‘Such a Sister Became Such a Brother’: Lady Ranelagh’s Influence on Robert Boyle

Time: 12:00pm

Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation

Often regarded as the “father of chemistry,” Robert Boyle has always held a prominent place in popular and academic history of science. However, while his contemporaries widely acknowledged the influence of his older sister Katherine, later historiographies dropped her from the record. Boyle moved into his sister’s London home in 1668, and the two lived together for the rest of their lives, dying only one week apart in 1691. Though some historians have recently begun acknowledging that Lady Ranelagh must have had an intellectual influence on Boyle, it has not been possible to identify the extent of this until the recent location of over 100 of her lost manuscripts. This is the story of a lifelong intellectual partnership, where brother and sister shared medical remedies, promoted each other’s scientific ideas, and edited each other’s manuscripts. It is also an introduction to one of the most formidable female intellectuals in 17th-century England: Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh.

Michelle DiMeo is S. Gordon Castigliano Director of Digital Library Initiatives at the Historical Medical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. She has published several essays and articles on early modern science and medicine, and with Sara Pennell she coedited Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550–1800 (Manchester University Press, 2013). Her current project is to complete an intellectual biography of Lady Ranelagh. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Warwick.