Talk:Invisible College

New Tech

Is there any upublished comment (ie, not original research) about the College Invisible and new tech - blogs, wikis and so on? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Paul Murray (talk • contribs) 05:23, 26 April 2007 (UTC).

Well do you mean like personal blogs or social networks that are invisible colleges? I have one here: Invisible College On Ning It's a social networking site I started for the purpose of being a virtual Invisible College. Momochan86 (talk) 23:47, 28 March 2009 (UTC)momochan86

Unclear sentence

"The idea of an invisible college became influential in seventeenth century Europe, in particular, in the form of a network of savants or intellectuals exchanging ideas (by post, as it would have been understood at the time)." What does "by post, as it would have been understood at the time" mean. Does "it" refer to the post and, if so, is it meant to mean that there wasn't a postal service as we understand it today? Richerman (talk) 13:04, 4 January 2010 (UTC)

As no-one has answered this question and the paragraph goes on to say "One of the most common methods used to communicate was through marginalia, annotations written in personal copies of books that were loaned, given, or sold" I've removed the offending phrase. Richerman (talk) 23:48, 23 June 2010 (UTC)

Some quotations

Perhaps these are usable..

• "What is an Invisible College? An Invisible College is a group of peers, typically from different disciplines and with different viewpoints, who band together round a shared interest. So far, so echo chamberish?

The term was probably first used by Robert Boyle c. 1644. When his father died, Boyle inherited a bundle of land in Ireland and an estate in Dorset, and he was consequently sufficiently well-off to give up his to study and scientific research."[1]

• "In 1660, within a few months of the restoration of Charles II, a group of twelve men, including Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren, met in London to set up a society to study the mechanisms of nature. At a time when superstition and magic governed reason, the repressive dogma of Christian belief silenced many, and were post-war loyalties ruined careers, these men forbade the discussion of religion and politics at their meetings. The Royal Society was born and with it modern, experimental science."[2]

• "After noting that Robert Boyle coined the term Invisible College [p. 63.] and conceding that "It is unlikely that Boyle himself was ever a Freemason" he then posits the unsupported rhetorical question: "Was Boyle's Invisible College really an early lodge of Freemasons?" [p. 66.]"[3]
• Invisible College Press
• Invsibile College at everything2

Thanks. Eclipsed (talk) 14:59, 23 October 2010 (UTC)

Rewriting

I have attempted to unpick the muddle on this topic by giving detailed references. Christopher Hill calls the various groups involved "interlocking", and clarity should be sought. There are indeed counter-arguments, to the effect that the early history of the Royal Society had the "pansophic" elements deliberately written out. But it looks as if historians no longer believe that the 1646-7 group Boyle mentioned is a major scientific one. Charles Matthews (talk) 09:47, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

New photos on Commons from the Royal Society Library

As part of Wikipedia:WikiProject Royal Society a special photo session in the Royal Society Library in London has resulted in Commons:Category:Royal Society Library, with over 50 photos of their treasures, mostly 17th century manuscripts, including several of one of the early minute books, Boyle's notebooks etc, the manuscript fair copy of Newton's Principia etc. Please add these as appropriate. Thanks! Wiki at Royal Society John (talk) 22:05, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Short description

The short description currently reads A precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle. This is at odds with the current article scope. Andrewa (talk) 03:03, 29 September 2019 (UTC)

Good faith vs. Bad faith editors

I have expanded this article to discuss the role of specific parallel groups that originate as part of the "Invisible College" family. The citations are real. Please stop editing the article to keep the invisible college hidden. Staller46 (talk) 08:43, 29 December 2024 (UTC)

Restored earlier version

I have restored the November 2024 version, with a few adjustments. It has about the same amount of sources with none of the unsourced fluff, and it lacks sentences like these which are basically fiction novel nonsense:

"Groups and individual artists have sometimes used sacred geometry (a special-interest subject inside the Freemasonic tradition) to identify themselves as related to the Invisible College, especially peculiar arrangements of triangles, circles, and squares.Various lodges and "alchemists" have promoted the study and use of sacred geometry as an in-group signal for multiple centuries. Accordingly, the influence of the Invisible College on contemporary popular culture is pervasive, and can be found in popular books, major motion films, art of all types, song lyrics, architecture, even video games--often but not always in forms meant to bypass or confuse outsiders, while signaling insiders"

Keep in mind it has this Forbes post as a citation, which labels it as a conspiracy theory, while the editor (whoever it was) has labeled it as something factual.

And there is also this:

"Today—due to the pervasive historical influence of "alchemists" practicing spirituality as psychology since the early 1600s—the term Invisible College may refer to any explicitly masonic group which participates in social alchemy or soul alchemy (the intentional transmutation of souls through collective pressures); it may also refer to tangential, non-masonic groups devoted to alchemical psychologies or social influence, such as (but not limited to):"

which is not only unsourced, but is laughably absurd (alchemy is known to be psuedoscience) Plasticwonder (talk) 14:56, 12 January 2025 (UTC)