This is a weighty volume that deals with a substantial subject. It will be of value to a broad range of historians of science, all the more so because it is available in open access as a fully searchable PDF file – covers, pagination, illustrations, links to supplementary material (discussed below) and all – and for this the authors, contributing funders (University of St Andrews), publishers (UCL Press), main contributors (the Royal Society) and all others involved are to be highly commended. This work performs considerable service to the history of science. This review is of the hardcover version, although I shall make some comparisons below with its electronic form.
The title of the book may, for those who are strict in such things, mislead. Even the subtitle, while more precise, may not adequately prepare the reader for the history of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (hereafter Phil. Trans.) which is actually presented. Several other scientific journals are mentioned in the text, but usually only for some comparative purpose. The Proceedings of the Royal Society (in its A and B variants) makes its proper appearance, as does the magnificent turn-of-the-twentieth-century effort resulting in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. This work is, however, a history of Phil. Trans. over about 350 years; any misgivings about titling may be instantly set aside for this history is more than sufficient to sate any scholar's appetite.
The work is organized in roughly chronological order, with some attempt at placing sixteen chapters within historical time periods (e.g. “The professionalisation of science, 1820–1890” and “The growth of science, 1890–1950”), although it is not immediately clear that the names of such time periods (the validity of which some historians may find arguable) are necessarily helpful to the reader. The chapter titles themselves are more likely to provide the guidance any historian needs. Each page is heavily annotated to primary and secondary sources as appropriate, and the index is comprehensive (if rendered somewhat redundant in the searchable electronic version).
The roles of the authors and other contributors are helpfully set out in the preliminary pages (p. xiv). Professor Aileen Fyfe of the University of St Andrews is the main instigator, editor and driving force behind this book. She co-authors every chapter. I thus refer to the volume as Professor Fyfe's work. She does a fine job of presenting the entire book with a single voice – it is well written and a pleasure to read, in whole or in part – and there is no significant criticism to make of repetition or overlap to which multi-author books are sometimes prone.
The single thread that binds the book together is to follow the money. Fyfe steps carefully through the ways in which the financial risks and rewards in the early days of the publication of Phil. Trans. fluctuated in amount and character, which was not always in alignment with the apparent intellectual property ownership of the journal's contents. She disentangles the financial interests of the early editors (Henry Oldenburg from 1665 to 1677, plus his immediate successors), the printer–booksellers (who could lay claim to property rights under prevailing law) and the Royal Society itself (under whose licensing privilege publication was made, and who made orders concerning publication from the beginning, but who avoided editorial and financial responsibility until the mid-eighteenth century), with great skill and an eye for fine detail. The theme of finance continues throughout and into the contemporary period (‘The business of publishing, 1950–2015’) with increasing reliance on the more precise and presumably accurate financial and circulation records (and on first-hand accounts from some of the actors involved) available in the later part of the history.
The remaining content of the book does not disappoint in terms of the variety and level of scholarly detail the authors make available. Analyses of long-term trends in the journal include (for example) type of content (letters, booklists, scientific papers), type of author (FRS, foreign contributor, other), subject matter (from the physical to life sciences and back again), the impact on the journal of the specific relationship between editor and president (Joseph Banks, PRS, figures heavily here), the influence of prevailing social mores on the editors’ expectations of scholarly etiquette and behaviour between fellows, and the role of gift exchange (copies of Phil. Trans. for similar journals from correspondent scientific societies) in enhancing the Royal Society's global reputation and contributing to its knowledge-making activities supported by a fine and continually expanding library.
Finally, the growth of the practice of peer review is given appropriate prominence. It was good to find a chapter almost wholly devoted to George Gabriel Stokes, joint secretary of the Royal Society from 1854 to 1885, who (as Fyfe shows) set up and maintained a recognizably modern form of the refereeing system. Stokes's 1884 letter to Richard Owen claiming, “I am Editor of the Transactions” – discussed on p. 297 – was well found in the vast Stokes archive held by the Cambridge University Library. This settles a historical question, for Stokes is not otherwise well known for expanding on his own role in the Royal Society.
If this were not all, the book provides a link to the Web pages of the University of St Andrews that allow free access to much of the authors’ original data – lists of editors, printers, publishing staff, pricing, print runs by year are all made available for research, and some of this material continues to be updated and processed by Fyfe and her team.
I did say that I would make some comparison between the print and electronic versions of this book. Some will prefer (as I do) the look, feel and durability of the book on the shelf. It should be admitted, however, that the electronic form possesses certain advantages, not limited to lightness, price and searchability for any word or phrase, together providing a powerful incentive for any researcher. To this add the clarity of figures. Take, for example, Figure 4.2 (p. 136), which shows an image of the imprimatur and title page of John Lowthorp's abridged version of Phil. Trans. In the printed version the fine print will defeat most bespectacled eyes, while readers of the electronic version may easily enlarge that same image to find the finest detail easily legible. The same may be said of any example of an engraved figure (of which there are several reproduced in this work) that can be enlarged to admire the fine detail of the engraver's work but which, in the printed version, does little more than provide a non-text ornamental space.
Overall, then, a tour de force of a book that will provide much for historians of science, of the early modern period, of publishing, of materials science, of social interactions and gentlemanly behaviours, of peer review and of the finances of the Royal Society. And much more besides. Recommended.
