic range of interests represented in Frans II Francken 's painting of 1636 ( illustration, above ) shows paintings on the wall that range from landscapes, including a moonlit scene—a genre in itself—to

7854-724: The Orléans Collection after the death of Christina of Sweden . In 1782, the remainder of the collection was sold piecemeal to private parties by Joseph II . One of the surviving items from the Kunstkammer is a "fine chair" that was looted by the Swedes in 1648 and now owned by the Earl of Radnor at Longford Castle in England, and others survive in museums. Astrology and alchemy were regarded as mainstream scientific fields in Renaissance Prague , and Rudolf

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8008-518: The Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA), with four prominent (criminal) cases within the first months of the COVID-19 outbreak. POFMA also lifted any exemptions for internet intermediaries which legally required social media companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Baidu to immediately correct cases of misinformation on their platforms." The blazon for the shield in

8162-772: The Scientific Revolution . Determined to unify Christendom , he initiated the Long Turkish War (1593–1606) with the Ottoman Empire . Exhausted by war, his citizens in Hungary revolted in the Bocskai Uprising , which led to more authority given to his brother Matthias . Under his reign, there was a policy of toleration towards Judaism . Rudolf was born in Vienna on 18 July 1552. He

8316-405: The coat of arms of the Royal Society is in a dexter corner of a shield argent our three Lions of England, and for crest a helm adorned with a crown studded with florets, surmounted by an eagle of proper colour holding in one foot a shield charged with our lions: supporters two white hounds gorged with crowns , with the motto of nullius in verba . John Evelyn, interested in the early structure of

8470-567: The feather head-dress or crown of Montezuma now in the Museum of Ethnology, Vienna . Similar collections on a smaller scale were the complex Kunstschränke produced in the early seventeenth century by the Augsburg merchant, diplomat and collector Philipp Hainhofer . These were cabinets in the sense of pieces of furniture, made from all imaginable exotic and expensive materials and filled with contents and ornamental details intended to reflect

8624-420: The "Original Fellows". After the expiration of this two-month period, any appointments were to be made by the president, council and existing fellows. Many early fellows were not scientists or particularly eminent intellectuals; it was clear that the early society could not rely on financial assistance from the king, and scientifically trained fellows were few and far between. It was, therefore, necessary to secure

8778-687: The 1860s the Wunderkammer tradition of curiosities for gullible, often slow-moving throngs—Barnum's famously sly but effective method of crowd control was to post a sign, 'THIS WAY TO THE EGRESS!' at the exit door". In 1908, New York businessmen formed the Hobby Club , a dining club limited to 50 men, in order to showcase their "cabinets of wonder" and their selected collections. These included literary specimens and incunabula ; antiquities such as ancient armour; precious stones and geological items of interest. Annual formal dinners would be used to open

8932-582: The Ark collection in 1656. Ashmole, a collector in his own right, acquired the Tradescant Ark in 1659 and added it to his collection of astrological, medical, and historical manuscripts. In 1675, he donated his library and collection and the Tradescant collection to the University of Oxford , provided that a suitable building be provided to house the collection. Ashmole's donation formed the foundation of

9086-696: The Bohemian Protestants demanded greater religious liberty, which Rudolf granted in the Letter of Majesty in 1609. Bohemians continued to press for further freedoms, and Rudolf used his army to repress them. Bohemian Protestants then appealed to Matthias for help. His army held Rudolf prisoner in his castle in Prague until 1611, when Rudolf ceded the crown of Bohemia, as well, to his brother. Rudolf died in 1612, nine months after he had been stripped of all effective power by his younger brother, except

9240-956: The British Museum. John Tradescant the Elder (circa 1570s–1638) was a gardener, naturalist, and botanist in the employ of the Duke of Buckingham. He collected plants, bulbs, flowers, vines, berries, and fruit trees from Russia, the Levant, Algiers, France, Bermuda, the Caribbean, and the East Indies. His son, John Tradescant the Younger (1608–1662) traveled to Virginia in 1637 and collected flowers, plants, shells, an Indian deerskin mantle believed to have belonged to Powhatan , father of Pocahontas . Father and son, in addition to botanical specimens, collected zoological (e.g., the dodo from Mauritius,

9394-623: The East Wing. The top floor was used as accommodation for the Assistant Secretary, while the library was scattered over every room and the old caretaker's apartment was converted into offices. One flaw was the lack of space for the office staff, which was then approximately eighty. On 22 March 1945, the first female Fellows were elected to the Royal Society. This followed a statutory amendment in 1944 that read "Nothing herein contained shall render women ineligible as candidates", and

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9548-458: The Rock , can also be interpreted as a modern day curiosity cabinet, especially in the collection and display of automatons. In Bristol, Rhode Island , Musée Patamécanique is presented as a hybrid between an automaton theater and a cabinet of curiosities and contains works representing the field of Patamechanics, an artistic practice and area of study chiefly inspired by Pataphysics . The idea of

9702-575: The Royal Society (FRS). The rights and responsibilities of fellows also include a duty to financially contribute to the society, the right to stand for council posts and the right to elect new fellows. Up to 52 fellows are elected each year and in 2014 there were about 1,450 living members in total. Election to the fellowship is decided by ten sectional committees (each covering a subject area or set of subjects areas) which consist of existing fellows. The society also elects royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members. Royal fellows are those members of

9856-480: The Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle . The concept of "invisible college" is mentioned in German Rosicrucian pamphlets in the early 17th century. Ben Jonson in England referenced the idea, related in meaning to Francis Bacon 's House of Solomon , in a masque The Fortunate Isles and Their Union from 1624/5. The term accrued currency in

10010-554: The Rudolfine Kunstkammer was systematically arranged in an encyclopaedic fashion. In addition, Rudolf employed his court gemologist and physician Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550–1632), to curate the collection. Anselmus was an avid mineral collector and travelled widely on collecting trips to the mining regions of Germany, Bohemia and Silesia , often accompanied by his Bohemian naturalist friend, Thaddaeus Hagecius . Between 1607 and 1611, Anselmus catalogued

10164-501: The West Indies from an expedition funded by Sloane. Philip Miller gave him twelve volumes of plants grown from the Chelsea Physic Garden . Sloane acquired approximately three hundred and fifty artificial curiosities from North American Indians, Inuit, South America, Lapland, Siberia, East Indies, and the West Indies, including nine items from Jamaica. "These ethnological artifacts were important because they established

10318-476: The argument that occurred when deciding which to use, opponents of Franklin's invention accused supporters of being American allies rather than being British, and the debate eventually led to the resignation of the society's president, Sir John Pringle . During the same time period, it became customary to appoint society fellows to serve on government committees where science was concerned, something that still continues. The 18th century featured remedies to many of

10472-555: The arts and occult sciences as a triumph and key part of the Renaissance, and his political failures are seen as a legitimate attempt to create a unified Christian empire that was undermined by the realities of religious, political and intellectual disintegrations of the time. Although raised in his uncle's Catholic court in Spain, Rudolf was tolerant of Protestantism and other religions including Judaism . The tolerant policy by

10626-419: The best craftsmen in Europe. He patronized natural philosophers such as the botanist Charles de l'Ecluse , and the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler both attended his court. Tycho, who had spent much of his life making observations of stars and planets that were more accurate than any previous observations, directed Kepler to work on the planet Mars. In doing so, Kepler found that in order to fit

10780-465: The best scientific instrument makers of the time, such as Jost Bürgi , Erasmus Habermel and Hans Christoph Schissler . They had direct contact with the court astronomers and through the financial support of the court were economically independent to develop scientific instruments and manufacturing techniques. The poet Elizabeth Jane Weston , a writer of Renaissance Latin poetry, was also part of his court and wrote numerous odes to him. Rudolf kept

10934-446: The bizarre or freakish biological specimens, whether genuine or fake, and the more exotic historical objects, could find a home in commercial freak shows and sideshows . In 1671, when visiting Thomas Browne (1605–1682), the courtier John Evelyn remarked, His whole house and garden is a paradise and Cabinet of rarities and that of the best collection, amongst Medails, books, Plants, natural things. Late in his life Browne parodied

11088-471: The cause of science, or whose election would significantly benefit the Society by their great experience in other walks of life". Six honorary fellows have been elected to date, including Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve . Foreign members are scientists from non-Commonwealth nations "who are eminent for their scientific discoveries and attainments". Eight are elected each year by the society and also hold their membership for life. Foreign members are permitted to use

11242-431: The charter, the president, two secretaries and the treasurer are collectively the officers of the society. The current officers are: The president of the Royal Society is the head of both the society and the council. The details for the presidency were set out in the second charter and initially had no limit on how long a president could serve; under current society statute, the term is five years. The current president

11396-401: The claims of the society's degradation during the 18th century are false. Richard Sorrenson writes that "far from having 'fared ingloriously', the society experienced a period of significant productivity and growth throughout the eighteenth century", pointing out that many of the sources critical accounts are based on are in fact written by those with an agenda. While Charles Babbage wrote that

11550-444: The collection was moved to the dedicated Kunstkammer . Naturalia ( minerals and gemstones ) were arranged in a 37-cabinet display that had three vaulted chambers in front, each about 5.5 m wide by 3 m high and 60 m long, connected to a main chamber 33 m long. Large uncut gemstones were held in strong boxes. Apart from the fantastic nature of the objects, it is also the aesthetics of their arrangement and presentation which attracts

11704-461: The collection, and the Kunstkammer gradually fell into disarray. Some 50 years after its establishment, most of the collection was packed into wooden crates and moved to Vienna. The collection remaining at Prague was looted during the last year of the Thirty Years' War by Swedish troops who sacked Prague Castle on 26 July 1648 and took the best of the paintings, many of which later passed to

