Alchemy Tried in the Fire

Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry

William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe

360 pages, parution le 27/07/2005

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Résumé

What actually took place in the private laboratory of a mid-seventeenth century alchemist? How did he direct his quest after the secrets of Nature? What instruments and theoretical principles did he employ?

Using, as their guide, the previously misunderstood interactions between Robert Boyle, widely known as "the father of chemistry," and George Starkey, an alchemist and the most prominent American scientific writer before Benjamin Franklin as their guide, Newman and Principe reveal the hitherto hidden laboratory operations of a famous alchemist and argue that many of the principles and practices characteristic of modern chemistry derive from alchemy. By analyzing Starkey's extraordinary laboratory notebooks, the authors show how this American "chymist" translated the wildly figurative writings of traditional alchemy into quantitative, carefully reasoned laboratory practice--and then encoded his own work in allegorical, secretive treatises under the name of Eirenaeus Philalethes. The intriguing "mystic" Joan Baptista Van Helmont--a favorite of Starkey, Boyle, and even of Lavoisier--emerges from this study as a surprisingly central figure in seventeenth-century "chymistry." A common emphasis on quantification, material production, and analysis/synthesis, the authors argue, illustrates a continuity of goals and practices from late medieval alchemy down to and beyond the Chemical Revolution.

For anyone who wants to understand how alchemy was actually practiced during the Scientific Revolution and what it contributed to the development of modern chemistry, Alchemy Tried in the Fire will be a veritable philosopher's stone.

L'auteur - William R. Newman

William R. Newman is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at Indiana University.

Sommaire

Worlds Apart
Number, Weight, Measure, and Experiment in Chymistry: From the Medievals to Van Helmont
Theory and Practice: Starkey's Laboratory Methodology
Scholasticism, Metallurgy, and Secrecy in the Laboratory: The Style and Origin of Starkey's Notebooks
Starkey, Boyle, and Chymistry in the Hartlib Circle
The Legacy of Van Helmont's and Starkey's Chymistry: Boyle, Homberg, and the Chemical Revolution

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Caractéristiques techniques

	PAPIER
Éditeur(s)	The University of Chicago Press
Auteur(s)	William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe
Parution	27/07/2005
Nb. de pages	360
Format	15 x 23
Couverture	Broché
Poids	485g
Intérieur	Noir et Blanc
EAN13	9780226577029
ISBN13	978-0-226-57702-9