Inventing Chemistry

Inventing Chemistry Herman Boerhaave and the Reform of the Chemical Arts - Synthesis

Paperback (01 Mar 2016)

Save $1.76

  • RRP $30.67
  • $28.91
Add to basket

Includes delivery to the United States

10+ copies available online - Usually dispatched within two working days

Publisher's Synopsis

In Inventing Chemistry, historian John C. Powers turns his attention to Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738), a Dutch medical and chemical professor whose work reached a wide, educated audience and became the template for chemical knowledge in the eighteenth century. The primary focus of this study is Boerhaave's educational philosophy, and Powers traces its development from Boerhaave's early days as a student in Leiden through his publication of the Elementa chemiae in 1732. Powers reveals how Boerhaave restructured and reinterpreted various practices from diverse chemical traditions (including craft chemistry, Paracelsian medical chemistry, and alchemy), shaping them into a chemical course that conformed to the pedagogical and philosophical norms of Leiden University's medical faculty. In doing so, Boerhaave gave his chemistry a coherent organizational structure and philosophical foundation and thus transformed an artisanal practice into an academic discipline. Inventing Chemistry is essential reading for historians of chemistry, medicine, and academic life.

Book information

ISBN: 9780226380360
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Imprint: The University of Chicago Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 540.92
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 268
Weight: 396g
Height: 228mm
Width: 153mm
Spine width: 22mm