Boston Common (pp 3–23)

Enoch the Red arrives in Boston on October 12, 1713, witnessing a hanging on the Common while reflecting on the shifting political and scientific landscape of the New World.

“dollop of hills” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Boston had a completely different shape in those days from what it has now; its current topography and shoreline are the result of massive regrading and backfilling projects. Consult Walter Muir Whitehill’s “Boston, a Topographical History” for more.”

“just as long as Jack Ketch stands there” — Jack Ketch was a notorious English executioner under King Charles II whose name became a permanent piece of folklore, serving as a generic slang term for any hangman. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘A general-purpose moniker applied to any executioner… This is somewhat anachronistic.’

“a squadron of lobsterbacks drills and marches” — A derogatory nickname for British soldiers, Redcoats earned the moniker “lobsterbacks” due to the distinct color of their uniforms and, occasionally, as a reference to the lash marks from military floggings.

“On Sir Isaac Newton’s temperature scale” — Before the Fahrenheit or Celsius scales were standardized, Isaac Newton proposed a Scale of Temperature in 1701 based on 0 for freezing and 12 for the heat of the human body. From the original wiki: “Isaac Newton (around 1700) applied his genius to many different problems, including the concept of temperature.”

“He’s not come to watch witch-hangings” — While the infamous Salem Witch Trials occurred in 1692, this passage reflects the tail end of the era of capital punishment for witchcraft in the American colonies. Stephenson’s annotation: ‘The last hanging of a supposed witch in New England occurred at around this time, so he’s not far off.’

“If Herr Fahrenheit were here with one of his new quicksilver-filled, sealed-tube thermometers” — Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was the physicist who invented the mercury-in-glass thermometer in 1714; “quicksilver” is the archaic name for the element mercury.

“French raiders can clearly see them from ambuscades” — This refers to the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession, known in the colonies as Queen Anne’s War, which involved brutal frontier raids between British and French colonists.

“cartesian number line” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Descartes pioneered the use of number-lines as a way of measuring positions in space, and also crossed them at various angles to handle two-dimensional space, but the now-universal practice of crossing them at right angles to form an orthogonal coordinate system appears to have originated elsewhere---so “Cartesian coordinates” is a misnomer (see the Descartes entry in Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Julian Barbour credits Leibniz with inventing “Cartesian” coordinates, however the idea is sufficiently obvious that others may have come up with it independently.”

“books in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin pocked with the occult symbols of Alchemists and Kabalists” — Kabbalah is an esoteric school of Jewish mysticism that was frequently studied by Christian scholars and Alchemists during the Renaissance to find hidden mathematical or spiritual truths in scripture.

“recognizes the scars of a great fire along this main street” — The Boston Fire of 1711 destroyed much of the town’s center, including the Town House, leading to the first building codes that mandated the use of brick or stone instead of wood.

“Ben. Son of Josiah. The tallow-chandler.” — The boy is a young Benjamin Franklin; his father was indeed a candle-maker (tallow-chandler) in Boston, and Ben was famously precocious before running away to Philadelphia.

“divides all the world into only three parts: their part, which is the dar al-Islam; the part with which they are friendly, which is the dar as-sulh… and everything else, which is the dar al-harb” — These are traditional Islamic legal classifications used to describe the geopolitical relationship between Muslim-governed lands and the non-Muslim world.

“barker” — Stephenson’s annotation: “This is a fictitious sect that I invented, so there is no point in going and looking for more information about them. There were plenty of real ones, such as Diggers, Levellers, Ranters, Quakers, etc.”

“A Peace has been signed at Utrecht. France gets Spain. Austria gets the Spanish Netherlands.” — The Treaty of Utrecht (1713) ended the War of the Spanish Succession and fundamentally reshaped the map of Europe and its colonial holdings.

“the Spanish Netherlands!” — The Spanish Netherlands were a collection of Holy Roman Empire states in the Low Countries held by the Spanish Crown, serving as a perpetual battleground for European powers.

“charing cross” — Stephenson’s annotation: “The decapitation took place on the side of the Banqueting House that faces north, in the direction of Charing Cross. In today’s London, the place called Charing Cross is separated from the Banqueting House by a chunk of Whitehall about a quarter of a mile long, and so it seems wrong to say that the event took place in Charing Cross. However, at the time, Charing Cross was a broader piece of territory. More importantly, it was the only piece of territory from which an ordinary person might have been able to get a glimpse of the beheading of the King.”

