3 The Chymistry of Francis Willughby (1635 72) The Trinity College, Cambridge Community
Francis Willughby's commonplace book in the Middleton Collection at the University of Nottingham reveals that in the late 1650s, he and John Ray were engaged in significant chymical experimentation at Trinity College, Cambridge. whilst Ray and Willughby reproduced procedures in Jean Beguin's Tyrocinium chymicum and the London Pharmacopeia to learn how to make medicines, they were also engaged in (al)chymical chrysopoeic investigations into the transmutation of matter, aided by foreign chymists paid by Trinity College who tutored fellows in the subject. Although it is now well known that Sir Isaac Newton performed extensive chymical work at Trinity College from 1669 until 1695, it seems there was a well established chymical culture at Trinity decades earlier.