Solomon's Secret Arts (76 page)

40.
For the decline of English witchcraft, see Keith Thomas,
Religion and the Decline of Magic
(New York, 1971), ch. 18; James Sharpe,
Instruments of Darkness: Witchcraft in Early Modern England
(Philadelphia, 1996), chs 9–11; James Sharpe,
Witchcraft in Early Modern England
(London, 2001), pp. 73–88.

41.
Brian Levack, “The End of the Scottish Witch-Hunt,” in Julian Goodare, ed.,
The Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context
(Manchester, 2002), pp. 166–81.

42.
George Sinclair,
Satan's Invisible World Discovered
(Edinburgh, 1685), preface, sigs A
₄
v–A
₅
. For biographical details, see
ODNB
and the prefatory notice to the 1871 edition of the work, edited by Thomas George Stevenson and published by him at Edinburgh.

43.
For the book's long-lasting appeal, see James Sharpe, “Witch-Hunting and Witch Historiography: Some Anglo-Scottish Comparisons,” in Goodare, ed.,
Scottish Witch-Hunt in Context
, p. 195, citing the preface to the Stevenson edition, p. l.

44.
Steven Shapin and Simon Shaffer,
Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life
(Princeton, 1985).

45.
For example, Hartlib Papers 7/126A-B; 8/28/1A-6B; 16/6/7; 16/9/9–17; 26/57A–B; 26/63A–B; 26/65/1A–B; 55/16/1A–14B.

46.
William Newman and Lawrence Principe,
Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry
(Chicago, 2002), chs 3–5.

47.
Hartlib Papers, 31/1/56B: John Beale to Samuel Hartlib, 15 Sept. 1657.

48.
Hartlib Papers, 25/5/1A, 6A, Beale to Hartlib, 28 May 1657; also, 25/5/22B, Beale to Hartlib, 21 June 1657.

49.
Hartlib Papers, 25/5/18A, 19B, Beale to Hartlib, 8 June 1657. For more on the subject of visions, see Hartlib Papers, 60/1/1A–4B, a scribal copy of a letter from Beale to an unnamed correspondent, 28 Nov. 1659.

50.
Hartlib Papers, 16/9/3A.

51.
He was involved in the Blackloist Conspiracy, an attempt to obtain toleration for Catholics from Cromwell's government in exchange for their acceptance of an Independent church settlement. The conspirators had close links with Hobbes. See Jeffrey Collins, “Thomas Hobbes and the Blackloist Conspiracy of 1649,”
Historical Journal
, 45, 2 (2002), pp. 305–31.

52.
Sir Kenelm Digby,
A Late Discourse Made in a Solemne Assembly of Nobles and Learned Men at Montpellier in France … Touching the Cure of Wounds by the Powder of Sympathy
(London, 1658), p. 3.

53.
For the older view, see Allen Debus,
The Chemical Philosophy: Paracelsian Science and Medicine in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(2nd ed., New York, 2002), pp. 205–93, and the three articles by Betty Jo Dobbs, “Studies in the Natural Philosophy of Sir Kenelm Digby, Parts I–III,”
Ambix
18 (1971), pp. 1–25; 20 (1973), pp. 143–63; 21 (1974), pp. 1–28. Newer interpretations are found in Elizabeth Hedrick, “Romancing the Salve: Sir Kenelm Digby and the Powder of Sympathy,”
British Journal of the History of Science
, 41 (2008), pp. 161–85; Mark A. Waddell, “The Perversion of Nature: Johannes Baptista van Helmont, the Society of Jesus and the Cure of Wounds,”
Canadian Journal of History
, 38 (2003), pp. 180–97; Bruce Janacek,
Alchemical Belief: Occultism in the Religious Culture of Early Modern England
(University Park, Pa., 2011), ch. 4.

54.
Digby,
Discourse
, pp. 23, 43.

55.
The dependence of the following paragraphs on Michael Hunter,
Boyle: Between God and Science
(New Haven, Cohn., 2009), esp. ch. 11, and Lawrence Principe,
The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and his Alchemical Quest
(Princeton, 1998), will be obvious to those who have read these two splendid studies.

56.
Robert Boyle, “Of the Study of the Booke of Nature,” in Michael Hunter and Edward B. Davis, eds,
The Works of Robert Boyle
(14 vols, London, 1999), vol. 13, p. 156.

57.
R[obert] B[oyle],
Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God
(Known as
Seraphic Love
), in Hunter and Davis, eds,
Works of Robert Boyle
, vol. 1, p. 66.

58.
Ibid.
, pp. 78, 132.

59.
Robert Boyle, “An Hydrostatical Discourse Occasioned by the Objections of the Learned Dr. Henry More, against Some Explications of New Experiments Made by Mr. Boyle,” in Hunter and Davis, eds,
Works of Boyle
, vol. 7, p. 183.

