Table Of ContentELEMENTS,PRINCIPLESAND CORPUSCLES
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONALARCHIVES OFTHE HISTORY OF IDEAS
171
ELEMENTS, PRINCIPLES AND CORPUSCLES
by
ANTONIO CLERICUZIO
FoundingDirectors:
P.Dibon] (Paris)andR.H.Popkin (WashingtonUniversity,St.Louis& UCLA)
Director:
Sarah Hutton (The UniversityofHertfordshire, United Kingdom)
Associate-Directors:1.E.Force(Lexington);1.C.Laursen(Riverside)
EditorialBoard:J.F.Battail (Paris);F.Duchesneau (Montreal);A. Gabbey (NewYork);
T.Gregory (Rome);J.D.North (Oxford); M.J. Petry(Rotterdam);1.Popkin(Lexington);
G.A.J.Rogers(Keele);Th.Verbeek(Utrecht)
Advisory Editorial Board:J.Aubin(Paris);B.Copenhaver(LosAngeles);
A.Crombie(Oxford); H.Gadamer(Heidelberg);H.Gouhier(Paris);
K.Hanada (Hokkaido University);W.Kirsop (Melbourne);
J.Malarczyk(Lublin);J.Orcibal(Paris);W.Rod (Miinchen);
G.Rousseau (LosAngeles);J.P.Schobinger (Zurich);J.Tans(Groningen)
ANTONIO CLERICUZIO
ELEMENTS, PRINCIPLES
AND CORPUSCLES
A Study of Atomism and Chemistry
in the Seventeenth Century
Springer-Science+Business Media, B.~
AC.LP.CataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheLibrary ofCongress.
ISBN 978-90-481-5640-5 ISBN 978-94-015-9464-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-9464-6
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CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
ABBREVIATIONS Xl
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1. MINIMA TO ATOMS: SENNERT 9
Introduction 9
Changingviews ofminima naturalia 10
Seminarerum 13
Earlychemical atomism: Libavius and Sala 20
Daniel Sennert 23
Sennert,Freitag, Sperling 30
Conclusion 33
CHAPTER 2. SPIRIT, CHEMICAL PRINCIPLES AND ATOMS IN
FRANCE IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY 35
Introduction 35
Universal spirit, chemicalprinciplesand atoms 37
Atoms and principles: Basso 39
EtienneDe Clave 42
MarinMersenne and his correspondents 47
Mersenne on the constitution ofmixedbodies 49
Chemistryand atomisminthe circle ofMersenne 51
Van Helmont'scorrespondencewith Mersenne 55
The Chemical CosmologyofWilliamDavidson 61
Pierre Gassendi: atoms,moleculaeand semina 63
Gassendi on alchemy and Fludd 71
Conclusion 74
CHAPTER 3. CHEMISTRY AND ATOMISM IN ENGLAND (1600
TO 1660) 75
Theories ofmatterin earlyseventeenth-centuryEngland:an outline 75
Two 'Aristotelianatomists':Digbyand White 81
Epicureanatomism: MargaretCavendish's poems and John Evelyn's
Lucretius 86
Seminal atoms: Highmore's theoryofgeneration 88
Helmontianiatrochemistryand atomisminthe 16505 90
Vll
WalterCharleton 92
Thomas Willis 100
Conclusion 101
CHAPTER4. ROBERTBOYLE'S CORPUSCULARPHILOSOPHY 103
Introduction 103
ThebackgroundtoTheScepticalChymist 108
TheoriginofBoyle's corpuscularphilosophy 116
Corpusclesandchemicalprinciples 129
Chemistryandmechanicalphilosophy 135
Conclusion 148
CHAPTER5. CHEMICALTHEORIESOFMATTER INENGLAND
AFTER 1661 149
Introduction 149
Iatrochemistry atOxford 149
Helmontianismandcorpuscularphilosophy 151
ChemistryattheRoyalSociety:DanielCoxeandNehemiah Grew 154
CHAPTER 6. CORPUSCULAR CHEMISTRY IN THE LAST
DECADESOFTHE SEVENTEENTHCENTURY 163
Introduction 163
TheCartesianheritageinFrance 164
The theory of principles in seventeenth-century French chemical 166
textbooks
Acid andalkaliinFrance:AndreandBertrand 175
TheAcaderniedesSciences 177
AtomismandCartesianismintheNetherlands 181
DutchChemists 187
ChemistryandatomisminGermany 191
Becher's principles 194
GermaniatrochemistsandHelmontians 196
Germancorpuscularians 200
Atomism andchemistryinItaly 203
Conclusion 211
EPILOGUE 213
INDEX 217
Vlll
PREFACE
I became interested in the relationship between chemistry and
corpuscular philosophy in 1983, while writing my Dissertation on Robert
Boyle under the supervision ofProfessorTullio Gregory at the University of
Rome, 'La Sapienza'. Thanks to a three-year Frances A. Yates fellowship at
the Warburg Institute, I was able to investigate seventeenth-century English
chemistry and medicine, as well as the unpublished manuscripts and letters
ofRobert Boyle.This work made it apparent to me that the widely accepted
notion of mechanical philosophy was too comprehensive and too vague.
