Letter 3401

Dereham congratulates Sloane on his appointment as President of the Royal Society. He thanks Sloane for noticing his contributions to the Society. He will continue to encourage his ‘learned freinds’ to ‘promote the knowledge of nature’. Dereham hopes to send the Society a map of Venus by Monsieur Bianchini, whose observations offer a new understanding of its revolutions. Signor Riccetti has written a book that confutes Newton’s optics demonstrations. Dereham believes the Society should examine it. Sir Thomas Dereham (c. 1678-1739) was a British expatriate and Roman Catholic who lived in Italy. He had a close association with the Royal Society (https://collections.royalsociety.org/DServe.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27dereham%27%29).