Isabel Fay Barton (Author)
This paper analyzes how the Western concept of minerals evolved over time. Greco-Roman philosophers saw minerals as a form of plant that yielded useful metals or medicines. Most of their data came from mines and focused on ore minerals, but medicinal uses were more highly regarded and were the principal intentional focus of early mineral literature. As mining waned in the early medieval period, the focus of mineral literature shifted to emphasize gemstones rather than ores and mysticism rather than metallurgy, while medicine continued to be prominent. Descriptions from firsthand observation became rare. Starting in the 9th century AD, an inorganic concept of minerals as chemicals began to arise from alchemical experiments in the Middle East. The alchemical mineral literature demonstrated that minerals differed from plants in being separable into constituent ingredients by chemical processes, focusing on ores. The sulfur-mercury model of mineral origin also reflects a strong emphasis on metal ores at the expense of other minerals. As mining rates increased again in Europe after the 10th century, this alchemical concept of minerals caught on. However, the alchemical model acquired a spiritual gloss, leading to a divide in the 16th century between a spiritualized organic model of minerals and an inorganic or mechanical alternative, both focused mainly on ores. Eventually the concept of spiritual or living minerals diverged from the mineral to the alchemical literature in the 16th century, as the mechanical model evolved into the modern chemical identification of minerals.
...More
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2020)
Sounding the depths of Providence: Mineral (re)generation and human-environment interaction in the early modern period
(/isis/citation/CBB187063360/)
Book
Soukup, R. Werner;
(2007)
Chemie in Österreich. Von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts. Bergbau, Alchemie und frühe Chemie. Geschichte der frühen chemischen Technologie und Alchemie des ostalpinen Raumes unter Berücksichtigung von Entwicklungen in angrenzenden Regionen
(/isis/citation/CBB000850654/)
Book
Paolo Vingo (de);
(2021)
Piemonte archeo-minerario: Miniere e opifici da risorsa strategica a patrimonio storico-ambientale
(/isis/citation/CBB915241407/)
Chapter
Paolo Vingo (de);
(2021)
Il programma «Piemonte archeo-minerario»: miniere e opifici da risorsa strategica a patrimonio storico-ambientale
(/isis/citation/CBB861242855/)
Book
Thomasset, Claude;
Ducos, Joëlle;
Chambon, Jean-Pierre;
(2010)
Aux origines de la géologie de l'Antiquité au Moyen Âge
(/isis/citation/CBB001023268/)
Article
Dym, Warren Alexander;
(2008)
Alchemy and Mining: Metallogenesis and Prospecting in Early Mining Books
(/isis/citation/CBB000850637/)
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2020)
“Per la vertù propria dell’acque”. Vene minerali e sorgenti nella Pirotechnia di Vannoccio Biringuccio (1540)
(/isis/citation/CBB421613790/)
Article
Mohammad Yazdi;
(2021)
The history of mineralogy and gemology in Iran
(/isis/citation/CBB933510462/)
Chapter
Nobis, Heribert M.;
Fritscher, Bernhard;
(2002)
Mittelalterlich-scholastiche Wurzeln der Mineralogie Georgius Agricolas. Ein Beitrag zur Geistesgeschichte der Geowissenschaften der frühen Neuzeit
(/isis/citation/CBB000773742/)
Book
Linda Armano;
(2018)
La cultura di miniera nelle Alpi
(/isis/citation/CBB723410929/)
Book
Massimiliano Lenzi;
Olga L. Lizzini;
Pina Totaro;
Luisa Valente;
(2022)
Fonti, flussi, onde. L'acqua tra realtà e metafora nel pensiero antico, medievale e moderno
(/isis/citation/CBB040022491/)
Book
Salvatore Califano;
(2015)
Storia dell'alchimia: misticismo ed esoterismo all'origine della chimica moderna
(/isis/citation/CBB559415425/)
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2018)
Scalare il Sublime: Scienza e storia nel primo volume del Memoriale dell’Hotel Nave d’Oro di Predazzo (1820-1875)
(/isis/citation/CBB511003362/)
Thesis
Chambers, Mark Milton;
(2012)
River of Gray Gold: Cultural and Material Changes in the Land of Ores, Country of Minerals, 1719--1839
(/isis/citation/CBB001560771/)
Article
Alessandro Pacini;
(2019)
Apprentices and masters - the transmission of ancient goldsmith techniques
(/isis/citation/CBB907846400/)
Book
Efthymios Nicolaïdis;
(2018)
Greek Alchemy from Late Antiquity to Early Modernity
(/isis/citation/CBB824187803/)
Book
Marco Ciardi;
Raffaele Cataldi;
(2005)
Il calore della Terra. Contributo alla Storia della Geotermia in Italia
(/isis/citation/CBB126003543/)
Article
Vittorio Iammarino;
(2019)
I derivati degli scisti bituminosi nella pratica medica
(/isis/citation/CBB725460240/)
Article
Francisco Omar Escamilla-González;
Lucero Morelos-Rodríguez;
(2020)
Bringing Werner’s teachings to the New World: Andrés Manuel del Río and the Chair of Mineralogy in the School of Mines of Mexico (1795–1805)
(/isis/citation/CBB119559251/)
Book
Leen Spruit;
(2014)
The Origin of the Soul from Antiquity to the Early Modern Era: A Short Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB139646410/)
Be the first to comment!