The book and the crucible: chemists in search of recognition (original) (raw)
Related papers
Ambix, 2021
Until now, the only known source on a curious incident in Robert Boyle’s life was the account of his laboratory assistant Ambrose Godfrey regarding one anonymous “Crosey-Crucian.” It survives only in excerpts and paraphrases published in 1858. Based on the recent identification of this adept as Peter Moritz, a German alchemist and religious dissenter, this paper presents his own perspective as expressed in an epistolary document originally addressed to Boyle. It emerges that the stock tale of alchemical fraud dominating Godfrey’s account does not do justice to the episode’s complexities. Instead, it becomes possible to perceive how the fraud narrative itself—construed as an implicit and increasing scepticism towards the claims of alchemical practitioners—affected events as they unfolded. Boyle initially offered modest support yet soon reduced it, as he observed that Moritz’s behaviour did not correspond to that expected of a paid labourer. Despite this, most of the experiments Moritz conducted in London clearly reflected Boyle’s long-standing interests. As Godfrey had promised financial assistance without Boyle’s backing, Moritz accused the laboratory assistant of embezzling funds and of undermining his livelihood by extracting arcana for payments that were subsequently discounted or withheld altogether.
Words and Works in the History of Alchemy
Isis, 2011
This essay considers the implications of a shift in focus from ideas to practices in the history of alchemy. On the one hand, it is argued, this new attention to practice highlights the diversity of ways that early modern Europeans engaged alchemy, ranging from the literary to the entrepreneurial and artisanal, as well as the broad range of social and cultural spaces that alchemists inhabited. At the same time, however, recent work has demonstrated what most alchemists shared-namely, a penchant for reading, writing, making, and doing, all at the same time. Any history of early modern alchemy, therefore, must attend to all of these practices, as well as the interplay among them. In this sense, alchemy offers a model for thinking and writing about early modern science more generally, particularly in light of recent work that has explored the intersection of scholarly, artisanal, and entrepreneurial forms of knowledge in the early modem period.
The Alchemist in Fiction: The Master Narrative
The Public Image of Chemistry, 2007
In Western culture, as expressed in fiction and film, the master narrative concerning science and the pursuit of knowledge perpetuates the archetype of the alchemist/scientist as sinister, dangerous, and possibly mad. Like all myths this story may appear simplistic but its recurrence suggests that it embodies complex ideas and suppressed desires and fears that each generation must work through. This paper explores some of the most influential examples of such characterization, links them to contemporary correlatives of the basic promises of alchemy and suggests reasons for the continuing power of such images.