In his
Bibliography of the Honourable Robert Boyle
(ist ed. 1932, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 1961), Dr Fulton has stated: ‘
The History of Cold
seems never to have been translated into Latin.’ This conclusion is based on the fact that no Enghsh, American or Canadian library canvassed by Dr Fulton contained a copy of the Latin version, nor had it appeared for sale in any book catalogue seen in his survey. Yet there is ample evidence that a Latin translation of
New Experiments and Observations Touching Cold
(London, 1665 and 1683) was in fact made; that it was at least partly printed off; and that a completed edition may have been sold entire to a bookseller in Holland. The evidence for the possible existence of such an edition is to be found in the extensive correspondence between Henry Oldenburg, ‘publisher’ of the Enghsh edition of
Cold
and Secretary of the Royal Society, and Robert Boyle, who was mainly living in Oxford in the years 1664-66. Oldenburg’s side of the correspondence was printed by Thomas Birch in
The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle
(London, 5 vols., 1744, 6 vols., 1772); Boyle’s scantier extant letters are to be found in the letterbooks of the Royal Society (MS. Bi).