11858-801: The company of learned men and that they cannot dwell forever in the Universities." Cabinets of Curiosities can now be found at Snowshill Manor and Wallington Hall , and the Ashmolean Museum has a display of items from its disparate Ashmole and Tradescant founding collections. Thomas Dent Mutter (1811–1859) was an early American pioneer of reconstructive plastic surgery. His specialty was repairing congenital anomalies, cleft lip and palates, and club foot. He also collected medical oddities, tumors, anatomical and pathological specimens, wet and dry preparations, wax models, plaster casts, and illustrations of medical deformities. This collection began as

12012-464: The council bought two houses in Crane Court, Fleet Street , on 26 October 1710. This included offices, accommodation and a collection of curiosities. Although the overall fellowship contained few noted scientists, most of the council were highly regarded, and included at various times John Hadley , William Jones and Hans Sloane . Because of the laxness of fellows in paying their subscriptions,

12166-503: The court of his maternal uncle Philip II , together with his younger brother Ernest , future governor of the Low Countries . After his return to Vienna, his father was concerned about Rudolf's aloof and stiff manner, typical of the more conservative Spanish court, rather than the more relaxed and open Austrian court; but his Spanish mother saw in him courtliness and refinement. In the years following his return to Vienna, Rudolf

12320-429: The cultural change from a world viewed as static to a dynamic view of endlessly transforming natural history and a historical perspective that led in the seventeenth century to the germs of a scientific view of reality. In seventeenth-century parlance, both French and English, a cabinet came to signify a collection of works of art, which might still also include an assembly of objects of virtù or curiosities, such as

12474-446: The daughter of a local barber, who had been living in the castle, and then disfigured her body. Rudolf condemned his son's act and suggested that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life. However, Julius died in 1609 after he had shown signs of schizophrenia , refused to bathe and lived in squalor. His death was apparently caused by an ulcer that ruptured. Many artworks commissioned by Rudolf are unusually erotic. The emperor

12628-641: The displayed curiosity. Because of this, many displays simply included a concise description of the phenomena and avoided any mention of explanation for the phenomena. Quentin Skinner describes the early Royal Society as "something much more like a gentleman's club," an idea supported by John Evelyn , who depicts the Royal Society as "an Assembly of many honorable Gentlemen, who meete inoffensively together under his Majesty's Royal Cognizance; and to entertaine themselves ingenously, whilst their other domestique avocations or publique business deprives them of being always in

12782-510: The distinguishing of the polite from the supposed common or more vulgar members of society. Exhibitions of curiosities (as they were typically odd and foreign marvels) attracted a wide, more general audience, which "[rendered] them more suitable subjects of polite discourse at the Society." A subject was considered less suitable for polite discourse if the curiosity being displayed was accompanied by too much other material evidence, as it allowed for less conjecture and exploration of ideas regarding

12936-660: The early years of the society faded; with a small number of scientific "greats" compared to other periods, little of note was done. In the second half, it became customary for His Majesty's Government to refer highly important scientific questions to the council of the society for advice, something that, despite the non-partisan nature of the society, spilled into politics in 1777 over lightning conductors . The pointed lightning conductor had been invented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749, while Benjamin Wilson invented blunted ones. During

13090-458: The empire towards the Jews would see Jewish cultural life flourishing, and their population increased under Rudolf's reign. He largely withdrew from Catholic observances and even in death refused the last sacramental rites. He had little attachment to Protestants either, except as a counter-weight to papal policies. He put his primary support behind conciliarists , irenicists and humanists . When

13244-637: The empty title of Holy Roman Emperor, to which Matthias was elected five months later. In May 1618 with the event known as the Defenestration of Prague , the Protestant Bohemians, in defence of the rights granted them in the Letter of Majesty , threw imperial officials out of the window and thus the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) started. Rudolf moved the Habsburg capital from Vienna to Prague in 1583. Rudolf loved collecting paintings and

13398-617: The entire cosmos on a miniature scale. The best preserved example is the one given by the city of Augsburg to King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden in 1632, which is kept in the Museum Gustavianum in Uppsala . The curio cabinet , as a modern single piece of furniture, is a version of the grander historical examples. The juxtaposition of such disparate objects, according to Horst Bredekamp 's analysis (Bredekamp 1995), encouraged comparisons, finding analogies and parallels and favoured

13552-563: The exchanges of correspondence within the Republic of Letters . In letters dated 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college". The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation. Three dated letters are the basic documentary evidence: Boyle sent them to Isaac Marcombes (Boyle's former tutor and a Huguenot , who was then in Geneva ), Francis Tallents who at that point