60.
The Devill of Mascon
, trans. Peter Du Moulin, in Hunter and Davis, eds,
Works of Boyle
, vol. 1, pp. 13–39.

61.
“Robert Boyle's Dialogue on the Converse with Angels Aided by the Philosopher's Stone,” in Principe,
Aspiring Adept
, pp. 312, 315. The original is in Royal Society, Boyle Papers, vol. 7, ff. 134v–150. Unfortunately, this volume is not yet available at Boyle Papers Online, which can be viewed at
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/boyle_papers/boylepapers_index.htm
.

62.
Glanvill to Boyle, 7 Oct. 1677, in Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzio and Lawrence Principe, eds,
The Correspondence of Robert Boyle
(6 vols, London, 2001), vol. 4, pp. 460–1.

63.
“B.R.” [Robert Boyle], “Of the Incalescence of Quicksilver with Gold,” in Hunter and Davies, eds,
Works of Boyle
, vol. 8, p. 561; H.W. Turnbull. ed.,
The Correspondence of Isaac Newton
(6 vols, Cambridge, 1958–65), vol. 2, p. 2: Newton to Oldenbourg, 26 April 1676.

64.
Michael Hunter shows how the Society “sidestepped” occult matters in “The Royal Society and the Decline of Magic,”
Notes and Records of the Royal Society
, 65, 2 (2011), pp. 103–19.

65.
Thomas Sprat,
The History of the Royal Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge
(4th ed., London, 1734), pp. 37–8.

66.
Bodl. Lib., Ms. Aubrey 24. The diverse individuals cited in this manuscript would comprise a study in themselves. They include “Mr Wyld Clarke (who was a factor at Santa Cruce in Barberie 16 years),” Mr Lancelot Morehead, “a Divine & very learned man,” “Mr Hitchcock a Clerke in Chancery Lane, at the Rolls office he has been under sheriffe of Bucks” and “Dr. Ezekiel Tongue,” i.e. Israel Tonge, one of the original informers in the Popish Plot:
ibid.
, ff. 56b
^v
, 57, 92
^v
, 101.

67.
Ibid.
, f. 92.

68.
John Aubrey,
Miscellanies
(London, 1696), Dedication.

69.
The classic treatment of the royal healing power is Marc Bloch,
The Royal Touch
, trans. J.E. Anderson (New York, 1990); for magical healing in general, see Keith Thomas,
Religion and the Decline of Magic
(New York, 1971), ch. 7.

70.
Hunter,
Boyle
, p. 149–51;
Conway Letters
, pp. 244–52, 261–74; Valentine Greatrakes,
A Brief Account of Mr. Valentine Greatraks, and Divers of the Strange Cures, by Him Lately Performed. Written by Himself in a Letter, Addressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle
(London, 1666), pp. 3, 43–9;
Correspondence of Boyle
, vol. 3, pp. 82–90, 93–107, quotation on p. 93.

71.
“Robert Boyle's Notes on his Interview with Lord Tarbat,” reprinted in Michael Hunter, ed.,
The Occult Laboratory: Magic, Science and Second Sight in Late 17th-Century Scotland
(Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2001), pp. 51–3. The original is in Royal Society, Boyle Papers 39, fols 216–17. See also Lizanne Henderson and Edward J. Cowan,
Scottish Fairy Belief
(Edinburgh, 2001), pp. 174–6.

72.
The best overall guide to Newton's alchemical manuscripts can be found at the Newton Project website,
http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk
, but see also Peter Jones, ed.,
Sir Isaac Newton: A Catalogue of Manuscripts and Papers Collected and Published on Microfilm by Chadwyck-Healey
(Cambridge, 1991).

73.
KCL, Keynes Ms. 49, f. 1,
M&P
, reel 19.

74.
Correspondence of Newton
, vol. 2, p. 2: Newton to Oldenbourg, 26 April 1676.

75.
Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs,
The Foundations of Newton's Alchemy; or, “The Hunting of the Green Lion”
(Cambridge, 1975); Richard S. Westfall, “The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Career,” in M.L. Righini Bonelli and William R. Shea, eds,
Reason, Experiment and Mysticism in the Scientific Revolution
(New York, 1975), pp. 189–232; Richard S. Westfall,
Never at Rest: A Biography of Isaac Newton
(Cambridge, 1980), esp. ch. 8; Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs,
The Janus Faces of Genius: The Role of Alchemy in Newton's Thought
(Cambridge, 1991). Among other works on the subject, see Karin Figala, “Newton as Alchemist,”
History of Science
, 15 (1977), pp. 102–37.

76.
See both his notes on the Hermetic creation myth in KCL, Keynes Ms. 28,
M&P
, reel 19, which are translated in Dobbs,
Janus Faces of Genius
, pp. 271–7, and his letter of Jan. 1681 on the biblical story of Creation, written to Thomas Burnet, in
Corrrespondence of Newton
, vol. 2, pp. 329–35.

