Some Published Correspondences of the Seventeenth Century

Compiled initially by Dr Benjamin Wardhaugh

 

A

Ulisse Aldrovandi

Ulisse Aldrovandi e la Toscana: Carteggio e testimonianze documentarie, ed. Alessandro Tosi (Florence, 1989).

John Aubrey; see the Aubrey Bibliography

Elias Ashmole (?c.1,000 letters. c.1635-92)

Elias Ashmole, His Autobiographical and Historical Notes, His Correspondence, and Other Contemporary Sources Relating to His Life and Work, ed. C.H. Josten, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966).

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B

Francis Bacon (c.700 letters published, of c.900 extant. c.1580-26)

Francis Bacon Correspondence Project

Giorgio Baglivi

Carteggio (1679-1704), ed. Anna Toscano, Archivio della Corrispondenza degli Scienziati Italiani, 14 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1999).

Sir Thomas Bodley (?c.500 letters, ?1598-?1613)

Letters of Sir Thomas Bodley to the University of Oxford, 1598-1611, ed. G.W. Wheeler (1927).

Letters of Sir Thomas Bodley to Thomas James, first keeper of the Bodleian Library, ed. G.W. Wheeler (1926).

The Diplomatic Correspondence of Thomas Bodley, 1585-1597

Robert Boyle (?c.3,000 letters. 1636-1691)

Correspondence of Robert Boyle, ed. Michael Hunter, Antonio Clericuzio, and Lawrence M. Principe, 6 vols (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2001).

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C

Margaret Cavendish (?c.50 letters, ?c.1660-73)

Akkerman, Nadine, and Corporaal, Marguérite, ‘Mad Science beyond Flattery: The Correspondence of Margaret Cavendish and Constantijn Huygens’, EMLS, 14 (2004).

Battigelli, Anna, Margaret Cavendish and the Exhiles of the Mind (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998), p. 56; cites correspondence with Charleton.

Cavendish, M., A collection of letters and poems: Written by several persons of honour and learning, upon divers important subjects, to the late Duke and Dutchess of Newcastle (London: Langly Curtis, 1678); includes seven letters from Joseph Glanvill to Cavendish.

Jan Amos Comenius; see the Comenius Bibliography

Valentin Conrart

Lettres à Lorenzo Magalotti, ed. Gabriel Berquet and Jean-Pierre Collinet, Images et témoins de l’âge classique, 11 (Saint-Etienne: Université de Saint-Etienne, 1981).

Anne Conway (c.300 letters. 1642-84)

The Conway Letters: The Correspondence of Anne, Viscountess Conway, Henry More, and their Friends, 1642-1684, ed. M. H. Nicolson, rev. edn, ed. S. Hutton (1992).

Oswaldus Crollius

Alchemomedizinische Briefe 1585 bis 1597, ed. and tr., with annotations, Willhelm Kühlmann and Joachim Telle, Heidelberger Studien zur Naturkunde der frühen Neuzeit, 6 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1998).

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D

René Descartes (732 letters. 1619-1650)

Bos, Erik-Jan, and Vermeulen, C., ‘An Unknown Letter of Descartes to Joachim de Wicquefort’, Studia Leibnitiana, 34 (2002), pp. 100-09.

Bos, Erik-Jan, The Correspondence between Descartes and Henricus Regius (Universiteit Utrecht: PhD thesis, 2002)

René Descartes: Tutte le lettere, 1619-1650. Testo francese, latino, e olandese, ed. Giulia Belgioioso (Milano: Bompiani/Il Pensiero Occidentale, 2005).

‘The Correspondence of René Descartes: 1643’, ed. Theo Verbeek, Erik-Jan Bos, and Jeroen van de Ven, in Quaestiones Infinitae, 45, (Utrecht: Zeno, The Leiden-Utrecht Institute for Philosophy, 2003).

The Correspondence, iii: The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, tr. John Cottingham, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

Œuvre de Descartes, pub. Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, 11 vols (Paris: J. Vrin, 1964-76); vols 1-5 contain the correspondence, 586 letters, 1622-50.