13706-520: The exotic shells (including some tropical ones and a shark's tooth): portrait miniatures , gem-stones mounted with pearls in a curious quatrefoil box, a set of sepia chiaroscuro woodcuts or drawings, and a small still-life painting leaning against a flower-piece, coins and medals—presumably Greek and Roman—and Roman terracotta oil-lamps, a Chinese-style brass lock, curious flasks, and a blue-and-white Ming porcelain bowl. The Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled 1576–1612), housed in

13860-533: The exotic," or the less grandiose, "the more modest collection of the humanist scholar or virtuoso, which served more practical and scientific purposes." Evans goes on to explain that "no clear distinction existed between the two categories: all collecting was marked by curiosity, shading into credulity, and by some sort of universal underlying design". In addition to cabinets of curiosity serving as an establisher of socioeconomic status for its curator, these cabinets served as entertainment, as particularly illustrated by

14014-854: The experimental medical interventions. This was brought to popular notice in January 2020 by a retired justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom , Lord Sumption , who in his broadside wrote "Science advances by confronting contrary arguments, not by suppressing them." The proposal was authored by sociologist Melinda Mills and approved by her colleagues on the "Science in Emergencies Tasking – COVID" in an October 2020 report entitled "COVID-19 vaccine deployment: Behaviour, ethics, misinformation and policy strategies". The SET-C committee favoured legislation from China, Singapore and South Korea, and found that "Singapore, for instance has

14168-399: The favour of wealthy or important individuals for the society's survival. While the entrance fee of £4 and the subscription rate of one shilling a week should have produced £600 a year for the society, many fellows paid neither regularly nor on time. Two-thirds of the fellows in 1663 were non-scientists; this rose to 71.6% in 1800 before dropping to 47.4% in 1860 as the financial security of

14322-660: The first Medici Grand-Duke of Tuscany. Frederick III of Denmark , who added Worm's collection to his own after Worm's death, was another such monarch. A third example is the Kunstkamera founded by Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg in 1714. Many items were bought in Amsterdam from Albertus Seba and Frederik Ruysch . The fabulous Habsburg Imperial collection included important Aztec artifacts, including

14476-621: The first female mathematician elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. Cartwright was also the first woman to serve on the Council of the Royal Society. Due to overcrowding at Burlington House, the society moved to Carlton House Terrace in 1967. To show support for vaccines against COVID-19 , the Royal Society under the guidance of both Nobel prize-winner Venki Ramakrishnan and Sir Adrian Smith added its power to shape public discourse and proposed "legislation and punishment of those who produced and disseminated false information" about

14630-602: The first president. A second royal charter was signed on 23 April 1663, with the king noted as the founder and with the name of "the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge"; Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November. This initial royal favour has continued and, since then, every monarch has been the patron of the society. The society's early meetings included experiments performed first by Hooke and then by Denis Papin , who

14784-750: The growing number of Fellows. Therefore, the Library Committee asked the Council to petition Her Majesty's Government to find new facilities, with the advice being to bring all the scientific societies, such as the Linnean and Geological societies, under one roof. In August 1866, the government announced their intention to refurbish Burlington House and move the Royal Academy and other societies there. The Academy moved in 1867, while other societies joined when their facilities were built. The Royal Society moved there in 1873, taking up residence in

14938-417: The history of science. Biographical Memoirs is published twice annually and contains extended obituaries of deceased Fellows. Open Biology is an open access journal covering biology at the molecular and cellular level . Royal Society Open Science is an open access journal publishing high-quality original research across the entire range of science on the basis of objective peer-review. All

15092-435: The invention of infinitesimal calculus , he used his position to appoint an "impartial" committee to decide it, eventually publishing a report written by himself in the committee's name. In 1705, the society was informed that it could no longer rent Gresham College and began a search for new premises. After unsuccessfully applying to Queen Anne for new premises, and asking the trustees of Cotton House if they could meet there,

15246-428: The left, the room is fitted out like a studiolo with a range of built-in cabinets whose fronts can be unlocked and let down to reveal intricately fitted nests of pigeonholes forming architectural units, filled with small mineral specimens. Above them, stuffed birds stand against panels inlaid with square polished stone samples, doubtless marbles and jaspers or fitted with pigeonhole compartments for specimens. Below them,

15400-581: The modern museum in the 18th century." Historic cabinets Modern "cabinets" Royal Society The Royal Society , formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge , is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences . The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, recognising excellence in science, supporting outstanding science, providing scientific advice for policy, education and public engagement and fostering international and global co-operation. Founded on 28 November 1660, it

15554-496: The most famously described seventeenth-century cabinets were those of Ole Worm , known as Olaus Wormius (1588–1654) ( illustration, above right ), and Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680). These seventeenth-century cabinets were filled with preserved animals, horns, tusks, skeletons, minerals, as well as other interesting man-made objects: sculptures wondrously old, wondrously fine or wondrously small; clockwork automata ; ethnographic specimens from exotic locations. Often they would contain

