Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First Arachnologist: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First Arachnologist

Front Cover
BRILL, Jul 12, 2011 - Science - 500 pages
This first full-length biography of Dr. Martin Lister (1639-1712), vice-president of the Royal Society, Royal Physician, and the first arachnologist and conchologist, provides an unprecedented picture of a seventeenth-century virtuoso. Lister is recognized for his discovery of ballooning spiders and as the father of conchology, but it is less well known that he invented the histogram, provided Newton with alloys, and donated the first significant natural history collections to the Ashmolean Museum. Just as Lister was the first to make a systematic study of spiders and their webs, this biography is the first to analyze the significant webs of knowledge, patronage, and familial and gender relationships that governed his life as a scientist and physician.
 

Contents

Chapter One Introduction
3
Chapter Two Early Life and Letters 16391663
15
The Voyage to Montpellier 16631666
55
The Influence of John Ray
77
Listers Years in York 16691683
99
Chapter Five Spider Threads and a Tangled Web of Misunderstanding 16681671
101
Listers Marriage to Hannah Parkinson and his Medical Practice in York
131
Chapter Seven Lister and the Royal Societys Debates about Plant Circulation in the 1670s
151
Lister in London the Royal Society and the Production of Masterworks 16841692
243
Virtuoso Antiquarian and Benefactor
245
The Historiae Conchyliorum and the Historia Piscium
281
16921712
333
The Sex Exercitationes Medicinales and the Royal College of Physicians
335
A Journey to Paris and a Cookery Book
375
Epilogue Listers Portrait and the Tragedy of Burwell Park
421
Bibliography
427

Chapter Eight Animal Vegetable or Mineral? Lister Ray Crinoids and the Fossil Debate in the Royal Society
167
Martin Lister and Fools Gold 16771684
185
Lister Newton and Telescopic Mirrors
221

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Bibliographic information