Folkes, Martin
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- Folkes, Martin
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(1690 - 1754), scientist and antiquary, e. s. of Martin Folkes of Gray's Inn; Clare Camb. 1707; FRS 1713; m. 1714 Lucretia Bradshaw; Pres. R.Soc.1741 - 52; Pres. Soc. of Antiquaries 1750 - 4.
1733 - 5 [dep. England 25 Mar. 1733] Venice ( - 15 Jun. - 10 Oct.), Padua (12 Oct.), Ferrara, Ravenna, Loreto (23 Oct.), Rome (31 Oct. 1733 - 8 Jun. 1734 - ), Florence (some months), Leghorn (1735) [England 1 Sep. 1735]
According to the antiquarian Stukely, Folkes, 'quarrelling with Sr Hans Sloane about the presidentship of the Royal Society and being baffled', went to Rome 'with his wife and daughters, dog, cat, parrot and monkey. There his wife grew religiously mad. He went to Venice and got a dangerous hurt upon the leg'.1 Folkes had left England on 25 March 1733, 'and passing thro Germany reached Venice in September following', wrote Birch,2 but Folkes was certainly in Venice by 15 June, when his travel journal opens.3
In Venice, where he stayed some five months, he received 'extraordinary civilities' from the nobility; he 'conversed with many of them in a manner no Englishman has done before', and stayed near the Rialto Bridge in rooms which had been used by Lord March twelve years before.4 He conducted optical experiments before an invited audience in the palace of Signor Giustiniani, his particular friend. He measured the Rialto bridge and the height of the Campanile (by its shadow). Apart from British diplomats, he also met Marshal Schulenberg, whose vast collection of plans and pictures Folkes did not think had been 'collected with the greatest judgment'. On 14 July he called on Rosalba Carriera 'now better than 50' and was 'extreemly well entertained with a great number of fine portraits some of my acquaintance very like.' Three days later he felt driven to reflect on the Roman faith, 'that among the professions of it there seems no modicum between a direct abandon of all religion and a supersticious adoration accompanyd with direct madness'. Elizeus Burges, the British resident, remarked that Folkes (who was 'with his Lady, son, 2 Daughters & 4 servants') was 'a very ingenious man, & loves & understands well most of the Things People come into this Country to see'.5 Mrs Folkes (who had been a distinguished actress) created a different impression: 'In al my life', said an anonymous witness, 'did I never hear such an insupportable creature, nor so much nonsense in so smal a space of time'.6 At the end of July Folkes contracted a sort of heat rash, scotture, which produced a 'sensation like hot needles continually pricking all over especially at the back' (27 Jul.).
On 10 October, with the consul Neil Brown ('one of the best sort of men in the world'), they set out for Padua,7 where Folkes saw the University. He was told it was no longer flourishing as formerly, but there were 'about 600 students which are divided into about 11 nations' (11 Oct.). He inspected the library of the 'English Nation' at the university with the librarian Dr Mengoni and found 'not above 300 vol. and those very ill chose and in bad condition; the English are one of the Nations in this University priviledgd above the rest, and which performing the forms may have their degrees immediately upon their admission' (as opposed to a four-year wait for the less privileged); discipline was very poor and he observed the matriculations book, 'wherein most of the English who go by write their names and give [Mengoni] a pistole or at least a sequin for his attendance' (12 Oct.). On leaving Padua, Folkes made arrangements with a vetturino 'to carry me to Rome in my own berlin and find another for my servants and baggage'. At Loreto the beggars were all too prominent: 'walking a hundred yards in the street it goes beyond all human imagination, and is irksom beyond expression' (23 Oct.). Their greatest mishap was the loss of a 'dutch dog' on the road from Narni, an event, Folkes confessed, which 'has given me far more uneasiness than I think such a sort of thing should'. The dog was eventually returned a few hours after their arrival in Rome on 31 October.
They stayed at Giuseppe's on the Corso. Folkes's journal ends two weeks later, when he was busy sightseeing and exchanging visits with English residents. He met Mitchel [presumably Andrew Mitchell] 'a very ingenious Scotch Gentleman I had seen before' (2 Nov.) and the Duke of Richmond had furnished him with introductions to the Princess Pamphili, the Countess Celia Borromea and Cardinal Albani.8 Folkes was still in Rome the following June;9 he had measured some monuments in Rome and between 29 May and 8 June 1734 he visited various collections, including the Villa Mattei, with Andrew Mitchell and Celsius Stevens.(10) Nichols said Folkes spent 'a considerable time' in Rome and afterwards some months in Florence before sailing from Leghorn to England, where he arrived on 1 September 1735.2 He was elected to the Florentine Academy on 9 January 1735.(11)
On his return Folkes presented the Royal Society with a model, made in Rome, of an ancient globe in the Farnese Palace (whose measurements he had noted in his journal on 12 November 1733), and a copy of his Remarks on the Standard Measure preserved in the Capitol of Rome.(12) A medallion portrait of Folkes with a Masonic emblem on the verso appears to have been made in Rome in 1742.(13)
1. Surtees Soc., 73[1882]:14. 2. Add.6269 f.294 (Thos. Birch). Nichols, Lit.Anecdotes, 2:580 - 2. 3. Folkes jnl.MSS. 4. March, A Duke and his Friends, 1:251. 5. SP 99/63, f.230 (Burges, 17 Jul. 1733). 6. Quoted in a letter of 20 Jul. 1733, see March (at n4), 1:253. 7. See Brown 1952 - 3 (12 Oct.). 8. March (at n4), 1:254 - 9. 9. Pococke letters MSS, f.11 (11 May 1734). 10. Add.58318, ff.95, 107 - 10, 113, 115. 11. Wynne 1990, 537. 12. C.R. Weld, History of the Royal Society, 1:479. 13. J. Montagu, Gold, Silver and Bronze, Metal Sculpture of the Roman Baroque, 77.