The Experimental Fire

Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700

Jennifer M Rampling

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English

Chicago University Press
08 December 2020

British & Irish history; Mathematics & Sciences; History of science; Chemistry

Series: Synthesis

In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of alchemy promised extraordinary physical transformations. Who would not be amazed to see base metals turned into silver and gold, hard iron into soft water, and deadly poison into elixirs that could heal the human body? To defend such claims, alchemists turned to the past, scouring ancient books for evidence of a lost alchemical heritage and seeking to translate their secret language and obscure imagery into replicable, practical effects.

Tracing the development of alchemy in England over four hundred years, from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Jennifer M. Rampling illuminates the role of alchemical reading and experimental practice in the broader context of national and scientific history. Using new manuscript sources, she shows how practitioners like George Ripley, John Dee, and Edward Kelley, as well as many previously unknown alchemists, devised new practical approaches to alchemy while seeking the support of English monarchs. By reconstructing their alchemical ideas, practices, and disputes, Rampling reveals how English alchemy was continually reinvented over the space of four centuries, resulting in changes to the science itself. In so doing, The Experimental Fire bridges the intellectual history of chemistry and the wider worlds of early modern patronage, medicine, and science.

By: Jennifer M Rampling
Imprint: Chicago University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 666g
ISBN: 9780226710709
ISBN 10: 022671070X
Series: Synthesis
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 08 December 2020
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Out of Print

List of Figures List of Abbreviations ConventionsAcknowledgments Introduction: What Is Mercury? Part I: The Medieval Origins of English Alchemy 1. Philosophers and Kings 2. Medicine and Transmutation 3. Opinion and Experience Part II: The Golden Age of English Alchemy 4. Dissolution and Reformation 5. Nature and Magic 6. Time and Money Part III: The Legacy of Medieval Alchemy in Early Modern England 7. Recovery and Revision 8. Home and Abroad 9. Antiquity and Experiment Bibliography Index

Jennifer M. Rampling is assistant professor of history at Princeton University.

Reviews for The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700

This book has so many novel elements that it is difficult to know where to begin. Rampling presents one amazing archival discovery after another like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat. Forging vivid and compelling narratives with her materials, while remaining keenly aware of the living history behind the documents, she has been able to sketch the outlines of what has previously been entirely unknown to the history of alchemy. This is a fully achieved piece of research that is destined to become the key work in the field. --Stephen Clucas, Birkbeck, University of London