OLDENBURG, HENRY, was born about 1626 in the duchy of Bremen in Lower Saxony. He came to London in 1653, where he held the office of consul for the town of Bremen for nearly two years. Being discharged from that employment, he was appointed tutor to Lord Henry O'Bryan, an Irish nobleman, whom he attended to the university of Oxford, where he was admitted to study in the Bodleian Library in the beginning of the year 1656. He was afterwards tutor to Lord William Cavendish, and gained the friendship of Milton the poet. During his residence at Oxford he became acquainted with the founders of the Royal Society, and was chosen assistant to Dr. Wilkins, the secretary to that body. He applied himself with extraordinary diligence to the business of his office, and in the year 1664 began the publication of the Philosophical Transactions, which he continued to No. xxxvi., 25th June 1677. After this the publication was discontinued till the January following, when it was again resumed by his successor, Nehemiah Grew, who carried it on till the end of February 1678. Oldenburg died at Charleton, in Kent, in August 1678. In addition to a few short papers on medical and other subjects published in the Transactions, Oldenburg translated several works into English from the French and Latin, under the anagram Grubendol.