‘Handwriting is often the Index of the Mind’: Mapping Scientific Networks through the Collections of John Nichols and His Family of Printers, Antiquaries and Autograph Hunters

The Nichols family was at the centre of an international network of intellectual exchange. As editors of the Gentleman's Magazine and as printers for learned societies, their printing shop was a clearing‐house for the scientific and antiquarian news that fed this scholarly community. Their archive charts the relationship between John Nichols and the botanists who contributed to his county history of Leicestershire, but it also formed the core of collections of autograph letters formed by his descendants. Now catalogued for the first time, these collections provide an insight into the friendships between antiquaries and scientists throughout the Age of Enlightenment.