Editing Kenelm Digby (section)

==Character and works==
Digby published a work of [[apologetics]] in 1638, ''A Conference with a Lady about choice of a Religion''.<ref name=EB/> In it he argued that the Catholic Church, possessing alone the qualifications of universality, unity of doctrine and uninterrupted [[apostolic succession]], is the only true church, and that the intrusion of error into it is impossible.<ref name=EB/>

Digby was regarded as an eccentric by contemporaries, partly because of his effusive personality, and partly because of his interests in scientific matters. [[Henry Stubbe]] called him "the very Pliny of our age for lying".<ref name=EB>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Digby, Sir Kenelm |volume=8 |pages=261–262 |first=Philip Chesney |last=Yorke}}</ref> He lived in a time when scientific enquiry had not settled down in any disciplined way. He spent enormous time and effort in the pursuits of [[astrology]], and [[alchemy]] which he studied in the 1630s with Van Dyck.<ref name = Westfall>[[Richard Westfall]]. ''Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England'' (1973), p. 16.</ref><ref>Bruce Janacek, ''Catholic Natural Philosophy: Alchemy and the Revivification of Sir Kenelm Digby'', pp. 89–118 in Margaret J. Osler (editor), ''Rethinking the Scientific Revolution'' (2000).</ref><ref name=Galileo>{{cite web|title=Digby, Kenelm|url=http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/digby.html|website=The Galileo Project|access-date=5 May 2015}}</ref>

Notable among his pursuits was the concept of the [[powder of sympathy]]. This was a kind of [[sympathetic magic]]; one manufactured a powder using appropriate [[astrology|astrological]] techniques, and daubed it, not on the injured part, but on whatever had caused the injury. His book on this mythical salve went through 29 editions.<ref>[[Keith Thomas (historian)|Keith Thomas]], ''Religion and the Decline of Magic'' (1973), p. 225.</ref> Synchronising the effects of the powder, which allegedly caused a noticeable effect on the patient when applied, was actually suggested in 1687 as a means of solving the [[longitude]] problem.

In 1644 he published together two major philosophical treatises, ''The Nature of Bodies'' and ''On the Immortality of Reasonable Souls''.<ref name=CE/> The latter was translated into Latin in 1661 by [[John Leyburn]]. These ''Two Treatises'' were his major natural-philosophical works, and showed a combination of [[Aristotelianism]] and [[atomism]].<ref name = Pyle>[[Andrew Pyle (philosopher)|Andrew Pyle]] (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article ''Digby, Kenelm'', pp. 258–261.</ref>

[[File:Kenelm Digby 1667 Discours sur la vegetation des plantes.jpg|thumb|right|''Discours sur la vegetation des plantes'', 1667]]
He was in touch with the leading intellectuals of the time, and was highly regarded by them; he was a founding member of the [[Royal Society]]<ref name=EB/><ref name = Westfall/> and a member of its governing council from 1662 to 1663. His correspondence with [[Pierre de Fermat|Fermat]] contains the only extant mathematical proof by Fermat, a demonstration, using his [[Proof by infinite descent|method of descent]], that the area of a Pythagorean triangle cannot be a square.<ref>{{cite book|first=Catherine|last=Goldstein|title=Un théorème de Fermat et ses lecteurs|year=1995|publisher=Presses Universaires de Vincennes|location=Saint-Denis}}</ref> His ''Discourse Concerning the Vegetation of Plants'' (1661) proved controversial among the Royal Society's members.<ref>Julie Robin Solomon, Catherine Gimelli Martin (editors), ''Francis Bacon and the Refiguring of Early Modern Thought: Essays to Commemorate The Advancement of Learning (1605–2005)'' (2005), p. 196.</ref> It was published in French in 1667. Digby is credited with being the first person to note the importance of "vital air", or [[oxygen]], to the sustenance of plants.<ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/218/1511.html The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Vol. VIII.]</ref> He also came up with a crude theory of [[photosynthesis]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Digby is known for the publication of a [[cookbook]], ''[[The Closet of the Eminently Learned Sir Kenelme Digbie Kt. Opened]],''<ref name=EB/> but it was actually published by a close servant, from his notes, in 1669, several years after his death. It is currently considered an excellent source of period recipes, particularly for beverages such as [[mead]]. He tried out many of his recipes on his wife, Venetia, one of which was [[capon]]s fed on the flesh of [[viper]]s.<ref>{{cite book|first=Rose|last=Bradley|title=The English Housewife in the Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries|url=https://archive.org/stream/englishhousewife00braduoft#page/88/mode/2up|year=1912|publisher=E. Arnold|location=London|page=88}}</ref>

Digby is also considered the father of the modern [[wine bottle]]. During the 1630s, Digby owned a [[glassworks]] at [[Newnham-on-Severn]]<ref>[https://www.countrylife.co.uk/food-drink/210679-210679 Martin Fone, "Why are wine bottles all pretty much the same shape and colour?", ''Country Life'', 25 January 2020]. Retrieved 27 November 2024</ref> and manufactured [[glass onion]]s, which were globular in shape with a high, tapered neck, a collar, and a punt. His manufacturing technique involved a coal furnace, made hotter than usual by the inclusion of a wind tunnel, and a higher ratio of sand to [[potash]] and [[lime (mineral)|lime]] than was customary. Digby's technique produced wine bottles which were stronger and more stable than most of their day, and which due to their translucent green or brown color protected the contents from light. During his exile and prison term, others claimed his technique as their own, but in 1662 Parliament recognised his claim to the invention as valid.<ref name="Estreicher">{{cite book|author=Stefan K. Estreicher|title=Wine: From Neolithic Times to the 21st Century|pages=73–74|publisher=Algora Publishing|date=2006 |isbn=9780875864778|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hCzUiYsGNwkC&dq=Glass+onion+bottle&pg=PA73|access-date= 2022-07-15}}</ref>