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Andreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy: Separating Chemical Cultures with Polemical Fire

2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: 63; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jhmas/jrn005

1468-4373

Allen G. Debus,

History of Science and Medicine

The past half century has seen a steadily increasing interest in early chemistry and its relation to medicine as well as the history of science in general. This has resulted in a reexamination of the meaning of alchemy and chemistry beyond the transmutation of base metals into fields as diverse as physiology and metallurgy. And while a considerable part of this scholarly effort has been directed to the work of Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle, other work has turned to Paracelsus and the iatrochemistry of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Bruce T. Moran's study of Andreas Libavius (c. 1550–1616) is an important addition to this literature. Andreas Libavius is well known as a major figure in early modern chemistry through his Alchemia (1597) [expanded to the second edition Alchymia, (1606)]. And yet, these huge works are but a fraction of his output. Moran lists some forty items by Libavius in his bibliography that were printed during his lifetime plus ten dissertations he supervised. The period was one of intense debates in many fields, and chemistry was no exception. It is not uncommon to see this debate in terms of ancients versus moderns–or as Aristotelians and Galenists versus Paracelsians. This view is in part true, but, in fact, many, if not most, of these authors accepted concepts from both camps. Libavius was certainly one of these. A schoolteacher of logic and rhetoric, Libavius was a proponent of scholastic logic and the importance of grammar. However, it is evident that he devoted much of his time to chemical pursuits.