77.
Isaac Newton,
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy and his System of the World
, trans. Florian Cajori (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1962), p. 547.

78.
Cited in Dobbs,
Janus Faces of Genius
, p. 230; the original “MS on Miracles” is in Lehigh University Libraries, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and was printed by A. Rupert and Mary Boas Hall,
Isis
, 52, 4 (1961), pp. 583–5, but is not in
M&P
. Newton was responding to Leibniz's argument that gravity was either an occult force or a miracle, made in an exchange of papers with Samuel Clarke: see H.G. Alexander,
The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence
(Manchester, 1956), pp. 66, 92, 94–5, 115, 118, 170, 177, 184, 186–8.

79.
On radical plotting, the best sources are the three books by Richard L. Greaves,
Deliver Us from Evil: The Radical Underground in Britain, 1660–1663
(New York, 1986),
Enemies under his Feet: Radicals and Nonconformists in Britain, 1664–1677
(Stanford, 1990), and
Secrets of the Kingdom: British Radicals from the Popish Plot to 1688
(Stanford, 1992).
For suspected Catholic plots, see John Miller,
Popery and Politics in England, 1660–1688
(Cambridge, 1973).

80.
For earlier printed literature on secrets, see William Eamon,
Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture
(Princeton, 1994), which concentrates on Italian publishers, and Allison Kavey,
Books of Secrets: Natural Philosophy in England, 1550–1600
(Urbana and Chicago, 2007), esp. ch. 1.

81.
William Salmon,
Polygraphice
(5th ed., London, 1685). Boyle noticed the plagiarism in the first edition and commented on it in a tract of 1675–6, “Experiments, Notes, &c. about the Mechanical Origine or Production of Divers Particular Qualities,”
Works of Boyle
, vol. 8, p. 317.

82.
Salmon,
Polygraphice
, pp. 478–509.

83.
Cited in Allison Coudert,
The Impact of the Kabbalah in the Seventeenth Century: The Life and Thought of Francis Mercury van Helmont (1614–16)
(Leiden, 1998), p. 101 and ch. 6 for an excellent account of
Kabbalah Denudata
. See also Gershom Sholem,
Kabbalah
(New York, 1974); Enrst Benz, “La Kabbala Chrétienne en Allemagne du XVIe au XVIIIe Siècle,” in Antoine Faivre and Frédérick Tristan, eds,
Kabbalistes Chrétiens
(Paris, 1979), pp. 91–148; Joseph Dan, ed.,
The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books and their Christian Interpreters
(Cambridge, Mass., 1997).

84.
The work was originally issued in two parts, published in 1677 and 1678, to which a third was added in 1684. Both the original and expanded editions, however, were usually bound in two volumes. In both versions, the title page of the first volume bears the date 1677. The important section entitled “
Adumbratio
” was appended to some but not all copies of the full work. I have used two copies found in the British Library: [Christian Knorr von Rosenroth et al],
Kabbala Denudata Seu Doctrina Hebraeorum Transcendentalis et Metaphysica Atque Theologica
(1 vol. in 2 parts, Sulzbach, 1677–8);
Kabbala Denudata Tomus Secundus: Id est Liber Sohar Restitutus
(2 vols, Frankfurt, 1684), which contains part 3 of the work. I have also consulted an online version available at
http://www.billheidrick.com/Orpd/KRKD/index.htm
, which includes digitized photographs derived from both the original and the expanded editions. For a list of the contents, see Don Karr, “The Study of Christian Kabbala in English: Addenda,” pp. 99–108, which is available at
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/karr/ccineb.pdf
.

85.
Kabbalah Denudata
(1684), vol. 1, “
Adumbratio Kabbalae Christianae
,” p. 6. Scholem assumed that this was written by Van Helmont, and Coudert has followed his lead, but on the evidence of John Locke's papers, Victor Nuovo has argued that this section should be ascribed to Rosenroth.

86.
Henry More, “Fundamenta Philosophiae sive Kabbalae Aeto-Paedo-Melissææ Ejustdem,”
Kabbala Denudata
(1677–8), vol. 2, pp. 293–307; Allison Coudert, “A Cambridge Platonist's Kabbalist Nightmare,”
Journal of the History of Ideas
, 36, 4 (1975), pp. 633–52; Stuart Brown, “Liebniz and More's Cabalistical Circle,” in Hutton, ed.,
Henry More
, pp. 77–96; David Katz, “Henry More and the Jews,” in
ibid.
, pp. 173–9.

87.
[Francis Mercury van Helmont], “Ad Fundamenta Kabbalae Aeto-Paedo-Melissææ Dialogus,”
Kabbala Denudata
(1677–8), vol. 2, pp. 308–12. This was translated as
A Kabbalistical Dialogue in Answer to a Learned Doctor in Philosophy and Theology, That the World Was Made of Nothing
(London, 1682).