An Alchemical Quest For Universal Knowledge

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An Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge

Georgiana D. Hedesan
An Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge Book PDF

Author : Georgiana D. Hedesan
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2016-04-20
Category : History
ISBN : 9781317182146

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An Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge by Georgiana D. Hedesan Pdf

History of science credits the Flemish physician, alchemist and philosopher Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1579-1644) for his contributions to the development of chemistry and medicine. Yet, as this book makes clear, focussing on Van Helmont's impact on modern science does not do justice to the complexity of his thought or to his influence on successive generations of intellectuals like Robert Boyle or Gottfried Leibniz. Revealing Van Helmont as an original thinker who sought to produce a post-Scholastic synthesis of religion and natural philosophy, Georgiana Hedesan reconstructs his ambitious quest for universal knowledge as it emerges from the text of the Ortus medicinae (1648). Published after Van Helmont's death by his son, the work can best be understood as a compilation of finished and unfinished treatises, the historical product of a life unsettled by religious persecution and personal misfortune. The present book provides a coherent account of Van Helmont's philosophy by analysing its main tenets. Divided into two parts, the study opens with a background to Van Helmont's concept of an alchemical Christian philosophy, demonstrating that his outlook was deeply grounded in the tradition of medical alchemy as reformed by Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493-1541). It then reconstitutes Van Helmont's biography, while giving a historical dimension to his intellectual output. The second part reconstructs Van Helmont's Christian philosophy, investigating his views on God, nature and man, as well as his applied philosophy. Hedesan also provides an account of the development of Van Helmont's thought throughout his life. The conclusion sums up Van Helmont's intellectual achievement and highlights avenues of future research.

Newton the Alchemist

William R. Newman
Newton the Alchemist Book PDF

Author : William R. Newman
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 537 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2018-12-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780691185033

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Newton the Alchemist by William R. Newman Pdf

A book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.

The Experimental Fire

Jennifer M. Rampling
The Experimental Fire Book PDF

Author : Jennifer M. Rampling
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 427 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2023-03-08
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226826547

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The Experimental Fire by Jennifer M. Rampling Pdf

A 400-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. 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.

Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance

Philip Wexler
Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance Book PDF

Author : Philip Wexler
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2017-03-13
Category : Medical
ISBN : 9780128095591

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Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance by Philip Wexler Pdf

Toxicology in the Middle Ages and Renaissance provides an authoritative and fascinating exploration into the use of toxins and poisons in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Part of the History of Toxicology and Environmental Health series, this volume is a follow-up, chronologically, to the first two volumes which explored toxicology in antiquity. The book approximately covers the 1100s through the 1600s, delving into different aspects of toxicology, such as the contributions of scientific scholars of the time, sensational poisoners and poisoning cases, as well as myths. Historical figures, such as the Borgias and Catherine de Medici are discussed. Toxicologists, students, medical researchers, and those interested in the history of science will find insightful and relevant material in this volume. Provides the historical background for understanding modern toxicology Illustrates the ways previous civilizations learned to distinguish safe from hazardous substances, how to avoid them, and how to use them against enemies Explores the way famous historical figures used toxins

Theory Choice in the History of Chemical Practices

Emma Tobin,Chiara Ambrosio
Theory Choice in the History of Chemical Practices Book PDF

Author : Emma Tobin,Chiara Ambrosio
Publisher : Springer
Page : 80 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2016-05-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319298931

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Theory Choice in the History of Chemical Practices by Emma Tobin,Chiara Ambrosio Pdf

This collection of essays examines the question of theory from the perspective of the history of chemistry. Through the lens of a number of different periods, the authors provide a historical analysis of the question of theory in the history of chemical practice. The consensus picture that emerges is that the history of science tells us a much more complex story about theory choice. A glimpse at scientific practice at the time shows that different, competing as well as non-competing, theories were used in the context of the scientific practice at the various times and sometimes played a pivotal pedagogical role in training the next generation of chemists. This brief brings together a history of chemical practice, and in so doing reveals that theory choice is conceptually more problematic than was originally conceived. This volume was produced as part of the Ad HOC chemistry research group hosted by University College London and University of Cambridge.

