One evening in 1723 a servant came to wake his master from an unusually long post-dinner snooze at his London home, only to find that the venerable 90-year-old had quietly passed away in his chair.
Thus death drew a close to the extraordinary life of a man whose accomplishments ranged through astronomy, mathematics and physics to anatomy and design. He had been a founder of the Royal Society, the world’s oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, and counted Sir Isaac Newton among fans of his work. His eclectic inventions included transparent beehives for scientific observation and a device to sow grain without waste.
Today, 300 years later, we remember Sir Christopher Wren less for being this energetic polymath and more as the revered architect who oversaw the rebuilding of London and St Paul’s Cathedral following the Great Fire of 1666. Yet it was the very diversity of his talents that had ensured his patronage and advancement in
