Web of Nature: Martin Lister (1639-1712), the First Arachnologist

Anna Marie Roos, Ph.D. (1997) in History, University of Colorado, is the Lister Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She has published extensively on early modern English science including The Salt of the Earth: Natural Philosophy, Medicine, and Chymistry in England, 1650–1750 (Brill, 2007).

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgements PART ONE: THE BIRTH OF A NATURALIST, 1663-16681. Introduction2. Early Life and Letters, 1639-1663 3. French Connection: The Voyage to Montpellier, 1663-16664. Early Contributions to Natural History, 1666-1668: The Influence of John RayPART TWO: IN LOCATION AT THE PERIPHERY OF THE WEB, IN THE MIND AT ITS VERY CENTER: LISTER’S YEARS IN YORK (1669-1683)5. Spider Threads and a Tangled Web of Misunderstanding, 1668-16716. "My Dear Hart": Lister's Marriage to Hannah Parkinson and his Medical Practice in York7. The Circulation of Knowledge: Lister and the Royal Society's Debates about Plant Circulation in the 1670s 8. Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral? Crinoids, and the Fossil Debate in the Royal Society9. "All that Glitters": Martin Lister and Fools' Gold, 1677-168410. A Speculum of Chemical Practice: Lister, Newton, and Telescopic Mirrors PART THREE: AT THE WEB'S CENTER: LISTER IN LONDON, THE ROYAL SOCIETY, AND THE PRODUCTION OF MASTERWORKS: 1684-169211. Lister's London Beginnings: Virtuoso, Antiquarian and Benefactor12. The Art of Science: The Historiae Conchyliorum and the Historia PisciumPART FOUR: TIME SPINS AWAY: 1692-171213. Publication and Prestige, Sex Exercitationes Medicinales and the Royal College of Physicians14. The Spice of Life: A Journey to Paris and a Cookery BookEpilogue: The Tragedy at Burwell Park BibliographyIndex

"[...] Roos’s study at last provides the foundation for any assessment of [Dr. Martin Lister's] significance. Her meticulous research into Lister’s life and work, full of unexpected connections and curiosities, will be welcomed by anyone who wishes to dive into the study of nature in the later sevententh and early eighteenth centuries." – Harold J. Cook, Brown University, in: Renaissance Quarterly 65/4 (Winter 2012), pp. 1235-1236 [DOI: 10.1086/669391]"[...] the biography of Lister should be seen as an innovative and valuable contribution to the historical, social and cultural understanding of ‘scientific’ persona and practice in the seventeenth century." – Palmira Fontes Da Costa, in: British Journal for the History of Science (2012), 293-294"It is in this marriage that Roos achieves, between Lister’s technical work and her biographical account of him, that her book is exemplary. It is a compelling work to read,written in a lively, even racy style, which communicates well the author’s ‘creative flights of fancy’." – Anthony Turner, in: Notes Rec. R. Soc. 20 June 2012 [online]"Delightfully rendered...[this] superb biography of the 17th-century polymath Martin Lister is a pleasure to read." – Tim Birkhead, in: Times Higher Education 27 October 2011"At long last, one of the most versatile and influential naturalists of the second half of the seventeenth century receives the comprehensive intellectual biography he so eminently deserves. Availing herself of a rich archive, Anna Marie Roos presents a vivid portrayal of Martin Lister as a consummate researcher, and a complex individual, whose scientific researches and personal contacts contributed to the maturation of several domains of natural history as well as to strengthening the bounds of the community that practiced them." – Mordechai Feingold, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena