Experiment and Quantification of Weight: Late-Renaissance and Early Modern Medical, Mineralogical and Chemical Discussions on the Weights of Metals (2020)
Manzo, Silvia A. (Author)
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Volume: 25
Issue: 4
Pages: 388-412
This paper explores how a set of observations on the weight of lead were interpreted and assessed between the 1540s and the 1630s across three different interconnecting disciplines: medicine, mineralogy and chemistry. The epistemic import of these discussions will be demonstrated by showing: 1) the changing role and articulation of experience and quantification in the investigation of metals; and 2) the notions associated with weight in different disciplinary frameworks. In medicine and mineralogy, weight was not considered as a specific subject of inquiry in itself, but as a “sign” indicating other relevant properties of metals. In contrast, the chemistry tradition was increasingly concerned with the specific investigation of weight as a property of matter, as seen in the debates that took place in the “chemical revolution.” In addition, this study will reveal the versatility, polysemy, and parallel purposes of the recourse to experiential knowledge in different contexts, where the same “facts” operate within different disciplines.
...MoreArticle Cesare Pastorino (2020) Exploration and Experimentation on the Weight and Density of Substances in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries: Introduction. Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 297-301).
Similar Citations
Article
Cesare Pastorino;
(2020)
Johannes Kepler and the Exploration of the Weight of Substances in the Long Sixteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB163101580/)
Article
Roos, Anna Marie;
(2008)
Lodestones and Gallstones: The Magnetic Iatrochemistry of Martin Lister (1639--1712)
(/isis/citation/CBB000931539/)
Article
Dym, Warren Alexander;
(2008)
Alchemy and Mining: Metallogenesis and Prospecting in Early Mining Books
(/isis/citation/CBB000850637/)
Book
Newman, William Royall;
(2006)
Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB000741087/)
Article
Emma Prevignano;
(2022)
A Passport for the Metre The Diplomatic Recognition of the Metric System in a Changing International Order (1785–1799)
(/isis/citation/CBB919253871/)
Article
Kershaw, Michael;
(2013)
Twentieth-Century Length: The Origins, Use, and Formalization of Electromagnetic Standards
(/isis/citation/CBB001212581/)
Book
Whitelaw, Ian;
(2007)
A Measure of All Things: The Story of Man and Measurement
(/isis/citation/CBB000830137/)
Book
Moulinier, Laurence;
Sallmann, Line;
Verna, Catherine;
Weill-Parot, Nicolas;
(2005)
La juste mesure: quantifier, évaluer, mesurer entre orient et occident, VIIIe-XVIIIe siècle
(/isis/citation/CBB000701246/)
Article
José Ferreirós;
(2020)
Gauss and the Mathematical Background to Standardisation
(/isis/citation/CBB127439302/)
Article
Alice Marples;
(2022)
The science of money: Isaac Newton's mastering of the Mint
(/isis/citation/CBB998211009/)
Article
Staffan Müller-Wille;
(2021)
Corners, Tables, Lines: Towards a Diagrammatics of Race
(/isis/citation/CBB922565008/)
Article
Ferdinando Abbri;
(2019)
Gold and silver: perfection of metals in medieval and early modern alchemy
(/isis/citation/CBB592218557/)
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/)
Article
Isabel Barton;
(2022)
Mining, alchemy, and the changing concept of minerals from antiquity to early modernity
(/isis/citation/CBB224295091/)
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2020)
Sounding the depths of Providence: Mineral (re)generation and human-environment interaction in the early modern period
(/isis/citation/CBB187063360/)
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/)
Article
Norris, John A.;
(2006)
The Mineral Exhalation Theory of Metallogenesis in Pre-Modern Mineral Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000651761/)
Chapter
Regine MATHIAS;
(2020)
Knowledge on Mining and Smelting and Its Dissemination in the Edo Period
(/isis/citation/CBB028133405/)
Book
Erlichman, Howard J.;
(2010)
Conquest, Tribute, and Trade: The Quest for Precious Metals and the Birth of Globalization
(/isis/citation/CBB001023149/)
Chapter
Norris, John A.;
(2011)
Dolování a pedstavy o metalogenezi v echách 16. století
(/isis/citation/CBB001201954/)
Earth Sciences History: Journal of the History of the Earth Sciences Society
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period
Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
History of Science
Be the first to comment!