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Darrera modificació: 2011-04-01
Bases de dades: Sciència.cat
Multhauf, Robert P., The Origins of Chemistry, Londres - Nova York, Oldbourne - Franklin Watts (Oldbourne History of Science Library / The Watts History of Science Library), 1966, 412 pp. + 8 pp. de làm.
- Resum
- Since chemistry deals with basic human needs and fundamental aspects of the nature of things, its roots can be traced very early and yet it is one of the youngest of sciences. This book, the first of its kind in recent times, studies the science of matter as found in technology, philosophy, alchemy, and medicine, down to the 17th century. It considers the practical knowledge and the scientific pretensions of the leading exponents in these fields, and shows how the various threads came together after the renaissance to start the chemist on the road which led to Lavoisier.
The scope of this scholarly and authoritative work by the director of the Smithsonian's Museum of History and Technology (retired) is much wider than its title might indicate. The Origins of Chemistry integrates the histories of Greek, Arabic, and Latin alchemical traditions with philosophy, technology, and the genesis of medical chemistry. Multhauf differs from his predecessors by finding the sources of chemistry not in medieval alchemy, but in the "chemical" science of matter described in antiquity. The obscurity and complexities attending the era's ingenious speculations are convincingly described by Dr. Multhauf; we can understand why new and more exact experiments were necessary before the chemical revolution of the eighteenth century could begin. This landmark study, which concludes with the field's reorganization by Lavoisier and his contemporaries, contains an exceptional bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
Contents:
* Preface · 1
* Introduction · 9
* Practical Chemistry in Antiquity · 17
* From Cosmogony to Cosmology · 39
* The Postsocratic Philosophers · 52
* Microphysics in Antiquity · 66
* Prelude to Alchemy · 82
* Alchemy · 102
* The Medieval East · 117
* The Medieval West · 143
* The Apogee of Latin Alchemy · 176
* Medical Chemistry · 201
* Chemistry and Natural Philosophy · 237
* The Rise of the Chemist · 257
* On Matter and Its Changes · 274
* Affinities · 299
* Metal Industries and the Science of Metals · 311
* Heavy Chemicals · 321
* Summary and Conclusion · 349
* Bibliography · 355
* List of Abbreviations · 391
* Index · 393
- Matèries
- Alquímia
- Notes
- Trad. it. parcial a Crisciani - Pereira (1996), L'arte del sole e della luna ...
Reimpr.: Yverdon (Suïssa) - Langhorne (Pa), Gordon and Breach Science Publishers (Classics in the history and philosophy of science, 13), 1993.
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