Hence, my aim was to understand the variety ofversions ofthe corpuscular
philosophy and in addition to assess the complex relationship between
chemistry and atomism. I have expounded my views on Boyle and
seventeenth-century chemistry in various articles and seminars, which have
been extremely useful for clarifying my interpretation of the corpuscular
philosophy.
In the several years in which this book has been in preparation I have
accumulated many debts of gratitude. It is a pleasure to express here my
thanks to Charles Webster for his intellectual and moral encouragement
since my arrival in England in 1985. I am also grateful to Simon Ditchfield,
Michael Hunter,Didier Kahn, Christoph LUthy,Roberto Palaia and Michela
Pereira for their information and comments. Special thanks are due to Mrs
Constance Blackwell for her advice and support. I am also grateful to Pietro
Corsi forhis encouragement.
My thanks are due to the Warburg Institute, the Foundation for
Intellectual History, the University ofCassino and the Consiglio Nazionale
delle Ricerche for supportduring my research inLondon.
The staff of the following libraries deserve special thanks: the British
Library (London), Library ofthe Warburg Institute (London), the Wellcome
Library (London), the Bodleian Library (Oxford). For permission to quote
from the Boyle Papers I am grateful to the Council ofthe Royal Society. I
also thank the Permanent Secretaries ofthe Academie des Sciences (Institut
de France) for permission to quote from the manuscripts ofthe Archives of
the Academic.
Rome, September2000 A.C.
IX
ABBREVIAnONS
AT R. Descartes, Oeuvres, ed. C. Adam and P. Tannery, 12
vols.(Paris, 1897-1913)
BL BritishLibrary
BP RoyalSocietyBoylePapers
DBI DizionarioBiograficodegliitaliani
DNB DictionaryofNationalBiography
DSB The Dictionary ofScientific Biography, ed. C.C. Gillispie
16vols.(NewYork,1970-80)
Ferguson 1. Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica: a Catalogue of the
Alchemical, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Books in the
CollectionofthelateJames Young2vols.(Glasgow, 1906)
Frank,Harvey R.G. Frank jr., Harvey and the Oxford Physiologists. A
Study of Scientific Ideas (Berkeley, Los Angeles and
London, 1980)
Hooykaas,'Het Begrip' R. Hooykaas, 'Het Begrip Element in zijn historisch
wijsgeerige ontwikkeling', Doctorate diss. University of
Utrecht, 1933, Engl. tr. by RH. Kubbinga, private
circulation
HP The University of Sheffield, The Hartlib Papers. A
CompleteTextandImageDatabase
Lasswitz,Geschichte: K. Lasswitz, Geschichte der Atomistik: vom Mittelalter bis
Newton,2vols.(Hamburg, 1890)
Mersenne, La correspondance du P. Marin Mersenne: Religieux
Correspondance Minime editedbyC.deWaardetalii, 10vols. (Paris, 1921
67)
Metzger,Doctrines H.Metzger,Les doctrineschimiquesenFrance dudebut du
Chimiques: XVI!alafin duXVII!siecle(Paris, 19692)
W.R. Newman, Gehennical Fire. The Lives of George
Newman, Gehennical
Starkey, anAmerican Alchemist in theAge ofthe Scientific
Fire
Revolution(Cambridge,Mass., 1994)
Oldenburg, The Correspondence ofHenry Oldenburg, edited by A.R.
Correspondence Halland M. Boas Hall, 13vols. (Madison, Milwaukee and
London, 1965-86)
Partington LR. Partington, A History ofChemistry, 4 vols. (London,
1961-70)
RobertBoyle M. Hunter (ed.), Robert Boyle Reconsidered (Cambridge,
Reconsidered 1994)
C.Webster, TheGreat Instauration. Science, Medicine and
Webster, Instauration:
Reform 1626-J660(London, 1975)
Works The WorksoftheHonourable Robert Boyle, ed.T.Birch, 6
vols.(London, 1772)
Xl
