Harkness, Deborah E. The Jewel House.

Harkness,
Deborah E. The Jewel House: Elizabethan
London and the Scientific Revolution. Yale: Yale
University press, 2007.
Deborah Harkness’ The Jewel House considers the importance
of the burgeoning scientific community in Elizabethan London and how sixteenth-century
Londoners essentially laid the groundwork for the ensuing Scientific
Revolution. The unique scientific community of Elizabethan London cultivated collaborations
between learned men and emphasized the importance of organization within various
subsets of the scientific communities, as well as the necessity for hands-on
education. A civil code guided the scientific community of London, yet Harkness
argues that it was this very emphasis on civility and “gentlemanly” pursuits
that proved to be the undoing of Elizabethan London’s scientific community and created
a culture of elitism that would influence and shape the Scientific Revolution.
It is difficult to pinpoint an exact
cause for the dramatic shift Harkness explores in the “Jewel House” that was
London, as numerous factors began to pull London’s scientific community apart. First
and foremost was money and the need for private benefactors. Collecting
specimens and scientific tools was, and is still, expensive, and men that were
fortunate enough to either be bankrolled by Elizabeth’s court or generous private
citizens were given an immediate leg-up over their poorer counterparts. Queen Elizabeth’s
interest in science and technological advancements, and the promise of their
application to military and naval weaponry, created what Harkness calls “Big
Science,” government-backed scientific studies that contributed to the growing
divide between wealthy and poor men of science. What had been an environment
that fostered peoples from all backgrounds became increasingly cut-off from
casual pursuit and relegated to the privileged few. The camaraderie of the
community shifted into individual study and observation, a method of study
championed by Francis Bacon. Harkness notes that Bacon scoffed at the amateur
scientist, one driven by wonder, not previous knowledge, and believed that the
relaxed nature of Elizabethan London scientists did a disservice to the community.
Scientific pursuits became regimented and essentially trapped within the civil
code that had been the guiding principle for many scientists. The freedom of imaginative
flights of fancy were curtailed and eventually disappeared completely.
The creation of this rigid structure
is what Harkness argues is the downfall of the Elizabethan London scientific
community. She notes that Elizabethan London is not often cited as a major
influence on the Scientific Revolution, and the closing off of the scientific
community could be a reason why. London went from a “Jewel House” to what
Francis Bacon coined as “Salomon’s House,” a structured institution that
benefitted those with the money, time, space, and education that was necessary.
Harkness does an excellent job of transporting the reader to Elizabethan London
and clearly laying out the successes and failures of Elizabethan London’s approach
to the new world of science, education, and discovery.
Category:Scientific Revolution