Lawrence M. Principe (ed.), Chymists and Chymistry. Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry

摘要

In the second part of his entry on "Chemistry" (1753) in Diderot's and D'Alembert's Encyclopedic Gabriel-Francois Venel (1723-1775) presented a detailed history of the origin of chemistry. Venel tried to question the Hermetic, Egyptian roots of the alchemical knowledge, and aimed at tracing a specific historical territory for chemistry, characterized by experimentation and by a true chemical mentality. During the seventeenth century the debates on alchemy and chemistry had duly considered the problem of the origin of chemical knowledge, and a harsh controversy had roused between the supporters of the Hermetic origin of alchemy and those who despised Hermetic knowledge. The Danish physician and polyhistor Ole Borch (1626-1690) was a strong proponent of chemistry as an experimental and ancient, i.e. Egyptian, science. In the course of the Scientific Revolution Hermetism was at the centre of the debates about the distinctive features and the status of natural and chemical sciences.