“We get Gibraltar, Newfoundland, St. Kitts, and—lowering his voice —the slave trade.” — Britain gained The Asiento, a powerful monopoly contract granted by the Spanish crown to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish colonies in the New World.

“The War of the Spanish Succession, whose cause was the death in Madrid of King Carlos the Sufferer.” — Charles II of Spain, known as “The Bewitched,” was the last Habsburg ruler of Spain; his physical infirmities and lack of an heir triggered a world war upon his death.

“d g hispan et ind rex” — From the original wiki (Alan Sinder): “As Enoch ponders about the universal currency of the new 18th century — he examines a “Spanish” silver coin marked “D.G. HISPAN ET IND REX” (Deo gratia Hispaniae et Indiarum Rex, “By the grace of God, king of Spain and the Indies”) that he identifies as “a piece of eight.” Universal currency was ‘octal’ and as such the Piece of Eight was clearly marked with the number “8” — and for a while even the U.S. Dollar would have 8 pie slices. “2 bits” was a quarter to the parents of the “Baby Boomers.” Therefore, the coin fingered by Enoch was an 8 reale coin cut in half.”

“The Glorious Revolution!” — The Glorious Revolution of 1688 saw the Catholic King James II overthrown and replaced by the Protestant joint monarchs William III and Mary II.

“The Civil War” — The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of conflicts between Parliamentarians (“Roundheads”) and Royalists (“Cavaliers”) that resulted in the execution of the King.

“later came the Restoration, which was a grievous defeat for your folk” — The Restoration of 1660 returned the monarchy under Charles II, ending the Puritan-led Commonwealth and prompting many religious dissenters to flee to New England.

“You are speaking of Archbishop Laud—a terrible oppressor of Puritans” — William Laud, the Archbishop of Canterbury under Charles I, was loathed by Puritans for his High Church reforms and his use of the Star Chamber to persecute religious dissidents.

“chopping off the head of that same Charles in Charing Cross” — The Execution of Charles I in 1649 was a watershed moment in history, marking the first time a reigning monarch was tried and executed by his own subjects.

“Cromwell.” — Oliver Cromwell was the military leader of the Parliamentarian forces who later ruled England, Scotland, and Ireland as Lord Protector during the Interregnum.

“The King of Spain’s coat of arms stares back at him, stamped in silver… D. G. HISPAN ET IND REX” — Spanish Colonial Currency, specifically the silver Piece of Eight, was the world’s first global currency due to the massive output of Spanish mines in the Americas.

“tracing out fading and flattening conic sections” — Conic Sections (circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas) are the curves produced by intersecting a cone with a plane; they are essential for calculating the orbits of planets and comets.

“The Hypothesis of Vortices is pressed with many difficulties.” — René Descartes proposed a Vortex Theory suggesting planets were carried by whirlpools of “aether.” Newton’s Principia was written specifically to debunk this in favor of universal gravitation. Stephenson’s annotation: “Descartes and others, including (for a while) Leibniz sought to explain the orbits of planets by means of vortices in the aether. It seems nutty to us, but was preferable to them, on metaphysical grounds, to the notion of action at a distance, which is a bit troublesome even today.”

“action-at-a-distance” — Action at a Distance is the concept of objects affecting one another without physical contact; Newton’s gravity was initially attacked by other scientists as being a “magical” or “occult” idea because it lacked a mechanical explanation.

“daniel waterhouse” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Waterhouse is a reasonably common English name. The Waterhouses, both here and in Cryptonomicon, are totally fictitious and bear no relationship whatsoever to any real people named Waterhouse anywhere in the world. Daniel Waterhouse has one or two things in common with a John Wickins who was Newton’s roommate at Cambridge, but beyond that he is completely fictitious (as are the other Waterhouses) and there is no point trying to search historical documents for anyone of that name.”

“arms of the King of Spain are branded into his left shoulder, and so he is probably Angolan” — This refers to the branding of enslaved people to prove the Asiento tax had been paid; Luanda in Angola was a primary port for the Portuguese slave trade.

“some Irish, the rest Angolan—running through the streets with pitchforks and firebrands” — This likely refers to Leisler’s Rebellion or similar colonial uprisings where ethnic and religious tensions boiled over following the political instability in England.

“massachusetts bay colony institute of technologickal arts” — Stephenson’s annotation: “This is totally fictitious. Nothing like it ever existed. Yet isn’t it a bit coincidental that its name could be shortened to Massachusetts Institute of Technology? Of course the real MIT wasn’t founded until the mid 1800’s.”

