Editing Invisible College

{{Short description|Informal group of scholars, as in Royal Society of London's precursor groups}}
{{distinguish|text=[[Collegium Invisibile]] of Warsaw, founded 1995}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
[[File:Templeofrosycross.png|thumb|right|Emblematic image of a [[Rosicrucian]] College; illustration from ''Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum'', a 1618 work by [[Theophilus Schweighardt]]. [[Frances Yates]] identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross".<ref>Detailed discussion in ''The Rosicrucian Enlightenment'', pp. 94–95.</ref>]]

'''Invisible College''' is a term used to describe a non public network of researchers operating in an informal way.<ref>"Even though today's invisible college is very much a twenty-first century phenomenon, it also represents the reemergence of an old idea. A review of history shows that the invisible college is not new to science—the same term was used to describe the group of like-minded independent scholars who first pioneered observation and experimentation to study nature in the seventeenth century. Science in those early days was the work of natural philosophers, usually those of independent means like Sir Isaac Newton and Irish chemist Robert Boyle. These individuals, who were largely free from government influence, shared information and insight in a universal language (Latin) without regard for disciplinary boundaries....Then as now, networks characterized scientific organization and inquiry, with the early scientists corresponding and exchanging ideas as part of a common search for knowledge." 

* The New Invisible College: Science for Development, by Candice S. Wagner
</ref><ref>Díaz-Andreu, M. (2008). Revisiting the'Invisible College'. Archives, Ancestors, Practices: Archaeology in the Light of its History, 121.</ref><ref name="Zuccala">Zuccala, Alesia. "Modeling the invisible college." Journal of the American Society for information Science and Technology 57.2 (2006): 152-168.</ref> Originally used to describe the early association of the Enlightenment-era [[Royal Society]] of London, which consisted of a number of [[natural philosopher]]s such as [[Robert Boyle]] and [[Christopher Wren]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Higgitt |first=Rebekah |date=2014-10-20 |title=Google Doodle forgets to celebrate Christopher Wren the man of science |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2014/oct/20/google-doodle-forgets-to-celebrate-christopher-wren-the-man-of-science |access-date=2023-02-21 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> the term has been of considerable interest to scholars since the 1960s with the research of [[Derek J. de Solla Price|Derek Price]] and Donald Beaver.<ref name="Price">De Solla Price, D. J., & Beaver, D. (1966). Collaboration in an invisible college. American Psychologist, 21(11), 1011–1018. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0024051</ref> Research on this topic has focused closely on law schools and the sciences.<ref>Schachter, O. (1977). Invisible college of international lawyers. Nw. UL Rev., 72, 217.</ref><ref>Wagner, C. S. (2009). The new invisible college: Science for development. Rowman & Littlefield.</ref> 

==Background==
The name historically originates from a group of individuals in the mid-seventeenth century who eventually formed the Royal Society of London. Prior to that, they met informally, separate from the more prominent groups associated with [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham College (Oxford University)]] and [[Gresham College]]. They corresponded via letters to garner recognition for their work, establish precedence, and stay informed about others' research. Members of this early Royal Society of Scientists did not belong to a formal institution, thus they referred to themselves as an invisible college due to their "geographic closeness and regular meetings based on shared scientific interests".<ref name="Zuccala"/><ref>Bartle, R. G. (1995). A brief history of the mathematical literature. Publishing Research Quarterly, 11, 3-9.</ref> In the current academic framework, the term has become less specific, and its meaning and interpretation have varied widely among different authors.<ref name="Price"/> The term accrued currency for the exchanges of correspondence within the [[Republic of Letters]].<ref>David A. Kronick, ''The Commerce of Letters: Networks and "Invisible Colleges" in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe'', The Library Quarterly, Vol. 71, No. 1 (Jan., 2001), pp. 28–43; {{JSTOR|4309484}}</ref>

