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Article ID: CBB293570302

Hans Egede (1686–1758) and the Alchemical Tradition in Denmark-Norway (2019)

Science in Context
Volume: 32
Issue: 3
Pages: 285-307

URI: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/science-in-context/article/hans-egede-16861758-and-the-alchemical-tradition-in-denmarknorway/7870777F0ED519EA45ECE7B910274D55

DOI: 10.1017/S0269889719000267

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Alchemy 18th century Norway Greenland Denmark Borch, Ole Sendivogius, Michael Becher, Johann Joachim Egede, Hans

Hans Egede (1686–1758), the famous missionary and natural historian in Greenland, was one of very few known Norwegian alchemists. This article seeks to place Egede’s alchemy in the context of the European alchemical tradition by identifying his sources in alchemical literature. Through an analysis of Egede’s account of an alchemical experiment performed by him in 1727, Ole Borch, Johann Joachim Becher, and Michael Sendivogius are identified as his main sources. Egede’s procedure and choice of materials are shown to be based on texts by these authors. The article argues that Egede’s alchemical interest was more pervasive than hitherto understood, through the demonstration of connections between his alchemical studies and his work as a natural historian. Further it is argued that Egede’s alchemy was not unique or anachronistic but exemplifies the continued belief in and practice of transmutational alchemy in Denmark-Norway in the early decades of the eighteenth century.

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Article Shaul Katzir (2018) Introduction: Physics, Technology, and Technics during the Interwar Period. Science in Context (pp. 251-261). unapi

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