Robert Boyle

Image 1. Portrait of Robert Boyle
Author and Date: unknown. Medium: Oil on Canvas. Size: 127 x 102.5 cm. Location: Wellcome Library,  no. 47317i. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

Image 2. Site of Robert Boyle's lodgings and laboratory, on the south side of The High Street, next to University College.

Source:  R.T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford,  15 vols (London, 1920-1968), vol. 15. Source of reproduction: Wellcome Library. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

Image 3. Memorial to Boyle and Hooke on the former site of their lodgings and laboratory in Oxford.

Boyle's emergence as a leading natural philosopher dates from his long period of residence in Oxford, where he lived on the High Street, lodged with an apothecary whose laboratory became fundamental to his method, and worked closely with Robert Hooke. The building was destroyed to make space for an extension of University College, but a memorial plaque on the south side of Oxford's High Street now marks the spot.

Resources: Perhaps the most illuminating part of the radio programme linked to the right (12:26 onward) deals with Boyle's period in Oxford.