BOYLE (ROBERT) Letter signed ('Ro Boyle') to John Evelyn ('Sir'), a friendly and complimentary letter beginning by thanking him for his '...obligeing Letter...', and sorry to hear he has been indisposed, confessing he is '...a Person addicted to experimentall Learning...', and hoping he will soon return to the '...Commonwealth of Learning...', and although '...You but too justly complain tht. the Age & Country we live in, doe not value reall Learning as highly as it merits, yet I confesse I am apt to thinke that the surest & most obligeing way to make men value it, is to lett them see by its reall & usefull Productions how vast a Disparity there is betwixt experimentall & notionall Learning, which makes me become an earnest Suitor to you...', hoping he '...shall next have the Happines to exchange a few Words with You but that some Expedient may be found to reconcile the disclosure of many Secrets, with the keeping up & secureing the Reputation of Learning...', going on to thank him for the varnish which '...I am endeavouring by tryall to understand better...', and in turn presenting him with '...the way of preserving some sorts of Flowers wch. I enclose verbatim as I found it in a Paper wherein I set it down for my own Remembrance...', ending by mentioning Dr Wilkins who is '... very sensible of yr. Civility's to him...', docketed 'The Philosopher Boyle to Mr Evelyn' at head and 'Mr Robert Boyle to Mr Evelyn, 1657' on reverse in other hands, 3 pages on a bifolium, trimmed at upper edge, dust-staining, spotting and marks, creased at folds with some holes and small tears, 4to (188 x 150mm.), [n.p., but Oxford], 23 May 1657 Footnotes: 'A PERSON ADDICTED TO EXPERIMENTALL LEARNING': ONE OF ONLY TWO EXTANT LETTERS FROM ROBERT BOYLE TO JOHN EVELYN, FELLOW FOUNDER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY, WRITTEN DURING HIS GROUND-BREAKING OXFORD YEARS. Our letter is indeed a rare survival. Somewhat surprisingly, considering their long friendship, letters from Robert Boyle to John Evelyn are exceedingly scarce. Only three are listed in Boyle's published correspondence; the present letter (Michael Hunter et al, The Correspondence of Robert Boyle, Vol.I, 2001, pp.213-214), another short note dated 3 April 1660 in the British Library (MS Stowe 744, fol.37, Correspondence, Vol.I, p.409), and one other, now lost, known only from a reference in a note from Oldenburg to Boyle of 17 November 1664 in which he confirms he has delivered Boyle's letter to Evelyn (Correspondence, Vol.II, pp.400-404), and from Evelyn's reply to that lost letter, dated 23 November 1664 (Correspondence, Vol.II, pp.409-410). Our letter is written in response to Evelyn's letter of 9 May 1659 (British Library Add.MS 4229, Correspondence, Vol.I, p.212) in which he sends the recipe for varnish referred to here. Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the most pre-eminent experimental scientists of his generation, had moved to Oxford the year before our letter and joined a group of philosophers including Robert Hooke centred on Wadham College under the auspices of John Wilkins, who is mentioned here as a great admirer of Evelyn. Boyle's Oxford years were a particularly productive period of his life, with works begun or completed then including Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy, Certain Physiological Essays... and his most famous work The Sceptical Chymist, published in 1661. It was also during this period from 1656 to 1668 that he conducted his pioneering experiments with Hooke to elucidate the nature of air using a vacuum chamber or 'air pump', on which his later fame and reputation were based. Boyle's views on varnishes were communicated to the English reformer, Samuel Hartlib, and were mentioned in his diary for the year 1657 as well as in our present letter. The recipient of our letter, John Evelyn (1620-1706), horticulturalist, diarist and gentleman scholar, had visited Oxford in 1654. He moved in the same circles as the scientists and thinkers who would become Boyle's colleagues, and Boyle and Evelyn struck up a close friendship based, as seen here, on mutual admiration and a shared interest in science, the natural world and the arts. Boyle referred to these groups of natural philosophers as 'our invisible college' and his wish expounded here to keep up and secure '...the Reputation of Learning...' thus presages the formation of the Royal Society in November 1660, of which Boyle and Evelyn were founder members alongside Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke and John Wilkins. Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 15 December 1998, lot 27; Profiles in History, 'The Property of a Distinguished American Private Collector', 18 December 2012, lot 248. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing