The Royal Society
A club for experiment adopts the motto take nobody's word for it.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 5 years
- Known to
- ± 1 year
- Era
- Early Modern, Holocene
Founded in 1660 and chartered in 1662, the Royal Society institutionalises experiment: demonstrations performed before witnesses, results published for others to repeat, and Nihil in verba as its motto. Its Philosophical Transactions, from 1665, is the oldest continuously published scientific journal and establishes the conventions of priority, peer scrutiny and citation. Science becomes a collective and public activity rather than a private one.