==Connection with Robert Boyle and the Royal Society==

===Detailed evidence===
In letters in 1646 and 1647, Boyle refers to "our invisible college" or "our philosophical college". The society's common theme was to acquire knowledge through experimental investigation.<ref>http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Societies/RS.html JOC/EFR: The Royal Society, August 2004 retrieved online: 2009-05-14</ref> Three dated letters are the basic documentary evidence: Boyle sent them to Isaac Marcombes (Boyle's former tutor and a [[Huguenot]], who was then in [[Geneva]]), [[Francis Tallents]] who at that point was a fellow of [[Magdalene College, Cambridge]],<ref>{{acad|id=TLNS636F|name=Tallents, Francis}}</ref> and London-based [[Samuel Hartlib]].<ref name=Purver>Margery Purver, ''The Royal Society: Concept and Creation'' (1967), Part II Chapter 3, ''The Invisible College''.</ref>

Dorothy Stimson writes that "The work of the Royal Society in seventeenth century England is of such significance in the development of experimental science and in the recognition given this " new philosophy " that great importance is attached to any part of the life of that century which may help to explain the origins and growth of the Society." and that [[Comenius]] was in large part a big influence on this group.<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/224951 | jstor=224951 | title=Comenius and the Invisible College | last1=Stimson | first1=Dorothy | journal=Isis | date=1935 | volume=23 | issue=2 | pages=373–388 | doi=10.1086/346969 | url-access=subscription }}</ref>

On the historical movement, [[Clay Shirky]] notes in his book ''[[Cognitive Surplus]]'' that:<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PjeTO822t_4C&dq=cognitive%20surplus&pg=PT104 | title=Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers into Collaborators | isbn=978-1-101-43472-7 | last1=Shirky | first1=Clay | date=10 June 2010 | publisher=Penguin }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Much of the members’ practical work involved chemistry. They were strongly critical of the alchemists, their intellectual forebears, who for centuries had made only fitful progress. By contrast, the Invisible College put chemistry on a sound footing in a matter of a couple of decades, one of the most important intellectual transitions in the history of science. What did the Invisible College have that the alchemists didn’t? It wasn’t their tools—chemists and alchemists both started out with vials, braziers, and scales. Nor was it insight—no single figure suddenly advanced chemistry, as Newton did with physics. The Invisible College had one big advantage over the alchemists: they had one another.}}

The [[Hartlib Circle]] were a far-reaching group of correspondents linked to Hartlib, an [[wikt:intelligencer|intelligencer]]. They included Sir [[Cheney Culpeper]] and [[Benjamin Worsley]] who were interested, among other matters, in [[alchemy]].<ref>John T. Young, ''Faith, Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy'' (1998), pp. 234–236.</ref> Worsley in 1646 was experimenting on [[saltpetre]] manufacture, and Charles Webster in the ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' argues that he was the "prime mover" of the Invisible College at this point: a network with aims and views close to those of the Hartlib Circle with which it overlapped.<ref>{{ODNBweb|id=38153|title=Worsley, Benjamin|first=Charles|last=Webster}}</ref> Margery Purver concludes that the 1647 reference of "invisible college" was to the group around Hartlib concerned to lobby Parliament in favour of an "Office of Address" or centralised communication centre for the exchange of information.<ref name=Purver/> Maddison suggests that the "Invisible College" might have comprised Worsley, [[John Dury]] and others with Boyle, who were interested in profiting from science (and possibly involving [[George Starkey]]).<ref>R. E. W. Maddison, ''The Life of the Honourable Robert Boyle F.R.S'', Taylor & Francis (1969), p. 69.</ref>

[[Richard S. Westfall]] distinguishes Hartlib's "Comenian circle" from other groups; and gives a list of "invisible college" members based on this identification. They comprise: [[William Petty]], Boyle, [[Arnold Boate]] and [[Gerard Boate]], [[Cressy Dymock]], and [[Gabriel Platte]].<ref>[http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/hartlib.html Galileo Project page]</ref> [[Miles Symner]] may have belonged to this circle.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Dorothy Moore|author-link=Dorothy Dury|author2=Lynette Hunter|title=The Letters of Dorothy Moore, 1612–64: The Friendship, Marriage and Intellectual Life of a Seventeenth-century Woman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nxasBqibxf4C&pg=PR20|access-date=11 March 2013|year=2004|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-3727-1|page=20}}</ref>