15708-638: The most impressive in the Europe of his day and the greatest collection of Northern Mannerist art ever to be assembled. The adjective Rudolfine, as in "Rudolfine Mannerism" is often used in art history to describe the style of the art that he patronised. His love of collecting went far beyond paintings and sculptures. He commissioned decorative objects of all kinds and in particular mechanical moving devices. Ceremonial swords and musical instruments, clocks, waterworks, astrolabes, compasses, telescopes and other scientific instruments were all produced for him by some of

15862-426: The move. Somerset House, while larger than Crane Court, was not satisfying to the fellows; the room to store the library was too small, the accommodation was insufficient and there was not enough room to store the museum at all. As a result, the museum was handed to the British Museum in 1781 and the library was extended to two rooms, one of which was used for council meetings. The early 19th century has been seen as

16016-620: The museum acquired one hundred human skulls from Austrian anatomist and phrenologist, Joseph Hyrtl (1810–1894); a nineteenth-century corpse, dubbed the "soap lady"; the conjoined liver and death cast of Chang and Eng Bunker , the Siamese twins; and in 1893, Grover Cleveland 's jaw tumor. The Mütter Museum is an excellent example of a nineteenth-century grotesque cabinet of medical curiosities. P. T. Barnum established Barnum's American Museum on five floors in New York, "perpetuating into

16170-412: The names had only been announced a couple of days before. As with the other reforms, this helped ensure that Fellows had a chance to vet and properly consider candidates. In 1850 the society accepted the responsibility of administering a government grant-in-aid of scientific research of £1,000 per year; this was supplemented in the financial year 1876/1877 by a Government Fund of £4,000 per year, with

16324-512: The observations to the required accuracy, it was necessary to assume that each planet orbits the sun in an ellipse with the sun at one focus, sweeping out equal areas in equal times. Thus were born two of Kepler's laws of planetary motion . It was Rudolf's patronage of the two astronomers that made this possible, as Kepler recognized when he eventually published the Rudolphine Tables . As mentioned earlier, Rudolf also attracted some of

16478-533: The papacy instigated the Counter-Reformation by using agents sent to his court, Rudolf backed those who he thought were the most neutral in the debate, were not taking a side or trying to effect restraint. That led to political chaos and threatened to provoke civil war. His conflict with the Ottoman Empire was the final cause of his undoing. Unwilling to compromise with the Ottomans and stubbornly determined that he could unify all of Christendom with

16632-487: The post-nominal ForMemRS (Foreign Member of the Royal Society) and as of August 2020 number about 185. The appointment of fellows was first authorised in the second charter, issued on 22 April 1663, which allowed the president and council, in the two months following the signing, to appoint as fellows any individual they saw fit. This saw the appointment of 94 fellows on 20 May and 4 on 22 June; these 98 are known as

16786-418: The postnominal title FRS ( Fellow of the Royal Society ), with up to 73 new fellows appointed each year from a pool of around 800 candidates. There are also royal fellows, honorary fellows and foreign members. Up to 24 new foreign members are appointed each year (from the same pool of 800) and they are allowed to use the postnominal title ForMemRS (Foreign Member of the Royal Society). The Royal Society president

16940-507: The practice of pure mathematics in Britain was weak, laying the blame at the doorstep of the society, the practice of mixed mathematics was strong and although there were not many eminent members of the society, some did contribute vast amounts – James Bradley , for example, established the nutation of the Earth's axis with 20 years of detailed, meticulous astronomy. Politically within

17094-400: The president, and the other officers are elected from and by its fellowship. The council is a body consisting of 20 to 24 Fellows, including the officers (the president, the treasurer, two secretaries—one from the physical sciences, one from life sciences—and the foreign secretary), one fellow to represent each sectional committee and seven other fellows. The council is tasked with directing

17248-533: The previous Whig "majority" had been reduced to a "faction", with Birch and Willoughby no longer involved, and the circle declined in the same time frame as the political party did in British politics under George III , falling apart in the 1780s. In 1780, the society moved again, this time to Somerset House . The property was offered to the society by His Majesty's Government and, as soon as Sir Joseph Banks became president in November 1778, he began planning

17402-485: The proceedings of the Royal Society , whose early meetings were often a sort of open floor to any Fellow to exhibit the findings his curiosities led him to. However purely educational or investigative these exhibitions may sound, the Fellows in this period supported the idea of "learned entertainment," or the alignment of learning with entertainment. This was not unusual, as the Royal Society had an earlier history of

17556-545: The property. New waiting, exhibition and reception rooms were created in the house at No.7, using the Magna Boschi marble found in No.8, and greenish grey Statuario Venato marble was used in other areas to standardise the design. An effort was also made to make the layout of the buildings easier, consolidating all the offices on one floor, Fellows' Rooms on another and all the accommodation on a third. In 2009 Chicheley Hall ,

17710-415: The right), in which many volumes are stored lying down and stacked, in the medieval fashion, or with their spines upward, to protect the pages from dust. Some of the volumes doubtless represent his herbarium . Every surface of the vaulted ceiling is occupied with preserved fishes, stuffed mammals and curious shells, with a stuffed crocodile suspended in the centre. Examples of corals stand on the bookcases. At

