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"The honourable Robert Boyle esq., the son of Richard Boyle, the first Earl of Cork, was born at Lismore in the county of Cork. He was nursed by an Irish nurse, after the Irish manner, where they put the child in a pendulous satchel instead of a cradle, with a slit for the child's head to peep out." This new selection from John Aubrey's enormous work of 17th-century biography, Brief Lives, brings together his writings on contemporary scientists, explorers and men of innovation, including astronomer Edmund Halley, celebrated mapmaker Wenceslaus Hollar, and the architects Christopher Wren and Inigo Jones. Simultaneously quirky, amusing, and informative, these pieces together provide a fascinating portrait of an exciting and inventive age.
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Much against his mother's consent, [Sir Kenelm Digby] married that celebrated beauty and courtesan, Mrs Venetia Stanley,... He would say that a handsome lusty man who was discreet might make a virtuous wife out of a brothel-house. This lady carried herself blamelessly, yet (they say) he was jealous of her. She died suddenly, and hard-hearted women would censure him severelyThis new selection from Brief Lives, John Aubrey's enormous work of seventeenth-century biography, brings together his writings on contemporary scientists, explorers and men of innovation, including astronomer Edmund Halley, celebrated mapmaker Wenceslaus Hollar and the explorer and courtier Sir Walter RaleighScientific Lives offers a portrait by turns witty, serious and droll, of the notable figures of Aubrey's day. Quirky, amusing and informative, Aubrey's writing is the epitome of an exciting and inventive age.Antiquary and biographer John Aubrey (1626--97) was born near Malmesbury in Wiltshire. A member of the Royal Society, Aubrey was acquainted with some of the most distinguished writers, politicians, scientists and aristocrats of his time, along with numerous other prominent figures. He is chiefly known for his short, lively biographical pieces.
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