Magnetismus und Theamedismus. Eine Fallstudie zur Kenntnis der magnetischen Abstoßung in der Naturkunde der Frühen Neuzeit (2017)
Sander, Christoph (Author)
Sudhoffs Archiv: Zeitschrift fuer Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Volume: 101
Issue: 1
Pages: 42-72
Since antiquity scholars know that magnets attract iron. However, most ancient or medieval scholars were hardly interested in the matter of magnetic repulsion, and if so, repulsion was mostly related to another stone or kind of magnet. In Pliny's Natural History this type of a repulsive magnet was identified as a stone that was considered to repel iron only. Pliny or his source Sotacus called this stone "theamedes". In the sixteenth century this stone became increasingly important in science and was widely discovered, described, discussed and explained. The fact of magnetic bipolarity was accounted for by assuming that a magnet and a "theamedes" were combined in one stone. In Andreas Libavius's alchemy the term "theamedism" was even associated with "magnetism" to refer to antipathy and sympathy in general. Yet, from the later sixteenth century onwards, several authors such as Gerolamo Cardano, Michele Mercati, Leonardo Garzoni, Giambattista della Porta, or William Gilbert denied the very existence of the "theamedes" as they considered all magnets to attract and to repel iron. Tracing back the appearance of the "theamedes" in early-modern sources, which is the subject of the case study at hand, not only enriches the historical understanding of magnetic phenomena. More importantly, this case study urges historians of science to reflect on the historical instability and contingency of notions relating to natural kinds. The magnet's essential features of attraction and repulsion (bipolarity) were hardly or rarely met by the notion of 'magnet' in the early-modern period. In turn, from the modern point of view the "theamedes" does not seem to refer to any mineral at all, and yet is related to a well known physical phenomenon, i.e. magnetic repulsion.
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