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The Fellowship: The Story of a Revolution
The revolution here described is the science revolution in the second half of C17, the beginnings of modern experimental and mathematical science, and the founding of the Royal Society. Pepys played no significant part in all this, though he visited laboratories to see chymical glasses and watched a dog to dog blood transfusion and heard a lecture on comets. He sat up till 2 am reading Hooke’s Micrographia, a book on popular science, with fine drawings of insects. He worked very effectively with Brouncker on the Navy Board; and he knew Newton and Hooke and the other leading scientists of his day. Pepys was indeed President of the Royal Society in 1684.
John Gibbon, Allen Lane, 2005, pp (with index) 336, hardback, £20