Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First ArachnologistThis 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 |
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Common terms and phrases
animal antimony Apicius Ashmolean Ashmolean Museum Aston ballooning spiders Birch Bodleian MS Ashmole Bodleian MS Lister Burwell Cambridge Carr catalogue cawk century chemical collection College crinoids disease Dr Lister early modern edition English Spiders engravings father’s fellow fermentation Fontibus fossils Francis Aston Francis Place Gunther Hall and Hall Harley and Parker Henry Historia Piscium Historiae Animalium Historiae Conchyliorum insects John Ray Journey King King’s Lankester letter to Lister Lhwyd Lister wrote London Martin Lister Matthew Lister medicine mineral molluscs Montpellier Natural History Museum natural philosophers naturalist Newton noted observations Octo original Oxford DNB Paman paper Parkinson Philosophical Transactions physician plants Plot published pyrites Ray’s Robert Boyle Robert Plot Roman Royal Society Royal Society Library salts scientific shells Sir Martin Skippon Sloane smallpox snails Society’s species specimens St John’s stone Susanna Thomas Thorpe Arnold tion University veins virtuosi vitriol William Willoughby York Yorkshire