Samuel Hartlib doesn’t exactly spring to mind when thinking about influential figures of the 17th century. But he served as a sort of conduit for information and connections among them as he sought to promote his ideas regarding theology and education.

Research:

Britannica Editors. "Samuel Hartlib". Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Hartlib
Britannica Editors. "Thirty Years’ War". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Mar. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/event/Thirty-Years-War
Britannica Editors. "John Dury". Encyclopedia Britannica, 1 Jan. 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Dury
Hartlib, Samuel, OR John Dury. “A Further Discoverie Of The Office Of Public Address For Accommodations.” 1648. The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=14A_02_03
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1635.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=29_03_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1650.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=28_01_49&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1651.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=28_02_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
Hartlib, Samuel. “Ephemerides 1659.” The Hartlib Papers. University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=main&docname=29_08_01&term0=transtext_ephemerides#highlight
McDowell, Nicholas. “The Oxford Handbook of Milton (Oxford Handbooks).” OUP Oxford. 2009. Kindle Edition.
Masson, Victoria. “The Origins & Causes of the English Civil War.” Historic U.K. https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Origins-of-the-English-Civil-War/
Milton, John. “Tractate on Education. A FACSIMILE REPRINT FROM THE EDITION OF 1673. EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY OSCAR BROWNING, M.Α.” Cambridge University Press. 1890. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=KzsVAAAAYAAJ&rdid=book-KzsVAAAAYAAJ&rdot=1
“Pact Signed By Dury, Comenius And Hartlib, And Later By William Hamilton.” The Hartlib Papers. March 3, 1642. The University of Sheffield. https://www.dhi.ac.uk/hartlib/view?docset=additional&docname=7E_109T&term0=transtext_pact#highlight
Trevor-Roper, Hugh. “The Crisis of the Seventeenth Century.” Liberty Fund Indianapolis. 1967. https://web.archive.org/web/20061213185209/http://olldownload.libertyfund.org/Texts/LFBooks/TrevorRoper0256/Crisis17thC/0098_Bk.pdf
Turnbull, G. H. “Samuel Hartlib’s Influence on the Early History of the Royal Society.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, vol. 10, no. 2, 1953, pp. 101–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/530806
Turnbull, G.H. “SAMUEL HAKTLIB A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND HIS RELATIONS TO J. A. COMENIUS.” Oxford University Press. 1920. https://ia801209.us.archive.org/21/items/cu31924027998859/cu31924027998859.pdf
Webster, Charles. “A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib: In Search of Universal Betterment.” Open Book Publishers. 2025. Accessible online: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0486

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Samuel Hartlib and the Hartlib Circle

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Samuel Hartlib and the Hartlib Circle