Ven, J. van de, and Bos, E.-J., ‘Se nihil daturum – Descartes’s Unpublished Judgement of Comenius Pansophiae Prodromus (1639)’, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 12 (2004), pp. 369-86.

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E

John Evelyn (?c.500 letters published of c.3,000 extant. c. 1640-1706)

Particular Friends: The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, ed. Guy de la Bédoyère (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997).

Hofmann, Theodore, et al., ‘John Evelyn’s Archive at the British Library’, in John Evelyn in the British Library (1995), pp. 11-73.

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F

John Flamsteed (c.1,500 letters. 1669-1719)

The Correspondence of John Flamsteed, First Astronomer Royal. Volume 1: 1666-1682, ed. Eric G. Forbes, Lesley Murdin and Frances Willmoth (Bristol and Philadephia: Taylor and Francis/Institute of Physics Publishing, 1995-2002).

Abraham von Franckenberg

Briefwechsel, ed. Joachim Telle (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1995), pp. 274-306.

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G

Hugo Grotius (7,725 letters by and to Grotius. 1597-1645)

Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius, ed. B.L. Meulenbroek, et al., 14 vols (The Hague, 1928-2001).

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H

Edmond Halley (?c.100 letters. c.1675-1742)

Correspondence and Papers of Edmond Halley, ed. Eugene Fairfield MacPike (Oxford, 1932).

Samuel Hartlib; see the Hartlib Bibliography

Thomas Hobbes (211 letters, including 70 from Hobbes. 1622-1679)

The Correspondence of Thomas Hobbes, ed. Noel Malcolm, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).

Constantijn Huygens (7,295 letters. 1608-1687)

De briefwisseling van Constantijn Huygens 1608-1687, ed. J.A. Worp (The Hague, 1911-17).

Christiaan Huygens (c.3,000 letters. c.1650-1695)

Oeuvres Complètes de Christiaan Huygens, 22 vols, Société Hollandaise des Sciences (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1888-1950); letters appear in vols 1-10 and 22.

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I

J

Joachim Jungius (506 letters, including 94 from Jungius. 1614-1657)

Der Briefwechsel des Joachim Jungius, ed. Martin Rothkegel (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005).

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K

Johannes Kepler

Gesammelte Werke, xiii-xviii: Briefe, ed. Max Caspar (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1945-59).

Athanasius Kircher (2,291 letters published [electronic facsimile], ? unpublished. c.1620-1680)

The Correspondence of Athanasius Kircher

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L

Jean Le Clerc (842 letters. 1679-1732)

Epistolario (1679-1732), ed. M. G. Sina and M. Sina, 4 vols (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1987-97).

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (c.15,000 letters, of which ? published. c.1665-1716)

Leibniz, G. W., Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, 6 series (Darmstadt [subsequently Leipzig, now Berlin]: D. Reichl, 1923-).

Edward Lhwyd; see the Lhwyd Bibliography

Martin Lister; see the Lister Bibliography

John Locke (3,648 letters. c.1650-1704)

The Clarendon Edition of the Works of John Locke: Correspondence, ed. E. S. de Beer, 8 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976-1989).

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M

Marin Mersenne (1,100 letters to or from Mersenne. 1617-1648)

La Correspondance de P. Marin Mersenne, ed. Paul Tannery, Cornelis Waard, and René Pintard, 17 vols (Paris, 1932-88).

Sir Robert Moray (116 letters published. ? others. 1657-73)

Letters of Sir Robert Moray to the Earl of Kincardine, 1657-73, ed. David Stevenson (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007).

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N

Sir Isaac Newton (c.1,600 letters [including 500 from Newton]. 1661-1727)

The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, ed. H. W. Turnbull, et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959-77).

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O

Henry Oldenburg (3,100 letters. 1641-1677)

The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg, ed. and tr. A. Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall, 13 vols (Madison, Milwaukee, and London, 1965-86).

Axel Oxenstierna

Rikskansleren Axel Oxenstiernas skrifter och brefvexling. Senare afdelningen, 13 vols, later vols ed. The Swedish National Archives (Stockholm: P.A. Norstedt, 1888-).

