The Learned Press: Geography, Science, and Mathematics

This chapter surveys works on the natural and physical sciences, geography and mathematics, and discusses how from the mid-seventeenth century new scholarship worked to capitalize on the opportunities provided by the emerging press and analyzes the difficulties of publishing and selling such material. The work of Robert Plot, first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and secretary of the Royal Society, and John Wallis, the first president of the Philisophical Society, established the Learned Press as a centre of scientific publishing. The chapter focuses on books concerned with the history and investigation of the natural world, providing detailed accounts of their inception and publication and considering their wider scholarly significance. The scientific endeavours of the Press are situated in the wider context of English and, more significantly, Dutch and other European scientific publications.