Editing Invisible College (section)

===Historiography of the Royal Society===
{{details|Hartlib Circle#Foundation of the Royal Society}}
{{details|Gresham College and the formation of the Royal Society}}
[[Lauren Kassell]], writing for the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'',<ref>[http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95474.html ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', theme Invisible College.]</ref> notes that the group of natural philosophers meeting in London from 1645 was identified as the "invisible college" by [[Thomas Birch]], writing in the 18th century; this identification then became orthodox, for example in the first edition ''[[Dictionary of National Biography]]''.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle=Wilkins, John}}</ref> This other group, later centred on [[Wadham College, Oxford]] and [[John Wilkins]], was centrally concerned in the founding of the Royal Society; and Boyle became part of it in the 1650s. It is more properly called "the men of Gresham",<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.technicaleducationmatters.org/node/168 |title=The Invisible College (1645–1658). &#124; technical education matters.org |access-date=14 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111019071447/http://www.technicaleducationmatters.org/node/168 |archive-date=19 October 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> from its connection with [[Gresham College]] in London.

It is the identification of the Gresham group with the "invisible college" that is now generally queried by scholars. [[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]] writes that the Gresham group was convened in 1645 by [[Theodore Haak]] in [[Samuel Foster]]'s rooms in Gresham College; and notes Haak's membership of the Hartlib Circle and [[Comenian]] connections, while also distinguishing the two groups.<ref>[[Christopher Hill (historian)|Christopher Hill]], ''Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution'' (1991), p. 105.</ref> Haak is mentioned as convener in an account by [[John Wallis]], who talks about a previous group containing many physicians who then came to Foster's rooms; but Wallis's account is generally seen to be somewhat at variance with the history provided by [[Thomas Sprat]] of the Royal Society.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Francis R. |date=October 1940 |title=Gresham College: Precursor of the Royal Society |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/2707123 |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=413–438 |doi=10.2307/2707123 |jstor=2707123 |access-date=25 November 2024|url-access=subscription }}
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