Thomas Vaughan and the Rosicrucian Revival in Britain

Thomas Willard
Thomas Vaughan and the Rosicrucian Revival in Britain Book PDF

Author : Thomas Willard
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2022-09-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9789004519732

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Thomas Vaughan and the Rosicrucian Revival in Britain by Thomas Willard Pdf

Thomas Vaughan’s challenging books on alchemy, magic, and other esoterica make better sense in the context of the Rosicrucian ideas he introduced to English readers in the seventeenth century. This is the first scholarly book on his life, sources, writings, and subsequent influence.

The Poison Trials

Alisha Rankin
The Poison Trials Book PDF

Author : Alisha Rankin
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2021-01-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9780226744995

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The Poison Trials by Alisha Rankin Pdf

In 1524, Pope Clement VII gave two condemned criminals to his physician to test a promising new antidote. After each convict ate a marzipan cake poisoned with deadly aconite, one of them received the antidote, and lived—the other died in agony. In sixteenth-century Europe, this and more than a dozen other accounts of poison trials were committed to writing. Alisha Rankin tells their little-known story. At a time when poison was widely feared, the urgent need for effective cures provoked intense excitement about new drugs. As doctors created, performed, and evaluated poison trials, they devoted careful attention to method, wrote detailed experimental reports, and engaged with the problem of using human subjects for fatal tests. In reconstructing this history, Rankin reveals how the antidote trials generated extensive engagement with “experimental thinking” long before the great experimental boom of the seventeenth century and investigates how competition with lower-class healers spurred on this trend. The Poison Trials sheds welcome and timely light on the intertwined nature of medical innovations, professional rivalries, and political power.

Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood

Tara Nummedal
Anna Zieglerin and the Lion s Blood Book PDF

Author : Tara Nummedal
Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2019-02-14
Category : History
ISBN : 9780812295931

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Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood by Tara Nummedal Pdf

In 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary substance she called the lion's blood. She claimed that this golden oil could stimulate the growth of plants, create gemstones, transform lead into the coveted philosophers' stone—and would serve a critical role in preparing for the Last Days. Boldly envisioning herself as a Protestant Virgin Mary, Anna proposed that the lion's blood, paired with her own body, could even generate life, repopulating and redeeming the corrupt world in its final moments. In Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood, Tara Nummedal reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates Anna's story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germany's religious, political, and military battles; the rising influence of alchemy; the role of apocalyptic eschatology; and the position of women within these contexts. Together with her husband, the jester Heinrich Schombach, and their companion and fellow alchemist Philipp Sommering, Anna promised her patrons at the court of Wolfenbüttel spiritual salvation and material profit. But her compelling vision brought with it another, darker possibility: rather than granting her patrons wealth or redemption, Anna's alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and destruction. By 1575, three years after Anna's arrival at court, her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Anna's arrest, torture, and public execution. In her own life, Anna was a master of self-fashioning; in the centuries since her death, her story has been continually refashioned, making her a fitting emblem for each new age. Interweaving the history of science, gender, religion, and politics, Nummedal recounts how one resourceful woman's alchemical schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in Reformation Germany.

Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present

Georgiana D. Hedesan,Tim Rudbøg
Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present Book PDF

Author : Georgiana D. Hedesan,Tim Rudbøg
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 358 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2021-05-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9783030679064

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Innovation in Esotericism from the Renaissance to the Present by Georgiana D. Hedesan,Tim Rudbøg Pdf

This collection explores the role of innovation in understanding the history of esotericism. It illustrates how innovation is a mechanism of negotiation whereby an idea is either produced against, or adapted from, an older set of concepts in order to respond to a present context. Featuring contributions from distinguished scholars of esotericism, it covers many different fields and themes including magic, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Tarot, apocalypticism and eschatology, Mesmerism, occultism, prophecy, and mysticism.

Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

Dana Jalobeanu,Charles T. Wolfe
Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences Book PDF

Author : Dana Jalobeanu,Charles T. Wolfe
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 2267 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2022-08-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319310695

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences by Dana Jalobeanu,Charles T. Wolfe Pdf

This Encyclopedia offers a fresh, integrated and creative perspective on the formation and foundations of philosophy and science in European modernity. Combining careful contextual reconstruction with arguments from traditional philosophy, the book examines methodological dimensions, breaks down traditional oppositions such as rationalism vs. empiricism, calls attention to gender issues, to ‘insiders and outsiders’, minor figures in philosophy, and underground movements, among many other topics. In addition, and in line with important recent transformations in the fields of history of science and early modern philosophy, the volume recognizes the specificity and significance of early modern science and discusses important developments including issues of historiography (such as historical epistemology), the interplay between the material culture and modes of knowledge, expert knowledge and craft knowledge. This book stands at the crossroads of different disciplines and combines their approaches – particularly the history of science, the history of philosophy, contemporary philosophy of science, and intellectual and cultural history. It brings together over 100 philosophers, historians of science, historians of mathematics, and medicine offering a comprehensive view of early modern philosophy and the sciences. It combines and discusses recent results from two very active fields: early modern philosophy and the history of (early modern) science. Editorial Board EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Dana Jalobeanu University of Bucharest, Romania Charles T. Wolfe Ghent University, Belgium ASSOCIATE EDITORS Delphine Bellis University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Zvi Biener University of Cincinnati, OH, USA Angus Gowland University College London, UK Ruth Hagengruber University of Paderborn, Germany Hiro Hirai Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands Martin Lenz University of Groningen, The Netherlands Gideon Manning CalTech, Pasadena, CA, USA Silvia Manzo University of La Plata, Argentina Enrico Pasini University of Turin, Italy Cesare Pastorino TU Berlin, Germany Lucian Petrescu Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Justin E. H. Smith University de Paris Diderot, France Marius Stan Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA Koen Vermeir CNRS-SPHERE + Université de Paris, France Kirsten Walsh University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Reformation, Revolution, Renovation

Lyke de Vries
Reformation Revolution Renovation Book PDF

Author : Lyke de Vries
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2021-12-13
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004249394

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Reformation, Revolution, Renovation by Lyke de Vries Pdf

At the centre of the Rosicrucian manifestos was a call for ‘general reformation’. In Reformation, Revolution, Renovation, the first book-length study of this topic, Lyke de Vries demonstrates the unique position of the Rosicrucian call for reform in the transformative context of the early seventeenth century. The manifestos, commonly interpreted as either Lutheran or esoteric, are here portrayed as revolutionary mission statements which broke dramatically with Luther’s reform ideals. Their call for reform instead resembles a variety of late medieval and early modern dissenting traditions as well as the heterodox movement of Paracelsianism. Emphasising the universal character of the Rosicrucian proposal for change, this new genealogy of the core idea sheds fresh light on the vexed question of the manifestos’ authorship and helps explain their tumultuous reception by both those who welcomed and those who deplored them.

Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences

James A.T. Lancaster,Richard Raiswell
Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences Book PDF

Author : James A.T. Lancaster,Richard Raiswell
Publisher : Springer
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2018-10-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783319918693

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Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences by James A.T. Lancaster,Richard Raiswell Pdf

The motto of the Royal Society—Nullius in verba—was intended to highlight the members’ rejection of received knowledge and the new place they afforded direct empirical evidence in their quest for genuine, useful knowledge about the world. But while many studies have raised questions about the construction, reception and authentication of knowledge, Evidence in the Age of the New Sciences is the first to examine the problem of evidence at this pivotal moment in European intellectual history. What constituted evidence—and for whom? Where might it be found? How should it be collected and organized? What is the relationship between evidence and proof? These are crucial questions, for what constitutes evidence determines how people interrogate the world and the kind of arguments they make about it. In this important new collection, Lancaster and Raiswell have assembled twelve studies that capture aspects of the debate over evidence in a variety of intellectual contexts. From law and theology to geography, medicine and experimental philosophy, the chapters highlight the great diversity of approaches to evidence-gathering that existed side by side in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this way, the volume makes an important addition to the literature on early science and knowledge formation, and will be of particular interest to scholars and advanced students in these fields.

