Eyewitnesses to the Phenomenon of Russian Cold
Robert Boyle and the Accounts of Early Travelers North
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21241383 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maija Jansson (Yale University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Publication date | 2022-08-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quaestio Rossica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2311-911X • E-ISSN: 2313-6871 |
| Publisher | Ural Federal University (PUBLISHER • RU) |
| DOI | 10.15826/qr.2022.3.716 |
| OpenAlex | W4290996967 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
This article examines the Russian cold as reflected in accounts of early travelers to the north. For his study of the phenomenon of cold in the early 1660s, Robert Boyle repurposed parts of Giles Fletcher’s travel account of Russia written seventy-seven years earlier. Inspired by Sir Francis Bacon’s work on heat, Boyle sought to understand the extremes of cold but found himself hampered by its absence in northern England. Consequently, he turned, among other sources, to the printed account of Ambassador Fletcher who, sailing north on a Muscovy Company ship, had kept a journal following the Instructions and Ordinances drafted for that Company by Sebastian Cabot. Boyle found verification of the accuracy of Fletcher’s eyewitness description of cold through his friends and compatriots in the Royal Society who had been to Russia. Ultimately, this is the story of the impact of England’s mid-sixteenth century navigational technology and commercial and diplomatic relations with Russia on Robert Boyle’s late seventeenth century early scientific study of cold which, according to the author’s conclusion, demonstrates how the study of the Russian north impacted the early development of natural science in England
Ancient history · Cold war · Epistemology · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Classics · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Law · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Philosophy
Hakluytus Posthumus or, Purchas his Pilgrimes
Expert Records
The Murman Coast and the Northern Dvina Delta as English and Dutch Commercial Destinations in the 16th and 17th Centuries
Reading Diplomacy across the Archives
The Early History of the Russia Company, 1553-1603
Notebooks, English Virtuosi, and Early Modern Science
Leviathan and the Air-Pump
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |