The Significance of the Exchange of European Letters in the 17th Century to the Development of the Scientific Community
The 17th century was a period of epoch-making scientific revolution. Not only did knowledge accumulate at an unprecedented speed, but also science enthusiasts gathered at an unprecedented speed and breadth to form a scientifically institutionalized scientific community. This development is greatly attributed to the close and effective scientific exchanges between scientists through books, travels, letters, gatherings, and periodicals. Among the above methods, the role of letter communication is prominent. It often runs through the beginning and end of books, travel, and party exchanges. It builds a lasting scientific relationship between individuals and others, promotes close interaction between members of the scientific circle, and develops a scientific community. A new platform for journal exchange.
Build a lasting scientific relationship between people
Before the 17th century, new types of scientific activities only appeared in a few countries in Western Europe, and have been confined to this area for about 200 years. At that time, it was mainly individuals who carried out scientific research out of their hobbies. Due to the influence of geographical, economic, and even religious factors, they independently completed various field surveys and small-scale experiments related to classical literature.
With the continuous emergence of inconsistencies between personal survey and experimental results and classical literature records, these science lovers urgently need to communicate with others. At the end of the 16th century, a large number of cheap paper made of pulp appeared, making printed books more and more popular, including letter writing manuals and various classical and rhetorical letter style collections, and letter writing culture prospered. As a result, the exchange of letters that has always existed between private individuals is used by science enthusiasts to exchange opinions with others and to debate various philosophical and theological issues.
In the 17th century, the invention and manufacture of a large number of scientific instruments further promoted the demand for communication between individuals and others. For example, precision clocks allow people to measure time with a precision never dreamed of in the past; the invention of thermometers and barometers makes temperature and atmospheric pressure measurable; air pumps allow scientists to obtain different pressures and create a vacuum for use in the laboratory. The invention of the telescope created an astronomical revolution. Similarly, the appearance of the microscope made a huge contribution to biology. For personal experiments, the latest scientific instruments are very important and necessary, and these instruments are often specifically designed and made by researchers for their own experiments. Therefore, timely access to the latest scientific instrument information has become an important reason for letter exchange.
The traditional natural philosophical methods did not establish specific operable or common compliance norms. Therefore, most science enthusiasts in the 17th century had their own experimental observation methods. Obtaining the experimental methods of others and re-doing the experiments claimed by others to judge whether the results of the experiments are correct or not have naturally become an important part of the personal experiments of science enthusiasts. In addition, there are people who have done special research on experimental methods, such as Bacon’s "New Tools" and Descartes’s "Methodology". More or less written. Under this circumstance, in order to obtain the information of various experimental methods in time, the demand for communication of letters is also increased.
In addition, letter exchanges are also used by science enthusiasts to exchange scientific discoveries or news with others, such as naturalists who cultivate and breed rare plants in gardens with people who may have access to specimens of different plants, animals, and minerals. Wait for the establishment of correspondence. In short, through the exchange of letters out of various needs, science enthusiasts establish a lasting scientific relationship with others.
Promoting close interaction between science scientific circles of people that
have a group of passionate study of nature, like-minded people, there are plenty of financial resources, there is space, which can be described as condition for building a scientific circles. Since most members of the circle worked alone in the 17th century, the real vitality of the scientific circle is inseparable from the close and lasting interaction between them.
Letter exchange is the main way for circle members to interact. They usually describe their thoughts, experiments, and experimental results in letters. The letter is written to a certain person or to three or four people at the same time. The recipient may also show the letter to other friends [1]. Compared with other communication methods, letter communication is not only convenient, but also has the least interference. For example, the Accademia dei Lincei at the beginning of the 17th century, even when faced with the dilemma of being on the verge of disbanding due to the fact that the research methods and content were very different from the traditions of the time between 1604 and 1610, the enthusiasm of its members to participate in scientific activities was not affected. The reason is that The founder of the society, the Duke of Cesi (FA Cesi, 1585-1630) has always maintained correspondence with all members [2]. In Chesi's view, this communication of letters turns the disadvantage of geographical conditions into an advantage. Members from different places can gather knowledge from different places, which guarantees the acquisition of new knowledge.
If Chesi’s views at the time were a bit self-comforting, the subsequent vigorous development of the postal service network ensured the smooth communication of letters. On the one hand, the large postal system cooperates with local postal agencies, and the mailing scope covers every corner of the provinces; on the other hand, small postal companies, town post offices, university couriers, private postmen, guilds, merchant groups, former competitors, The couriers of the duke prince and the wealthy nobles reached a cooperation agreement with each other, and sent each other's mail to the destination. This overlapping postal service constitutes an orderly and efficient communication network. Scholars pass a large number of mails through this network, and the scientific interaction between them has become closer and closer.
In this context, the importance of specialized scientific correspondents is highlighted. A scientific circle often develops around a scientific correspondent. The scientific correspondents of different circles jointly constructed a communication network in the 17th century, and finally promoted the development of the scientific circle into a scientific community licensed by the state.
Well-known scientific correspondents at that time included Peresc (NC de Peiresc, 1580—1637), Mason (M. Mersenne, 1588—1648), Hartlib (S. Hartlib, 1600—1662), and Oldenburg (H. Oldenburg, 1619-1677).