Nature Loves to Hide: An Alternative History of Philosophy

Paul S. MacDonald
Nature Loves to Hide An Alternative History of Philosophy Book PDF

Author : Paul S. MacDonald
Publisher : Lulu.com
Page : 476 pages
File Size : 50,5 Mb
Release : 2019-04-05
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780359197903

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Nature Loves to Hide: An Alternative History of Philosophy by Paul S. MacDonald Pdf

An alternative history of philosophy has endured as a shadowy parallel to standard histories, although it shares many of the same themes. It has its own founding texts in the late ancient Hermetica, from whence flowed three broad streams of thought: alchemy, astrology, and magic. These thinkers' attitude toward philosophy is not one of detached speculation but of active engagement, even intervention. It appeared again in the European Middle Ages, in the Renaissance with Rabelais, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Ficino, and Bruno; and in the early modern period with John Dee, Robert Fludd, Jacob Böhme, Thomas Browne, Kenelm Digby, van Helmont, and Isaac Newton. In the 18th-19th centuries, this book considers Lichtenberg's Fragments, Berkeley's Siris, Swedenborg, Hegel, von Baader, and great Romantics such as Novalis, Goethe, S. T. Coleridge, and E. A. Poe, as well as Nietzsche; and in the 20th century it turns to the great modernist literature of Fernando Pessoa, Robert Musil, Ernst Bloch, and P. K. Dick.

Elemental

Tim James
Elemental Book PDF

Author : Tim James
Publisher : Abrams
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-26
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781468317039

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Elemental by Tim James Pdf

If you want to understand how our world works, the periodic table holds the answers. When the seventh row of the periodic table of elements was completed in June 2016 with the addition of four final elements—nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson—we at last could identify all the ingredients necessary to construct our world.In Elemental, chemist and science educator Tim James provides an informative, entertaining, and quirkily illustrated guide to the table that shows clearly how this abstract and seemingly jumbled graphic is relevant to our day-to-day lives.James tells the story of the periodic table from its ancient Greek roots, when you could count the number of elements humans were aware of on one hand, to the modern alchemists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries who have used nuclear chemistry and physics to generate new elements and complete the periodic table. In addition to this, he answers questions such as: What is the chemical symbol for a human? What would happen if all of the elements were mixed together? Which liquid can teleport through walls? Why is the medieval dream of transmuting lead into gold now a reality?Whether you're studying the periodic table for the first time or are simply interested in the fundamental building blocks of the universe—from the core of the sun to the networks in your brain—Elemental is the perfect guide.

A New Order of Medicine

Hannah Murphy
A New Order of Medicine Book PDF

Author : Hannah Murphy
Publisher : University of Pittsburgh Press
Page : 429 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2019-04-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780822986812

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A New Order of Medicine by Hannah Murphy Pdf

Winner, 2020 SRS Book Prize The sixteenth century saw an unprecedented growth in the number of educated physicians practicing in German cities. Concentrating on Nuremberg, A New Order of Medicine follows the intertwined careers of municipal physicians as they encountered the challenges of the Reformation city for the first time. Although conservative in their professed Galenism, these men were eclectic in their practices, which ranged from book collecting to botany to subversive anatomical experimentations. Their interests and ambitions lead to local controversy. Over a twenty-year campaign, apothecaries were wrested from their place at the forefront of medical practice, no longer able to innovate remedies, while physicians, recent arrivals in the city, established themselves as the leading authorities. Examining archives, manuscript records, printed texts, and material and visual sources, and considering a wide range of diseases, Hannah Murphy offers the first systematic interpretation of the growth of elite medical “practice,” its relationship to Galenic theory, and the emergence of medical order in the contested world of the German city.