The Invisible Virtuoso: Bengt Skytte and the founding of the Royal Society in 1660

The Royal Society of London, founded in 1660, developed rapidly into an internationally recognised authority in experimental science. This article explores contradictory accounts of its foundation, taking the alleged involvement of a Swedish dignitary, Bengt Skytte, as a problem-case. It concludes that inconsistencies in these accounts arose from associates’ attempts to prepare for and adapt to new dynamics in the relationship between state and science: a competitive environment from with the Royal Society emerged pre-eminent. Based on printed and manuscript sources from the Hartlib Collection (Sheffield); the British Library; the Irish National Library; and the Swedish Rivsarkiv