Peresk is known as the "Prince of the Kingdom of Letters". He has actively met scholars in different fields of expertise in Europe through various channels, has continuously expanded his communication network in Europe [3], and has developed a science of nearly 500 relevant correspondents. circle. His approach had a huge impact on Mason. After Peresk, Mason became the "mailbox" of Europe. He was proficient in various languages and was the recipient of letters from almost all outstanding thinkers at that time. He copied multiple copies of the letter, and disseminated news, comments, findings, and conjectures throughout Europe. The copy of the letter in his residence can be read by any visitor. At that time, Paris was an important center of thought, and many people came to him like a library to learn about the latest scientific views. Mason developed this scientific circle of hundreds of people gathered through letter exchanges into the Paris Academy of Scholars, which was the predecessor of the Paris Academy of Sciences [4]. Hart Lieber was described as a great intelligenceist [5] or a hub of knowledge, and almost everyone knew him at the time [6]. The "Public Communications Office" co-founded by him and his friends is an information exchange center for news related to scientific and philosophical developments, as well as a place to showcase and discuss new experiments, new technologies, new inventions, and new programs. He sorted out all kinds of scientific letters to and from here in alphabetical order and lent them to anyone on the communication network. Hart Lieber used this to maintain correspondence with European scholars and developed the Hart Lieber scientific circle. Later members of the Royal Society (The Royal Society) mostly came from this circle. Aldenberg was also deeply influenced by Hart Lieber and became the subsequent scientific information exchange center. During the service of the Royal Society, the geographic range of its communication objects was wider than others, covering not only Europe, but also the Levant and North America. In addition, while establishing international connections between scientists, he also developed the letter exchange form of the Royal Society into a regularly published periodical "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society", setting up communication between members. A new platform-journal exchange.
The scientific community to develop a new platform for the exchange of periodical
exchanges of letters has been able to birth a new platform for the exchange of journals in four of its own characteristics.
Scientific letters are a primary form of publication. Although not officially published like books, they are essentially a form of exchange of ideas and academic news. There are often scientific letters that are constantly copied and spread throughout Europe. Therefore, 17th-century scholars often publish their own scientific research through letter exchanges. For example, Newton published his research on light and color in a series of letters; Leibniz completed a complete philosophical essay in a series of letters.
The communication of letters provides effective evidence support for the priority of scientific research. Formal publication has always been a means to confirm the priority of scientific research, but this method caused disputes in the 17th century. The most famous event was the dispute between Newton and Leibniz about the priority of calculus invention at the end of the 17th century. This dispute caused the British and continental mathematicians to stay away from each other for a hundred years. Through his early letters with Leibniz, Newton proved the priority to the world. Since then, scientific letters have also become the basis for judging the priority of an experiment or discovery.
The exchange of letters represents a form of evaluation in a public way. Generally speaking, scientific research is subject to peer review before it is delivered for publication. Peer review can be obtained by reading at scientific conferences, or by printing and circulating brochures. However, these methods are relatively expensive and cannot guarantee the effective reading. As a result, letters are often used to exchange opinions and solicit comments before publication. Doing so often does not risk offending people, because the opinions or research work in the letter is rarely criticized or denied, but will be improved. Help more [7].
The communication of letters is flexible. Compared with the publication of books and periodicals, letter exchange will not face restrictions on topic selection, length, rhetoric, language, funding, and authoritative review, nor will it be affected by religious or national disputes. After Galileo was convicted by the Inquisition in 1633, he was still able to maintain correspondence and exchange scientific information with his French admirers [8].
There are also some shortcomings in the communication of letters. First of all, the communication of letters has a certain degree of unreliability. On the one hand, it depends to a large extent on the feelings between people. On the other hand, it sometimes depends on geographical proximity rather than the importance of research results. Secondly, the informal nature of the communication of letters has produced two types of undesirable consequences: First, it has triggered countless debates about the priority of scientific discovery, such as Torricelli and Pascal, Newton and Leibniz, Hook and Huygens. Second, in order to ensure priority, scholars will use language passwords to encrypt their own research results, which greatly hinders the spread of science. Finally, the exchange of letters was not enough to respond to the new changes in the field of thought at that time. Scholars at that time realized that the problems brought about by various new facts, theories, and technologies were changing their ideological foundation, and the suspicion of traditional views was changing all disciplines, and communication through common letters was not enough to meet this challenge [ 9].
Solving the lack of communication of letters can be said to be a basic problem urgently needed to be solved by the scientific circle at that time. In 1664, D. de Sallo (1626-1669), the son of an adviser to the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court of Paris, took the lead with the support of Louis XIV’s minister J. -B. Colbert (1619-1683). Organize the world's earliest scientific journal-"Journal des S?avans" (Journal des S?avans) to solve the lack of communication of letters. Both of these have been influenced by Mason's scientific circle. It is worth mentioning that the founding circle of "Scholar Magazine" also included Aldenberg, who was then secretary of the Royal Society. In January 1665, the first volume of "Scholar Magazine" was officially published. A year later, Kolbe developed the Paris Scholars Institute into the Paris Academy of Sciences.
In 1662, as the scientific organization centered on Grasham College was transformed into the Royal Society, specialized communication committees, communication contact mechanisms, and means to manage these contacts were established one after another. Among them, the secretary of the society, Aldenberg, when dealing with a large number of scientific letters from various countries, often translates the scientific letters in various languages and prints them into pamphlets or books, and distributes them to the members of the society[10]. Two months after the publication of "Scholar Magazine", the Council of the Royal Society decided to designate Aldenberg's scientific letter pamphlet as "Philosophical Transactions" and formally publish it. This is the earliest scientific journal in the UK.
Journal exchanges have met the actual needs of the times and opened a new chapter in the exchanges between members of the scientific community. Scholars from different countries and different academic groups express their opinions and understand the progress of scientific research through publicly published scientific journals, which greatly promotes Scientific development. At the same time, journal exchanges also attracted a wider range of readers, allowing ordinary readers to participate in scientific exchanges, forming a scientific public interest.
