The school of night

Sir, There may be an earlier precursor to the Royal Society than the Accademia dei Lincei (letters, Jan 11 and 13). This could be found in The Strand in Elizabethan London at Durham House, where Sir Walter Raleigh presided over some of the most original thinkers of the time. The alchemist John Dee, the navigational expert Richard Hakluyt, the medical researcher Walter Warner and the brilliant Thomas Harriot were all colleagues in the most influential “think-tank” in Elizabeth’s reign. It was also extraordinary that John White and Jacques le Moyne, the only two artists to record life in North America in the 16th century, were connected with the group. This had all the makings of an embryo Royal Society.

We all are familiar with Galileo’s battles with the Vatican. However, that the group were referred to as “The School of Night”, or even “The School of Atheism”, and that Harriot was so reluctant to publish his researches, might mean that the Church of England at the time was more successful at suppressing original thought than the Church of Rome. It required the trauma of the Civil War to establish the ethos required for success of the Royal Society.