Portrait of The Honourable Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691)
Title
Portrait of The Honourable Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691)
Description
Released in 1689, this engraving of Robert Boyle (1627-1691) presents a portrait of one of the great natural philosophers of the Scientific Revolution. Widely considered to be the first modern chemist, Boyle contributed to the understanding of air pressure and vacuums as he and Robert Hooke developed the famous air pump during their time in Oxford.
Boyle is to be understood as one member of a growing academy of natural philosophers of 16th and 17th century Europe. Their work, now understood to be the arrival of modern science, produced a body of knowledge that radically transformed the understanding of the natural world and one’s place within it. With it came new technological inventions that were direct applications of this new knowledge. Though rudimentary, these inventions would become the building blocks for the development of industry in Europe, putting nations on a trajectory for an increasingly integrated economic landscape that is characterized by trade and manufacturing. In fact, it was Boyle's contributions to fluid dynamics that paved the way for James Watts and the invention of steam engine a century later (Thurston, 446).
Boyle is to be understood as one member of a growing academy of natural philosophers of 16th and 17th century Europe. Their work, now understood to be the arrival of modern science, produced a body of knowledge that radically transformed the understanding of the natural world and one’s place within it. With it came new technological inventions that were direct applications of this new knowledge. Though rudimentary, these inventions would become the building blocks for the development of industry in Europe, putting nations on a trajectory for an increasingly integrated economic landscape that is characterized by trade and manufacturing. In fact, it was Boyle's contributions to fluid dynamics that paved the way for James Watts and the invention of steam engine a century later (Thurston, 446).
Creator
Frederic Kerseboom
Source
Frederic Kerseboom. Portrait of The Honourable Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691). Engraving, Wellcome Collection. https://www.europeana.eu/portal/en/record/9200579/zbnmngaj.html?q=Portrait+of+The+Honourable+Robert+Boyle
Thurston, Robert H. History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine. Project Gutenberg, 2011.
Thurston, Robert H. History of the Growth of the Steam-Engine. Project Gutenberg, 2011.
Date
1689
Contributor
Zach Irvin
Rights
Free Use CC BY
Files
Citation
Frederic Kerseboom, “Portrait of The Honourable Robert Boyle (1627 - 1691),” HIST 139 - Early Modern Europe, accessed August 6, 2026, https://earlymoderneurope.hist.sites.carleton.edu/items/show/113.