Bridging Traditions explores the connections between apparently different zones of comprehension and experience—magic and experiment, alchemy and mechanics, practical mathematics and geometrical mysticism, things earthy and heavenly, and especially science and medicine—by focusing on points of intersection among alchemy, chemistry, and Paracelsian medical philosophy. In exploring the varieties of natural knowledge in the early modern era, the authors pay tribute to the work of Allen Debus, whose own endeavors cleared the way for scholars to examine subjects that were once snubbed as suitable only to the refuse heap of the history of science.
Illustrations
Introduction
Chapter 1: Crafting the Chemical Interpretation of Nature: The Work of Allen G. Debus • Karen Hunger Parshall
Part One: Curious Practices and Practices of Curiosity
Chapter 2: Johann Hayne and Paracelsian Praxis: Chemical Physiology as a Link between Semeiotics and Therapeutics • Jole Shackelford
Chapter 3: Andreas Libavius and the Art of Chymia: Words, Works, Precepts, and Social Practices • Bruce T. Moran
Chapter 4: Chymical Curiosities and Trusted Testimonials in the Journal of the Leopoldina Academy of Curiosi • Margaret D. Garber
Chapter 5: Phlogiston and Chemical Principles: The Development and Formulation of Georg Ernst Stahl’s Principle of Inflammability • Ku-ming (Kevin) Chang
Part Two: Regional Contexts and Communities of Texts
Chapter 6: “If they are not pages that cure, they are pages that teach how to cure”: The Diffusion of Chemical Remedies in Early Modern Spain • Mar Rey Bueno
Chapter 7: Prescriptions of Alchemy: Two Austrian Medical Doctors and Their Alchemical Manuscripts • Anke Timmermann
Chapter 8: The Chemical Philosophy and Kabbalah: Pantheus, Khunrath, Croll, and the Treasures of the Oratory and the Laboratory • Michael T. Walton
Part Three: Evaluations and Perceptions
Chapter 9: Paracelsus on the Sidereal Powers: Revisiting the Historiographical Debate between Walter Pagel and Kurt Goldammer • Dane T. Daniel
Chapter 10: John Dee at 400: Still an Enigma • Nicholas H. Clulee
Chapter 11: On the Imagery of Nature in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Periods • Heinz Schott
Contributors
Index
“Of special note is Karen Hunger Parshall's "Crafting the Chemical Interpretation of Nature: The Work of Allen G. Debus" and Heinz Schott's "On the Imagery of Nature in the Late medieval and Early Modern Periods". A unique and highly recommended addition to academic library collections...”
