Samuel Thomas Soemmerring in Kassel (1779–1784)

pioneering research into the Hartlib Papers (The great instauration, 1975), and which have since remained a topic of acrimonious debate. In particular, there is no indication here of a reassessment of the importance of religious and political factors in the encouragement, or subsequent failure, of Hartlib's various schemes and ideas. Nor, despite the recent work of so many scholars on the subject, is there any clear understanding of the problematic nature of mid-century puritanism which Webster and others have detected as an essential ingredient of the Hartlibian reform movement. With the imminent publication of the Hartlib Papers in electronic form, it is to be hoped that scholars will have greater opportunity to engage further in these crucial areas of early modem thought in England. In the mean time, students of this period, whatever their field, have been reminded once again of the incomparable richness of the Hartlib papers as a primary source for the middle decades of the seventeenth century.