17864-536: The rising trend of collecting curiosities in his tract Musaeum Clausum , an inventory of dubious, rumoured and non-existent books, pictures and objects. Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753) an English physician, member of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians , and the founder of the British Museum in London, began sporadically collecting plants in England and France while studying medicine. In 1687,

18018-515: The society acting as the administering body of these funds, distributing grants to scientists. The Government Fund came to an end after a period of five years, after which the Government Grant was increased to £4,000 a year in total. This grant has now grown to over £47 million, some £37 million of which is to support around 370 fellowships and professorships. By 1852, the congestion at Somerset House had increased thanks to

18172-677: The society acts as an advisor to the UK Government , the European Commission and the United Nations on matters of science. It publishes several reports a year, and serves as the Academy of Sciences of the United Kingdom. Since the middle of the 18th century, government problems involving science were irregularly referred to the society, and by 1800 it was done regularly. The premises at 6–9 Carlton House Terrace

18326-427: The society became more certain. In May 1846, a committee recommended limiting the annual intake of members to 15 and insisting on scientific eminence; this was implemented, with the result being that the society now consists exclusively of scientific fellows. The society is governed by its council, which is chaired by the society's president , according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of council,

18480-530: The society ran into financial difficulty during this time; by 1740, the society had a deficit of £240. This continued into 1741, at which point the treasurer began dealing harshly with fellows who had not paid. The business of the society at this time continued to include the demonstration of experiments and the reading of formal and important scientific papers, along with the demonstration of new scientific devices and queries about scientific matters from both Britain and Europe. Some modern research has asserted that

18634-573: The society temporarily moved to Arundel House in 1666 after the Great Fire of London , which did not harm Gresham but did lead to its appropriation by the Lord Mayor. The society returned to Gresham in 1673. There had been an attempt in 1667 to establish a permanent "college" for the society. Michael Hunter argues that this was influenced by " Solomon's House " in Bacon's New Atlantis and, to

18788-452: The society's early problems. The number of fellows had increased from 110 to approximately 300 by 1739, the reputation of the society had increased under the presidency of Sir Isaac Newton from 1703 until his death in 1727, and editions of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society were appearing regularly. During his time as president, Newton arguably abused his authority; in a dispute between himself and Gottfried Leibniz over

18942-409: The society's first secretary. It remains the oldest and longest-running scientific journal in the world. It now publishes themed issues on specific topics and, since 1886, has been divided into two parts; A, which deals with mathematics and the physical sciences, and B, which deals with the biological sciences. Proceedings of the Royal Society consists of freely submitted research articles and

19096-499: The society's journals are peer-reviewed . In May 2021, the society announced plans to transition its four hybrid research journals to open access The Royal Society presents numerous awards, lectures, and medals to recognise scientific achievement. The oldest is the Croonian Lecture , created in 1701 at the request of the widow of William Croone , one of the founding members of the Royal Society. The Croonian Lecture

19250-482: The society's overall policy, managing all business related to the society, amending, making or repealing the society's standing orders and acting as trustees for the society's possessions and estates. Members are elected annually via a postal ballot, and current standing orders mean that at least ten seats must change hands each year. The council may establish (and is assisted by) a variety of committees, which can include not only fellows but also outside scientists. Under

19404-517: The society, had sketched out at least six possible designs, but in August 1662 Charles II told the society that it was allowed to use the arms of England as part of its coat and the society "now resolv'd that the armes of the Society should be, a field Argent, with a canton of the armes of England; the supporters two talbots Argent ; Crest, an eagle Or holding a shield with the like armes of England, viz. 3 lions . The words Nullius in verba ". This

19558-521: The society, the mid-18th century featured a " Whig supremacy" as the so-called "Hardwicke Circle" of Whig-leaning scientists held the society's main Offices. Named after Lord Hardwicke , the group's members included Daniel Wray and Thomas Birch and was most prominent in the 1750s and '60s. The circle had Birch elected secretary and, following the resignation of Martin Folkes , the circle helped oversee

19712-659: The specimens and objects in his collection. He also began to acquire other collections by gift or purchase. Herman Boerhaave gave him four volumes of plants from Boerhaave's gardens at Leiden. William Charleton, in a bequest in 1702, gave Sloane numerous books of birds, fish, flowers, and shells and his miscellaneous museum consisting of curiosities, miniatures, insects, medals, animals, minerals, precious stones and curiosities in amber. Sloane purchased Leonard Plukenet 's collection in 1710. It consisted of twenty-three volumes with over 8,000 plants from Africa, India, Japan and China. Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (1630–1715) , left him

