Bruce T. Moran's "Distilling Knowledge" is an excellent short
survey of its topic, and as such it superbly fills a real gap in
the existing literature.--John Henry"BJHS" (03/01/2007)
I used to direct students looking for an introduction to the
history of alchemy to Betty J. Teeter Dobbs's "The Foundations of
Newton's Alchemy: Or, The Hunting of the Greene Lyon"...Now I will
direct my students, and anyone else who asks me what alchemy is, to
Bruce T. Moran's book. This compact volume provides a full and
nuanced account of the history of alchemy from the medieval
traditions of distillation to the Enlightenment definition of the
discipline of chemistry...Precise, but never narrow, its scope
includes artisanal knowledge and matter theory, and also
encompasses medical and magical ideas and practices. This book is
indispensable for anyone who studies or teaches the histories of
early modern science and medicine.--Lauren Kassell "American
Historical Review "
In his accessible and absorbing book, [Moran] explores the
intellectual framework of alchemy and seeks to identify the extent
to which alchemy was a science and how it contributed positively to
the scientific revolution...I can recommend this elegant book
without hesitation to anyone who wishes to understand the practices
and motivations of the alchemists as they sank over the horizon in
the 16th and 17th centuries and the true chemists rose to take
their place.--Peter Atkins"Times Higher Education Supplement"
(04/29/2005)
In spite of the wealth of scholarship which informs the specialist,
it stillcomes as a surprise to those not in the field of history
that thepre-Enlightenment world was not enslaved by
"irrationalsuperstition" and that there is a reasonable and organic
relationship between what is today regarded as "science" and many
things which we have, however incorrectly, discarded as
"pseudo-science." Public Broadcasting specials no less than their
cable counterparts leave most of the whiggish assumptions of the
audience intact when they claim to present the "real story" behind
Galileo, Newton, or the other "big names" of the Scientific
Revolution. Those wishing to bridge the gap which separates the
historian of science from popular assumptions about the history of
science have faced the problem that there are few tools with which
to accomplish this task. Books which are both accessible to a
general audience and accurate are hard to find. Bruce Moran has
written one, and it is a welcome addition t
practices. This book is indispensable for anyone who studies or
teaches the histories of early modern science and medicine.
In his accessible and absorbing book, ÝMoran¨ explores the
intellectual framework of alchemy and seeks to identify the extent
to which alchemy was a science and how it contributed positively to
the scientific revolution...I can recommend this elegant book
without hesitation to anyone who wishes to understand the practices
and motivations of the alchemists as they sank over the horizon in
the 16th and 17th centuries and the true chemists rose to take
their place. -- Peter Atkins "Times Higher Education Supplement"
(04/29/2005)
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