Vol.:(0123456789) Metascience https://doi.org/10.1007/s11016-023-00854-9 1 3 BOOK REVIEW Lady Ranelagh’s contributions to early modern science Michelle DiMeo: Lady Ranelagh: the incomparable life of Robert Boyle’s sister. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2021, xi + 288 pp, $45 HB Marina Paola Banchetti‑Robino 1 Accepted: 15 February 2023 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2023 Traditional narratives of women who were integral to the lives of important male philosophers and scientists have largely relegated such women to the role of mother, daughter, sister, or caretaker. Even those women who were intellectuals in their own right have been traditionally regarded as the ‘supporting cast,’ perhaps inspiring or nudging the brilliant ideas of those men through epistolary exchanges such as, for example, the exchanges between Queen Christina of Sweden and René Descartes. Yet, recent women’s history shows that many such women played much more active and pivotal roles in contributing to the advancement of philosophical and scientifc knowledge than had been previously recognized. One such woman, whose brilliance and scientifc acumen was recognized probably more in her own time than in our own, is Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh and sister of the early modern chem- ist Robert Boyle. Until recently, very little was known about Lady Ranelagh, her scientifc work, her experimental collaborations with her brother, or her signifcant role in the growth of early modern chemistry. For this reason, Michelle DiMeo’s recent intellectual biography of Lady Ranelagh is a long-needed and truly welcome contribution both to our knowledge of this bril- liant scientist and to women’s history in general. Since the epistolary exchanges between Lady Ranelagh and her brother ceased, for obvious reasons, once he moved into her London home, and since her papers were never properly collected or organ- ized upon her passing, DiMeo had to use her considerable archival skills to exca- vate information about Lady Ranelagh, primarily from writings by her male con- temporaries, many of whom admired her intellectual and experimental skills. Thus, in addition to making a signifcant contribution to our knowledge of an important, if overlooked, fgure in the development of early modern chemistry, DiMeo’s book is also an admirable example of archival research and scholarship. * Marina Paola Banchetti-Robino banchett@fau.edu 1 Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, USA