“Natural Philosophers. Not, mind you, the other sort—” — Natural Philosophy was the term used for the study of nature and the physical universe before the word “science” was coined in the 19th century.

“The Royal Society of London.” — Founded in 1660, The Royal Society is the oldest national scientific institution in the world, dedicated to the principle of “Nullius in verba” (Take nobody’s word for it).

“each marked with the King’s Arrow” — The Broad Arrow was a mark used by the British government to identify “King’s Broad Arrow” trees in the American colonies, which were reserved for use as masts for the Royal Navy.

“Newtowne, where Harvard College is.” — Harvard College was established in 1636 in Cambridge (originally called Newtowne) as the first institution of higher learning in the British colonies.

“heard by their future queen” — From the original wiki (Chris Swingley): “The Act of Settlement in 1701 set Sophia of Hanover (a Protestant) as the next in the line of succession after Queen Anne in order to prevent James III (a Catholic) from becoming King. They spoke German, and the eventual successor to Queen Anne, George I, never even learned English.”

“fallen quite under the spell of Herr Leibniz” — Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz was a German polymath and philosopher who is the primary intellectual rival to Newton in the novel.

“him that stole the calculus from Sir Isaac” — The Calculus Priority Dispute was a bitter, decades-long feud between Newton and Leibniz over who deserved credit for inventing calculus.

“hacking loose a small accumulation of yellow bile—the humour of anger” — Humorism was the ancient medical theory that the body was controlled by four fluids (humors); it remained the dominant medical paradigm well into the 18th century.

“muttering to them words like “Hanover” and “Ansbach.”” — This refers to the Hanoverian Succession, the political plan to ensure a Protestant heir from the German House of Hanover (including Caroline of Ansbach) would take the British throne.

“the peace of Westphalia did.” — The Peace of Westphalia (1648) ended the Thirty Years’ War and established the modern system of nation-states and diplomatic sovereignty.

“the Navigation Act. And a sea-war against the Dutch.” — The Navigation Acts were laws designed to protect English trade from foreign competition, which directly triggered a series of naval wars with the Dutch Republic.

“john comstock and thomas more anglesey” — Stephenson’s annotation: “These names are both factitious and the characters both fictional. Don’t bother Googling them. John Comstock has a few things in common with John Evelyn (an early Royal Society figure and author of a great Diary) and a few other things in common with the Earl of Clarendon. Thomas More Anglesey is not based that directly on any historical figures, but stands in for a lot of Francophilic crypto-Catholic courtiers who were thick on the ground in those days.”

“We did not begin calling such people Tories until a good bit later” — The Tories and Whigs were the two original political parties in England, emerging from the 17th-century debates over royal power and religious tolerance.

“Huygens—a brilliant youth… was at work on a pendulum-clock” — Christiaan Huygens was a Dutch scientist who invented the pendulum clock in 1656, providing the first truly accurate way to measure time.

“anointed him with angelbalm a thousand years old” — From the original wiki: “The specific reference here is to the Oil of Clovis with which all pre-Revolutionary French kings were anointed during their coronation. Legendarily, the vial was supposed to have been delivered in the beak of a heaven-sent dove to the bishop who baptised Clovis, the first Frankish king, in 496 A.D.”

“monsieur le febure” — Stephenson’s annotation: “Monsieur Le Febure was for real, but I don’t know much about him, so most of what appears concerning him in this book is made up.”

“pay a call on John Wilkins” — John Wilkins was a founding member of the Royal Society and a polymath who wrote extensively on linguistics, mechanics, and even the possibility of space travel.

“pick up some copies of Cryptonomicon.” — Stephenson’s annotation: ‘In the real world [Wilkins] published a book called Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger… the Baroque Cycle and my novel Cryptonomicon are both set in a slightly different alternate universe in which Wilkins’s treatise was called Cryptonomicon.’

“Christopher Wren” — Though famous today for rebuilding London after the Great Fire, Christopher Wren was originally a professor of astronomy and a brilliant mathematician.

“Robert Boyle” — Robert Boyle is considered the first modern chemist; he is best known for Boyle’s Law, which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas.

“Robert Hooke” — Robert Hooke was the Royal Society’s “Curator of Experiments” and a rival to Newton; he discovered the law of elasticity and was the first to use the word “cell” to describe biological organisms.

Original annotations by: traub, stephenson, sinder, andux, thompson, bornstein, tufts, swingley