A provincial man of science at work: Martin Lister, F. R. S., and his illustrators 1670-1683

Abstract

Between October 1670, when Martin Lister arrived in York, and September 1683, when he removed to London, he was at the centre of an informal group of virtuosi - naturalists, artists and antiquaries - who either lived in the provincial capital or visited regularly. 1 Part of the medical establishment at York, and keenly interested in physiological phenomena, Lister was to become nationally renowned as a scientist and naturalist. 2 The Philosophical Transactions carried 28 non- illustrated scientific communications from Lister between 1669 and 1673. Over the following 10 years his published papers and books were increasingly illustrated. A study of the association between Martin Lister and the amateur artists William Lodge and Francis Place provides the opportunity to consider: the relationship between the scientist and his illustrators; the visual conventions being developed in scientific publishing; and the value the scientific community placed on the visual representation of their observations, scientific collections and published communications. How far does a study of the association of Lister and his illustrators illumine general issues pertinent to the history of science? What value have later scholars placed on the work of Lister’s illustrators?