Harkness, Deborah E. The Jewel House.

Harkness, Deborah E. ''The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution''. Yale: Yale University press, 2007.

Deborah Harkness’ The Jewel House considers the importance of the burgeoning scientific community in Elizabethan London and how sixteenth-century Londoners essentially laid the groundwork for the ensuing Scientific Revolution. The unique scientific community of Elizabethan London cultivated collaborations between learned men and emphasized the importance of organization within various subsets of the scientific communities, as well as the necessity for hands-on education. A civil code guided the scientific community of London, yet Harkness argues that it was this very emphasis on civility and “gentlemanly” pursuits that proved to be the undoing of Elizabethan London’s scientific community and created a culture of elitism that would influence and shape the Scientific Revolution.

It is difficult to pinpoint an exact cause for the dramatic shift Harkness explores in the “Jewel House” that was London, as numerous factors began to pull London’s scientific community apart. First and foremost was money and the need for private benefactors. Collecting specimens and scientific tools was, and is still, expensive, and men that were fortunate enough to either be bankrolled by Elizabeth’s court or generous private citizens were given an immediate leg-up over their poorer counterparts. Queen Elizabeth’s interest in science and technological advancements, and the promise of their application to military and naval weaponry, created what Harkness calls “Big Science,” government-backed scientific studies that contributed to the growing divide between wealthy and poor men of science. What had been an environment that fostered peoples from all backgrounds became increasingly cut-off from casual pursuit and relegated to the privileged few. The camaraderie of the community shifted into individual study and observation, a method of study championed by Francis Bacon. Harkness notes that Bacon scoffed at the amateur scientist, one driven by wonder, not previous knowledge, and believed that the relaxed nature of Elizabethan London scientists did a disservice to the community. Scientific pursuits became regimented and essentially trapped within the civil code that had been the guiding principle for many scientists. The freedom of imaginative flights of fancy were curtailed and eventually disappeared completely.

The creation of this rigid structure is what Harkness argues is the downfall of the Elizabethan London scientific community. She notes that Elizabethan London is not often cited as a major influence on the Scientific Revolution, and the closing off of the scientific community could be a reason why. London went from a “Jewel House” to what Francis Bacon coined as “Salomon’s House,” a structured institution that benefitted those with the money, time, space, and education that was necessary. Harkness does an excellent job of transporting the reader to Elizabethan London and clearly laying out the successes and failures of Elizabethan London’s approach to the new world of science, education, and discovery.