Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian ChymistryWinner of the 2005 Pfizer Prize from the History of Science Society. 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. |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
acid alchemist alchemy alkahest alkali amalgam analysis antimony aqua Aristotelian Aspiring Adept Benjamin Worsley black powder Boyle's Cambridge century chapter chrysopoetic chym chymical chymistry Clodius Clodius's common mercury conjectural process corpuscles Digby dissolved distillation document 11 early modern Elixir Ephemerides Essay example exantlation experiment experimental fact Gehennical Fire George Starkey Glauber gold Hartlib circle Helmont Homberg Ibid laboratory practice Lavoisier letter London material medicine metals method Moriaen natural philosophy Natures Explication Newman niter Notebooks and Correspondence notes original Ortus Philalethes Philosophical Mercury preparation principles Pyrotechny quantitative quicksilver recipes records refers regulus Robert Boyle RSMS sal nitrum salt of tartar saltpeter Samuel Hartlib Sceptical Chymist Scholastic Science secret semina Sennert seventeenth seventeenth-century silver Sloane Sophic Mercury spirit of wine Starkey's Starkey's laboratory Starkey's notebooks substances Suchten Sulphur tion tradition transmutation treatise University Press urine Usefulnesse Van Helmont volatile salt weight Worsley Worsley's writes