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Article ID: CBB184322393

Exploration and Experimentation on the Weight and Density of Substances in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries: Introduction (2020)

Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Volume: 25
Issue: 4
Pages: 297-301

URI: https://brill.com/view/journals/esm/25/4/article-p297_1.xml

DOI: 10.1163/15733823-00254P01

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Weights and measures Properties of matter Measurement Experiments and experimentation Travel; exploration 17th century 16th century Europe

Introduction: "The second half of the sixteenth century saw a renewed interest among European scholars in the quantitative investigations of the weight and density of substances. Attempts to estimate the specific weights of particular substances were not new. Early numerical determinations for common metals, or materials like oil, wine and honey, were already available in the Renaissance from a variety of sources, including classical texts and medieval technical manuscripts.1 Also, medieval Arabic scholars had developed extremely sophisticated examinations of the specific gravities of many substances, which however were entirely unknown to the Renaissance authors of the Latin west.2 It is fair to say then that the time between the mid-sixteenth century and the first few decades of the seventeenth century marked the origins of an extensive experimental program – still not fully investigated in the literature as a whole – for the study in Europe of the weights of substances. Apart from Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon and Johannes Kepler – the scholars considered in three of the essays in this special issue – it is worth recalling other figures who also embarked on significant explorations during this time. Among others, the cases of Niccolò Tartaglia, François de Foix de Candale, Jean Bodin, Juan Bautista Villalpando, Galileo Galilei and Marino Ghetaldi stand out. All of these authors – in different ways and often with very different motivations – conducted extensive measurements of the specific weights of a large number of substances and objects, including coins and precious stones.3 In the title of this special issue, I refer to these investigations as “explorations.” This is not a casual choice. As the following articles will show, these early observations and experiments on the weights of substances produced a considerable number of preliminary measurements and results, which were not however obtained through a univocal, consolidated method, and which, overall, did not fit into a conclusive and coherent picture. The investigations documented in this issue are not accounts of crucial discoveries, or confirmations of overarching theories, but explorations of what was perceived as a still largely unknown experimental landscape (what Friedrich Steinle has fittingly called ‘exploratory experimentation’).4 As mentioned, investigations and measurements produced a substantial collection of data. In the time span under consideration, the number of things and substances which had had their weights investigated grew from the small assortment considered by classical authors – like water, wine, oil and the metals – to a remarkable number and variety. The most spectacular case of this sort of accumulation can be found in the almost Rabelaisian list of measured substances in Francis Bacon’s Historia densi et rari, which included the weighing of things as diverse as mutton flesh, pearl powder, ox horns, Indian balsam, raw calves’ brains, sheep’s blood, red sandalwood, jet, fresh onion and cow’s milk.5 Also, as Silvia Manzo’s article shows, interpretations on the increase of the weight of metals in mines and during calcination developed in a haphazard way, alternating between acceptance and rejection of traditional and new explanations, among several disciplines (medicine, mineralogy, chemistry)."

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Includes Series Articles

Article Silvia Manzo (2020) Experiment and Quantification of Weight: Late-Renaissance and Early Modern Medical, Mineralogical and Chemical Discussions on the Weights of Metals. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 388-412). unapi

Article Dana Jalobeanu (2020) Experiments in the Making: Instruments and Forms of Quantification in Francis Bacon’s Historia Densi et Rari. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 360-387). unapi

Article Cesare Pastorino (2020) Johannes Kepler and the Exploration of the Weight of Substances in the Long Sixteenth Century. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 328-359). unapi

Article Stephen Clucas (2020) ‘The Curious Ways to Observe Weight in Water’: Thomas Harriot and His Experiments on Specific Gravity. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 302-327). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB184322393/

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