Transmutations of Chymistry: Wilhelm Homberg and the Academie Royale Des Sciences

This book reevaluates the changes to chemistry that took place from 1660 to 1730 through a close study of the chymist Wilhelm Homberg (1653-1715) and the changing fortunes of his discipline at the Academie Royale des Sciences, France's official scientific body. It reveals how Homberg's radical vision promoted chymistry as the most powerful and reliable means of understanding the natural world and provides new insights into the broader changes chymistry underwent during and immediately after Homberg.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 504 pages
\n Publication date: 09 October 2020
\n Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
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This captivating book delves into a profound reevaluation of the transformations that occurred in chemistry from 1660 to 1730, through a meticulous examination of the life and career of the renowned chymist Wilhelm Homberg (1653-1715). By tracing Homberg's remarkable journey from his native Java to the esteemed Academie Royale des Sciences in France, Lawrence M. Principe unveils the significance of this period and reevaluates its place in the broader context of the history of science. Principe, a foremost authority on the subject, recounts how Homberg's revolutionary vision elevated chymistry to become the most powerful and reliable means of understanding the natural world. Through a wealth of newly uncovered documents, Homberg's work at the Academie and in collaboration with the future regent, Philippe II d Orleans, sheds light on the broader changes that chymistry underwent during and immediately after Homberg's time. This work presents itself as a captivating human, disciplinary, and institutional biography, offering a significant revision of our understanding of the contours of chymistry and scientific institutions in the early eighteenth century.

\n Weight: 746g\n
Dimension: 162 x 235 x 35 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780226700786\n \n