Daza, Mariana Sánchez (Author)
While the emergence of a new scientific culture in 16th-century Europe is well known, the role of the actors of the Hispanic New World in this time of renewal of knowledge has long been judged marginal for two reasons: first, because the strong presence of the Inquisition in the Hispanic World has been considered by historians to have been an obstacle for research or scientific innovation; and second, because the discontinuity of the territories of the Hispanic Monarchy and the problem of distances between Spain and the New World have long been interpreted in ways that suggest the marginality and peripheral status of the American colonies. However, some works counterbalance this dismissal and shed new light on the scientific activity of the Hispanic New World. This is the case with the treatise Arte de los Metales, by the secular priest Alvaro Alonso Barba, which would achieve remarkable fame and circulation, and would become a seminal work in the fields of metallurgy and mining until the mid-1700s. The article demonstrates that this treatise also presents ideas that can be traced back to a set of Paracelsian ideas combining alchemy, pharmacopoeia, and medicine, and studies specific examples of these ideas – the description of three fundamental substances (salt, mercury and sulphur) as components of all matter, references to Epatica sulfuris, an oil capable of turning silver into gold and curing certain diseases; and the use of antimony – that together testify to the spread of the ideas of Basil Valentine and of Paracelsian influences. From this point of view, Arte de los Metales can be viewed as part of a tradition unexpectedly renewed by the author through many observations based on his own work in Peru and the discoveries he made thanks to alternative techniques. This demonstrates the richness and diversity of knowledge rooted in the New World, and links Alonso Barba’s scholarly activity to some of the great schools of thought that spanned the Early Modern European world.
...MoreArticle John R. R. Christie (2020) Atlantic Chemistries, 1600–1820. Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology (pp. 135-138).
Article
Linda A. Newson;
(2020)
Alchemy and Chemical Medicines in Early Colonial Lima, Peru
(/isis/citation/CBB042314859/)
Book
Allison Margaret Bigelow;
(2020)
Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World
(/isis/citation/CBB877754784/)
Chapter
Melero, Joaquín Pérez;
(2009)
From Alchemy to Science: The Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment in Spanish American Mining and Metallurgy
(/isis/citation/CBB001021036/)
Article
Guerrero, Saúl;
(2012)
Chemistry as a Tool for Historical Research: Identifying Paths of Historical Mercury Pollution in the Hispanic New World
(/isis/citation/CBB001252044/)
Article
Studnicki-Gizbert, Daviken;
Schecter, David;
(2010)
The Environmental Dynamics of a Colonial Fuel-Rush: Silver Mining and Deforestation in New Spain, 1522 to 1810
(/isis/citation/CBB001021176/)
Chapter
Bartels, Christoph;
(2010)
The Production of Silver, Copper, and Lead in the Harz Mountains from Late Medieval Times to the Onset of Industrialization
(/isis/citation/CBB001020287/)
Article
Renée Raphael;
(2023)
Toward a Critical Transatlantic History of Early Modern Mining: Depiction, Reality, and Readers’ Expectations in Álvaro Alonso Barba’s 1640 El arte de los metales
(/isis/citation/CBB067765109/)
Article
López Pérez, Miguel;
(2009)
La alquimia en el nuevo mundo: datos para su consideración
(/isis/citation/CBB001023371/)
Multimedia Object
Lance C. Thurner;
Bigelow, Allison Margaret;
(2020)
Allison Bigelow, “Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World” (UNC Press 2020)
(/isis/citation/CBB595307728/)
Article
Díaz Blanco, José Manuel;
(2012)
Noticias nuevas sobre el metalurgista Alvaro Alonso Barba: la negociación cortesana de 1660
(/isis/citation/CBB001253019/)
Book
Didier Kahn;
(2016)
Le fixe et le volatil: chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier
(/isis/citation/CBB308791400/)
Article
Hiro Hirai;
(2021)
Daniel Sennert, Chymistry, and Theological Debates
(/isis/citation/CBB126568830/)
Book
Didier Kahn;
(2017)
L'alchimie à livres ouverts: En quête des secrets de la matière: livres et manuscrits du XVIe au XXe siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB851768762/)
Book
Rey Bueno, Mar;
(2002)
Los Señores del Fuego: Destiladores y Espagíricos en la Corte de los Austrias
(/isis/citation/CBB000650525/)
Book
López Pérez, Miguel;
(2003)
Asclepio renovado: Alquimia y medicina en la España (1500-1700)
(/isis/citation/CBB000530056/)
Article
Lenke, Nils;
Roudet, Nicolas;
Tilton, Hereward;
(2014)
Michael Maier---Nine Newly Discovered Letters
(/isis/citation/CBB001320977/)
Article
Francesca Lotti;
(2009)
Erasmo, Luciano e l'alchimia: l'Opera nuova di Angelo Forte
(/isis/citation/CBB290978733/)
Book
Scott, Heidi V.;
(2009)
Contested Territory: Mapping Peru in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB001231294/)
Book
Humbertclaude, Eric;
(2010)
Federico Gualdi à Venise: fragments retrouvés (1660--1678): recherches sur un exploitant minier alchimiste
(/isis/citation/CBB001200924/)
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/)
Be the first to comment!