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P

John Pell (115 letters to and from Sir Charles Cavendish. c.200 others. 1641-1651)

John Pell (1611-1685) and His Correspondence with Sir Charles Cavendish: The Mental World of an Early Modern Mathematician. Malcolm, Noel, and Stedall, Jacqueline, eds, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Samuel Pepys (?c.500 letters. ?1662-1703)

Private Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers of Samuel Pepys, 1679-1703, ed. J.R. Tanner (London: Bell, 1926).

Further Correspondence of Samuel Pepys, 1662-1679: From the Family Papers in the Possession of J. Pepys Cockerell, ed. J.R. Tanner (London, 1929).

The Letters of Samuel Pepys and his Family Circle, ed. Helen Truesdell Heath (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955; repr. 1979).

Particular Friends: The Correspondence of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn, ed. Guy de la Bédoyère (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1997).

The Letters of Samuel Pepys, ed. Guy de la Bédoyère (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006).

Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc (3,200 letters published of 5,000-7,000 extant. 1598-1637)

Bresson, Agnès, ed., Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc: Lettres à Claude Saumaise et à son entourage, 1620-1637 (Florence, 1992).

Peiresc, Nicolas Claude Fabri de, Lettres de Peiresc, pub. Philippe Tamizey de Larroque, 7 vols (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1888-98).

— , Lettres à Cassiano dal Pozzo, 1626-1637, ed. Jean-François Lhote and Danielle Joyal, pref. Jacques Guillerme (Clermont-Ferrand: Adosa, c.1989).

— , Lettres à Claude Saumaise et à son entourage (1620-1637), ed. Agnès Bresson (Firenze: Olschki, 1992).

— , Lettres à Malherbe: 1606-1628, pub. Raymond Lebègue (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1976).

— , Lettres à Naudé (1629-1637), ed. Phillip Wolfe (Paris: Papers on French Seventeenth-Century Literature, 1983).

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Q

R

John Ray (?c.500 letters. ?c.1645-1705)

Philosophical Letters: Between the Late Learned Mr Ray and Several of his Ingenious Correspondents, ed. W. Derham (London: 1718).

The Correspondence of John Ray, ed. E. Lankester, Ray Society, 14 (London: 1848).

Further Correspondence of John Ray, ed. R. W. T. Gunther, Ray Society, 114 (London: 1928).

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S

Josephus Justus Scaliger

Josephus Justus Scaliger (1540-1690): Edition of the Correspondence

Wilhelm Schickard (824 letters published, including 243 from Schickard. 1616-1635)

Schickard, Wilhelm, Briefwechsel, i: 1616-1632, ii: 1633-1635 (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog Verlag, 2002).

James Spens

Jönsson, Arne, ed. The Works and Correspondence of Axel Oxenstierna, xiii: Letters from Sir James Spens and Jan Rutgers, The Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and the Swedish National Archives (Stockholm, 2007).

Benedict de Spinoza (86 letters, including 49 from Spinoza. c.1650-1677)

The Correspondence of Spinoza, tr. and ed. A. Wolf (New York: Lincoln MacVeagh, 1928).

Opera, ed. Carl Gebhardt, 5 vols (Heidelberg: Carl Winters, 1925-87).

Nicholas Steno

Epistolae et epistolae ad eum data, ed. Gustav Scherz, 2 vols (Freiburg: Herder / Copenhagen: Nordisk, 1952).

Elizabeth Stuart

Letters of a Stuart Princess: the Complete Correspondence of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia

Jan Swammerdam

The Letters of Jan Swammerdam to Melchisedec Thévenot, tr. and biog. G. A. Lindeboom (Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1975).

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T

U

James Ussher

The Ussher Project

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V

W

John Wallis; see the Wallis Bibliography

Thomas Willis c.20 letters. 1663-1672.

Dewhurst, Kenneth, ‘Some Letters of Dr. Thomas Willis (1621-75)’, Medical History, 16 (1972), pp. 63-76.

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