I was “handed the black spot” by the 7th Sea group, so all my research is in vain (unless I run my own 17th Century game, which might be interesting).
From the links below, I think the Descartes entry is the most interesting – not (only) for his philosophy (although the bit about the Pineal gland being the abode of the soul is fascinating), but also for his life and the people he ran across – plenty of stories to be found in the cracks.
Someone has codified my metaphysical beliefs into an atheistic religion (link from Jeff Dee’s page).
The (still ugly, but filled with potential) Grant Morrison website has a photo of Morisson as Alan Moore.
Also, evil people are spoofing http://www.grant-morrison.com.. I didn’t know you could do that, but apparently all this DNS stuff is putty in someone’s hand.
Britannica.com’s dry entries on buccaneers and Barbary pirates.
I’m preparing a character for a 7th Sea game set in more or less real Europe, 1669 (France specifically). Here’s a list of references(mostly 17th Century thinkers), from Britannica.com:
Benedict De Spinoza, Rene Descartes,
Robert Boyle,
Thomas Hobbes, Blaise Pascal, Christina queen of Sweden, Christiaan Huygens, Gottfried Wilhelm
Leibniz and the unavoidable Sir Issac Newton.
Oh, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert should be worth looking at.