19866-742: The upper jaw of a walrus, and armadillos), artificial curiosities (e.g., wampum belts, portraits, lathe turned ivory, weapons, costumes, Oriental footwear and carved alabaster panels) and rarities (e.g., a mermaid's hand, a dragon's egg, two feathers of a phoenix's tail, a piece of the True Cross, and a vial of blood that rained in the Isle of Wight). By the 1630s, the Tradescants displayed their eclectic collection at their residence in South Lambeth. Tradescant's Ark, as it came to be known,

20020-618: The various collections up to inspection for the other members of the club. By the early decades of the eighteenth century, curiosities and wondrous specimens began to lose their influence among European natural philosophers. As Enlightenment thinkers placed growing emphasis on patterns and systems within nature, anomalies and rarities came to be regarded as potentially misleading objects of study. Curiosities, previously interpreted as divine messages and expressions of nature's variety, were increasingly seen as vulgar exceptions to nature's overall uniformity. The Houston Museum of Natural Science houses

20174-444: The visitor's attention. Without, however, there being a desire for purely scientific systematization on the part of the sovereign, it is necessary to detect the harmonious expression of the order of God and discern in the micro-macrocosm the analogy of a mimetic dependence on human arts towards nature and the world. Rudolf's Kunstkammer was not a typical "cabinet of curiosities", a haphazard collection of unrelated specimens. Rather,

20328-432: Was Caroline (1591–1662), Princess of Cantecroix, mother-in-law of Beatrice de Cusance , later Duchess of Lorraine as the second wife of Charles IV of Lorraine . During his periods of self-imposed isolation, Rudolf reportedly had affairs with his Obersthofmeister , Wolfgang Siegmund Rumpf vom Wullroß (1536–1606), and a series of valets . One of them, Philipp Lang von Langenfels (1560–1609), influenced him for years and

20482-562: Was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I , 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the House of Habsburg . Rudolf's legacy has traditionally been viewed in three ways: an ineffectual ruler whose mistakes led directly to the Thirty Years' War ; a great and influential patron of Northern Mannerist art; and an intellectual devotee of occult arts and learning which helped seed what would be called

20636-428: Was a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge , and London-based Samuel Hartlib . The Royal Society started from groups of physicians and natural philosophers , meeting at a variety of locations, including Gresham College in London. They were influenced by the " new science ", as promoted by Francis Bacon in his New Atlantis , from approximately 1645 onwards. A group known as " Philosophical Society of Oxford "

20790-425: Was a firm devotee of both. His lifelong quest was to find the philosopher's stone , and Rudolf spared no expense in bringing Europe's best alchemists to court, such as Edward Kelley and John Dee . Rudolf even performed his own experiments in a private alchemy laboratory. When Rudolf was a prince, Nostradamus prepared a horoscope , which was dedicated to him as 'Prince and King'. In the 1590s, Michael Sendivogius

20944-465: Was active at Rudolph's court. Rudolf gave Prague a mystical reputation that persists in part to this day, with Alchemists' Alley l, on the grounds of Prague Castle, being a popular visiting place and tourist attraction . Rudolf was a patron of the occult sciences. That and his practice of tolerance towards Jews caused during his reign the legend of the Golem of Prague to be established. Rudolf had

21098-528: Was also in his possessions. As was typical of the time, Rudolf II had a portrait painted in the studio of the renowned Alonso Sánchez Coello . Completed in 1567, the portrait depicted Rudolf II at the age of 15. This painting can be seen at the Lobkowicz Palace in the Rozmberk room. By 1597, the collection occupied three rooms of the incomplete northern wing. When building was completed in 1605,

21252-689: Was appointed in 1684. These experiments varied in their subject area, and were both important in some cases and trivial in others. The society also published an English translation of Essays of Natural Experiments Made in the Accademia del Cimento, under the Protection of the Most Serene Prince Leopold of Tuscany in 1684, an Italian book documenting experiments at the Accademia del Cimento . Although meeting at Gresham College,

21406-579: Was appreciated throughout Europe and was visited by the highest nobility, including the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II , the Russian grand duke Paul and Pope Pius VI , as well as by famous naturalists, such as Francesco Griselini  [ it ] and Franz Benedikt Hermann  [ de ] . It included a number of minerals, including specimens of mercury from the Idrija mine,

21560-409: Was approved by Charles, who asked Garter King of Arms to create a diploma for it, and when the second charter was signed on 22 April 1663 the arms were granted to the president, council and fellows of the society along with their successors. The helmet of the arms was not specified in the charter, but the engraver sketched out a peer's helmet (barred helmet) on the final design, which is used. This

21714-525: Was contained in Chapter 1 of Statute 1. Because of the difficulty of co-ordinating all the Fellows during the Second World War , a ballot on making the change was conducted via the post, with 336 Fellows supporting the change and 37 opposing. Following approval by the Council, Marjory Stephenson and Kathleen Lonsdale were elected as the first female Fellows. In 1947, Mary Cartwright became

