Chemistry

Renaissance chemistry was studied in the context of alchemy, a discipline concerned with much more than just converting base metals into gold and silver. The main applications of chemistry during this period were medical (see later discussion), metallurgical, military, and artisanal. Vannoccio Biringuccio (1480-c. 1539), for example, investigated the properties of gunpowder, smelting processes, and the effect of alcohol and acids in distillation. Artisanal applications of chemistry included improvements in glassmaking and textile dyeing. For the latter, the preparation of alum as a mordant to fix the dye became a major chemical industry during the 15th century.

Early chemists, influenced by the philosopher and physician Paracelsus (1493-1541), worked from the three principles of salt, sulfur, and mercury. These were the organizing elements of experimentation, in the sense of inherent qualities of matter. Stability was represented by salt, liquidity and fusibility by mercury, and combustion by sulfur. During any specific experiment, several salts, sulfurs, and mercuries might be applied or combined. As for air, Paracelsus referred to it as “chaos,” a term that was corrupted into “gas” during the 17th century. Raised in a mining town, Paracelsus was familiar with the chemistry of metallurgy as well as of alchemical treatises, from which he incorporated processes into his research. The main purpose of his own work, however, focused on chemical applications for medicine, or iatrochem-istry (see later discussion).

Andreas Libavius (c. 1540-1616) trained as a historian, applied the discerning eye of a student

10.1 (opposite) Illustration of an armillary sphere. Woodcut in the first edition of Johannes Regiomontanus’s summary of the Almagest of Ptolemy, 1496. The horizontal bands of the sphere indicate the Earth’s zones. (Photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s, Inc., © 2003)

Science and Medicine

Of history to his criticisms of contemporary alchemists and their methods. Although Libavius called himself an alchemist and thought that transmutation of metals was possible, he either discovered several new substances or was the first to publish about them. Among his discoveries was ammonium sulfate, and he found a new process for producing sulfuric acid. Libavius’s major work on chemistry, entitled Alchemia, first appeared in 1597. The second edition, published in 1606, featured many illustrations of furnaces and glass containers, along with instructions for organizing a chemical laboratory.