Several of these were scientists and, as a result and for a while, science at Oxford blossomed. As part of this, a number of distinguished scientists began to meet in each other’s rooms to discuss their problems. This was a new practice that was occurring all over Europe. In Italy, for instance, in the early years of the seventeenth century, the Accademia dei Lincei (the Academy of the Lynx-Eyed) was formed, with Galileo as its sixth member. There was a similar group in Florence, and in Paris the Académie Royale des Sciences was founded formally in 1666, though men such as Descartes, Pascal
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