Rampling, Jennifer M. (Author)
University of Chicago Press
Physical Details: 427
Language: English
In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of alchemy promised extraordinary physical transformations. Who would not be amazed to see base metals turned into silver and gold, hard iron into soft water, and deadly poison into elixirs that could heal the human body? To defend such claims, alchemists turned to the past: scouring ancient books for evidence of a lost alchemical heritage--and seeking to translate their secret language and obscure imagery into replicable, practical effects. Tracing the development of alchemy in England over four hundred years, from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Jennifer M. Rampling illuminates the role of alchemical reading and experimental practice in the broader context of national and scientific history. Using new manuscript sources, she shows how Roger Bacon, George Ripley, John Dee, Edward Kelley, and Isaac Newton, as well as many previously unknown alchemists, devised new practical approaches to alchemy, while seeking the support of English monarchs, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. By reconstructing their alchemical ideas, practices, and disputes, Rampling reveals how English alchemy was continually reinvented over the space of four centuries, resulting in changes to the science itself. In so doing, The Experimental Fire bridges the intellectual history of chemistry and the wider worlds of early modern patronage, medicine, and science.
...MoreReview Richard Dunn (2022) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 119-120).
Review Georgiana D. Hedesan (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Early Science and Medicine: A Journal for the Study of Science, Technology and Medicine in the Pre-modern Period (pp. 391-394).
Review Anna Marie Roos (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 181-184).
Review Stephen Clucas (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 185-189).
Review Jennifer M. Rampling (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 191-198).
Review William R. Newman (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 175-180).
Review Megan Piorko (2022) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 178-179).
Review Peter Murray Jones (2021) Review of "The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700". Ambix: Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (pp. 319-321).
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