---
title: "Robert Boyle"
chunk: 4/4
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Boyle"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:05:54.217837+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

1660 – New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their Effects
1661 – The Sceptical Chymist
1662 – Whereunto is Added a Defence of the Authors Explication of the Experiments, Against the Obiections of Franciscus Linus and Thomas Hobbes (a book-length addendum to the second edition of New Experiments Physico-Mechanical)
1663 – Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy (followed by a second part in 1671)
1664 – Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, with Observations on a Diamond that Shines in the Dark
1665 – New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold
1666 – Hydrostatical Paradoxes
1666 – Origin of Forms and Qualities according to the Corpuscular Philosophy. (A continuation of his work on the spring of air demonstrated that a reduction in ambient pressure could lead to bubble formation in living tissue. This description of a viper in a vacuum was the first recorded description of decompression sickness.)
1669 – A Continuation of New Experiments Physico-mechanical, Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and Their Effects
1670 – Tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions, the Bottom of the Sea, &tc. with an Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities
1672 – Origin and Virtues of Gems
1673 – Essays of the Strange Subtilty, Great Efficacy, Determinate Nature of Effluviums
1674 – Two volumes of tracts on the Saltiness of the Sea, Suspicions about the Hidden Realities of the Air, Cold, Celestial Magnets
1674 – Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo
1676 – Experiments and Notes about the Mechanical Origin or Production of Particular Qualities, including some notes on electricity and magnetism
1678 – Observations upon an artificial Substance that Shines without any Preceding Illustration
1680 – The Aerial Noctiluca
1682 – New Experiments and Observations upon the Icy Noctiluca (a further continuation of his work on the air)
1684 – Memoirs for the Natural History of the Human Blood
1685 – Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of Mineral Waters
1686 – A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature
1690 – Medicina Hydrostatica
1691 – Experimenta et Observationes Physicae
Among his religious and philosophical writings were:

1648 (1659) – Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God, often known by its running head Seraphic Love, written in 1648, but not published until 1659
1663 – Some Considerations Touching the Style of the H[oly] Scriptures
1664 – Excellence of Theology compared with Natural Philosophy
1665 – Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, which was ridiculed by Swift in Meditation Upon a Broomstick, and by Butler in An Occasional Reflection on Dr Charlton's Feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham College
1675 – Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, with a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection
1687 – The Martyrdom of Theodora, and of Didymus, major source for Handel's Oratorio Theodora
1690 – The Christian Virtuoso

== See also ==
Ambrose Godfrey – German-English chemist (1660–1741), phosphorus manufacturer who started as Boyle's assistant
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump – 1768 oil-on-canvas painting by Joseph Wright of Derby, a painting of a demonstration of one of Boyle's experiments
Boyle temperature – Thermodynamic property of real gas, thermodynamic quantity named after Boyle
George Starkey – Colonial American alchemist, medical practitioner and writer
Invisible College – Informal group of scholars, as in Royal Society of London's precursor groups

== References ==

== Further reading ==

== External links ==

Robert Boyle, Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Works by or about Robert Boyle at the Internet Archive
Works by Robert Boyle at the Biodiversity Heritage Library
Readable versions of Excellence of the mechanical hypothesis, Excellence of theology, and Origin of forms and qualities
Robert Boyle Project, Birkbeck, University of London
Summary juxtaposition of Boyle's The Sceptical Chymist and his The Christian Virtuoso
The Relationship between Science and Scripture in the Thought of Robert Boyle
Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest: Including Boyle's "Lost" Dialogue on the Transmutation of Metals, Princeton University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-691-05082-1
Robert Boyle's (1690) Experimenta et considerationes de coloribus Archived 26 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine – digital facsimile from the Linda Hall Library