Alchemy Tried in the Fire

Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry

William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe

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English

Chicago University Press
01 June 2005

Magic, alchemy & hermetic thought; Mathematics & Sciences; History of science; Chemistry

Winner 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.

By: William R. Newman, Lawrence M. Principe
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 23mm, Width: 16mm, Spine: 2mm
Weight: 539g
ISBN: 9780226577029
ISBN 10: 0226577023
Pages: 360
Publication Date: 01 June 2005
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

William R. Newman is professor of history and philosophy of science at Indiana University. He is the author of The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation, and Study and Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution. Lawrence M. Principe is professor of the history of science and technology and of chemistry at The Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest and coeditor of The Correspondence of Robert Boyle.

Reviews for Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry

"""This is the history of science at its best: erudite, wide-ranging, and convincingly iconoclastic."" - Anthony Grafton; ""This book will be read by historians of chemistry, but it ought to be read much more widely, by historians of science more generally, of course, but also by anyone interested in the processes of intellectual change and in the problem of understanding practice."" - Pamela H. Smith, American Historical Review"""