Scope and Contents The papers and correspondence of Samuel Hartlib, educationalist, natural philosopher and polymath of the seventeenth century.The archive, which includes copies of his own letters as well as those sent to him by others, represents the greater part of extant Hartlib material. The seventeenth century was a period of rapid scientific and philosophical development, as well as of social, religious and political crisis, and the Hartlib Papers, as well as providing important insights...