21868-540: Was crowned King of Hungary (1572), King of Bohemia and King of the Romans (1575) when his father was still alive. For the rest of his life, Rudolf would remain reserved, secretive, and largely a recluse who did not like to travel or even partake in the daily affairs of the state. He was more intrigued by occult learning such as astrology and alchemy , which was mainstream in the Renaissance period, and had

22022-535: Was designed by John Nash as two blocks of houses, with a space in between them. The building is still owned by the Crown Estates and leased by the society; it underwent a major renovation from 2001 to 2004 at the cost of £9.8 million, and was reopened by the Prince of Wales on 7 July 2004. Carlton House Terrace underwent a series of renovations between 1999 and November 2003 to improve and standardise

22176-529: Was even alleged by one person to have owned the Voynich manuscript , a codex whose author and purpose, as well as the language and script and posited cipher remain unidentified to this day. According to hearsay passed on in a letter written by Johannes Marcus Marci in 1665, Rudolf was said to have acquired the manuscript at some unspecified time for 600 gold ducats . No evidence in support of this single piece of hearsay has ever been discovered. The Codex Gigas

22330-487: Was granted a royal charter by King Charles II and is the oldest continuously existing scientific academy in the world. The society is governed by its Council, which is chaired by the society's president, according to a set of statutes and standing orders. The members of Council and the president are elected from and by its Fellows, the basic members of the society, who are themselves elected by existing Fellows. As of 2020 , there are about 1,700 fellows, allowed to use

22484-614: Was hated by those seeking favours with the emperor. Rudolf succeeded his father, Maximilian II, on 12 October 1576. In 1583, he moved the court to Prague . In 1607, Rudolf sent Julius to live at Český Krumlov , in Bohemia , in what is now the Czech Republic , a castle that Rudolf had purchased from Peter Vok of Rosenberg , the last member of the House of Rosenberg , who had fallen into financial ruin. Julius lived at Český Krumlov in 1608, when he reportedly abused and murdered

22638-480: Was held by Jean-Baptiste du Hamel , Giovanni Domenico Cassini , Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and Melchisédech Thévenot at the time and has some grounding in that Henry Oldenburg , the society's first secretary, had attended the Montmor Academy meeting. Robert Hooke , however, disputed this, writing that: [Cassini] makes, then, Mr Oldenburg to have been the instrument, who inspired the English with

22792-637: Was often reported to sit and stare in rapture at a new work for hours on end. He spared no expense in acquiring great past masterworks, such as those of Dürer and Brueghel . He was also patron to some of the best contemporary artists, who mainly produced new works in the Northern Mannerist style, such as Bartholomeus Spranger , Hans von Aachen , Giambologna , Giuseppe Arcimboldo , Aegidius Sadeler , Roelant Savery , Joris Hoefnagel and Adrian de Vries , as well as commissioning works from Italians like Paolo Veronese . Rudolf's collections were

22946-416: Was permanently closed on 18 June 2020 and the building was sold in 2021. Through Royal Society Publishing, the society publishes the following journals: The society introduced the world's first journal exclusively devoted to science in 1665, Philosophical Transactions , and in so doing originated the peer review process now widespread in scientific journals. Its founding editor was Henry Oldenburg ,

23100-688: Was run under a set of rules still retained by the Bodleian Library . After the English Restoration , there were regular meetings at Gresham College. It is widely held that these groups were the inspiration for the foundation of the Royal Society. An alternative view of the founding, held at the time, was that it was due to the influence of French scientists and the Montmor Academy in 1657, reports of which were sent back to England by English scientists attending. This view

23254-463: Was the earliest major cabinet of curiosity in England and open to the public for a small entrance fee. Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) was a lawyer, chemist, antiquarian, Freemason , and a member of the Royal Society with a keen interest in astrology , alchemy , and botany. Ashmole was also a neighbor of the Tradescants in Lambeth. He financed the publication of Musaeum Tradescantianum , a catalogue of

23408-490: Was the eldest son and successor of Maximilian II , Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , and King of Hungary and Croatia ; his mother was the Spanish Princess Maria , a daughter of Charles V and Isabella of Portugal . He was the elder brother of Matthias who was to succeed him as King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor. Rudolf spent eight formative years, from age 11 to 19 (1563–1571), in Spain, at

23562-497: Was the requirement that the Treasurer publish an annual report, along with a copy of the total income and expenditure of the society. These were to be sent to Fellows at least 14 days before the general meeting, with the intent being to ensure the election of competent Officers by making it readily apparent what existing Officers were doing. This was accompanied by a full list of Fellows standing for Council positions, where previously

23716-518: Was the subject of a whispering campaign by his enemies in his family and the Catholic Church in the years before he was deposed. Sexual allegations may well have formed a part of the campaign against him. Historians have traditionally blamed Rudolf's preoccupation with the arts, occult sciences, and other personal interests for the political disasters of his reign. More recently historians have re-evaluated that view and see his patronage of

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