===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 }}
</ref>

==Modern use==
The concept of invisible college was developed in the sociology of science by Diana Crane (1972) building on Derek J. de Solla Price's work on [[citation network]]s. It is related to, but significantly different from, other concepts of expert communities, such as [[Epistemic community|epistemic communities]] (Haas, 1992) or [[Community of Practice|communities of practice]] (Wenger, 1998). Recently, the concept was applied to the global network of communications among scientists by Caroline S. Wagner in ''The New Invisible College: Science for Development'' (Brookings 2008). 

Alesia Zuccala notes that previous studies on the invisible college have indicated that it functions as "a fairly organized system for scientists" and that "a certain degree of predictable behavior (i.e. information sharing and collaboration)" can be found within this system.<ref name="Zuccala"/>

Lievrow and others note that "In contrast to the considerable research attention that has been paid to examining the communication of scientific knowledge, especially through formal channels like publishing (e.g. Menzel 1968), there has been remarkably little study of why. and how scientific knowledge itself might grow as a function of both formal and informal communication networks."<ref>Lievrouw, L. A., Rogers, E. M., Lowe, C. U., & Nadel, E. (1987). Triangulation as a research strategy for identifying invisible colleges among biomedical scientists. Social Networks, 9, 217-248.</ref>

Price has stated that some but not all scientists in a particular research area maintain a high level of informal communication and that information received in this manner is essential for the conduct of effective research.<ref name="Price"/><ref name="Crane">Crane, D. (1977). Social structure in a group of scientists: A test of the “invisible college” hypothesis. In Social networks (pp. 161-178). Academic Press.</ref>

Crane has stated that although a social circle may occasionally form within a research field, it is unlikely to be present in every field at all times. In some areas, such circles may never emerge. When they do form, their size and significance to the members are likely to fluctuate over time.<ref name="Crane"/>

In the 1960s, a group of academics (including astronomer J. Allen Hynek and computer scientist Jacques Vallée) held regular discussion meetings about UFOs. Hynek referred to this group as The Invisible College.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Eghigian |first=Greg |date=4 August 2021 |title=UFOs and the Boundaries of Science |url=https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/ufos-and-the-boundaries-of-science/ |magazine=Boston Review |access-date=25 November 2024}}</ref>

===Cultural references===
The term is mentioned in the novel ''[[The Lost Symbol]]'' by Dan Brown and ''[[Foucault's Pendulum]]'' by Umberto Eco. It was the inspiration for the [[Unseen University]] in the works of [[Terry Pratchett]], and was one of the main reference points for [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[The Invisibles]]'' comic book series.

==See also==
*[[Junto (club)]]
*{{annotated link|Education in Poland during World War II}}, on underground universities
*{{annotated link|Flying University}}
*[[Bloomsbury Group]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*  Lievrouw, L. A., Rogers, E. M., Lowe, C. U., & Nadel, E. (1987). Triangulation as a research strategy for identifying invisible colleges among biomedical scientists. Social Networks, 9, 217-248.
* de Solla Price, Derek J., and Donald Beaver. "Collaboration in an invisible college." American psychologist 21.11 (1966): 1011.
* [[Clay Shirky|Shirky, Clay]]: ''Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age''. 2011. {{ISBN|978-1594202537}}
*Crane, D. (1977). Social structure in a group of scientists: A test of the “invisible college” hypothesis. In Social networks (pp. 161-178). Academic Press.
* Crane, Diana (1972) ''Invisible colleges. Diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities.'' The University of Chicago Press: Chicago and London. {{ISBN|0226118576}}
* Wagner, Caroline S. (2008) ''The New Invisible College: Science for Development.'' Brooking Press: Washington DC. 


{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Robert Boyle]]
[[Category:History of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Scientific organisations based in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Scientific organizations established in the 17th century]]
[[Category:Secret societies in the United Kingdom]]