Origins of the Project
The author of this website is Dr Anna Marie Roos. This project stemmed from my research and analysis of the life and letters of Dr Martin Lister under the auspices of the Project Cultures of Knowledge: An Intellectual Geography of the Seventeenth-Century Republic of Letters, based at the University of Oxford.
Parked in Provence.
I discovered the Pocketbook in the Bodleian Library in the course of writing his biography. Recreating his journey – I retraced his steps with my husband Ian in our caravan during summer 2011 − has been a form of humanistic fieldwork that attempts to enrich our understanding of the early modern peregrinatio medica, as well as the intellectual geography of early modern France (especially Montpellier). My journey was featured in a popular travel magazine, and I provided an overview of the Pocketbook project at the conference Intellectual Geography: Comparative Studies, 1550-1700 (St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, September 5-7 2012):
About Me
I am historian of early modern English chemistry and medicine, and a Fellow of the Linnean Society. My biography Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First Arachnologist, was published by Brill in July 2011. My other books include Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650-1750 (2007), and Luminaries in the Natural World: The Sun and Moon in England, 1400-1720 (2001). I have also published several articles in a variety of journals including Medical History, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Ambix, History of Science, and Notes and Records of the Royal Society.
I was the Lister Research Fellow for the research project Cultures of Knowledge: An Intellectual Geography of the Seventeenth-Century Republic of Letters, for which I edited Lister’s complete correspondence.
I am now a Reader in early modern history at the University of Lincoln. If you have questions about this website, please contact me at martinlisterpocketbook@gmail.com.
Project Credits
This project was funded by a British Academy Small Grant SG101650. I wish to acknowledge the assistance of Dr James Brown with the design of the website, Mr Nick Daisley for technical guidance, Professor Howard Hotson, Ms Aileen Mooney for grant administration, and Mr Ian Benton. I also wish to thank Dr Richard Ovenden, Clive Hurst, and Andrew Honey of the Bodleian Library for their assistance with images and curatorial information about Lister’s pocketbook. I am also grateful to the Wellcome Trust and to Ms Joanna Hopkins and Mr Keith Moore of the Royal Society for their permission to use images on the site. Dr Vera Keller of the University of Oregon kindly let me feature her video on the site. My thanks to the administrators at www.dancilla.com for permitting me to embed their video of the courante. The Bridgeman Art Library and Christie’s also kindly provided permission to use the Portrait of Dr. Martin Lister, c.1675-1739 by Charles Jervas, (1675-1739) (circle of) / Photo © Christie’s Images / The Bridgeman Art Library.