Gehennical Fire
The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution
390 pages
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20 halftones
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6 x 9
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© 1994, 2002
Both the quest for natural knowledge and the aspiration to alchemical wisdom played crucial roles in the Scientific Revolution, as William R. Newman demonstrates in this fascinating book about George Starkey (1628-1665), America's first famous scientist. Beginning with Starkey's unusual education in colonial New England, Newman traces out his many interconnected careers—natural philosopher, alchemist, chemist, medical practitioner, economic projector, and creator of the fabulous adept, "Eirenaeus Philalethes." Newman reveals the profound impact Starkey had on the work of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Samuel Hartlib, and other key thinkers in the realm of early modern science.
"The deep scholarship of this book is presented to the nonexpert reader with exemplary lucidity. . . . It should lead to a rethinking of the role of alchemy in the scientific revolution."
"Newman shows how studying an obscure and ambiguous figure can bring the science of a period to life."
"This fascinating work aims to show again that the imagined prizes of alchemy motivated the birth of modern science. . . . Newman illuminates the colourful arcane of alchemical pamphlets with their 'riddling image-language' and explores the concrete influence that his biographical subject had on Isaac Newton himself."
"A richly detailed account that provides many new insights into the intersection of medicine, natural philosophy, and alchemy in seventeenth-century education, medical practice, and scientific thought."
"Gehennical Fire displays Newman's remarkable ability to connect enigmatic alchemical texts to actual chemical practices, thoroughly undermining the Victorian occultist arguments. He also perceptively explores the culture of alchemical secrecy and the reasons why Starkey found it better to know an adept than to be one himself."
"This reprint is a much-welcomed addition for those seeking to use it as a textook in history of science courses."
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note on Terminology
Foreword, 2002
Introduction
1 Starkey in America
2 Arcan Maiora: The Hartlib Years (1650-1654)
3 The Background to Starkey's Chymistry
4 Revelation and Concealment: The Writings of Philaleths
5 A Sonne of Contention: 1655-1665
6 Philalethes in Context
7 Isaac Newton and Eirenaeus Philalethes
Appendix I Starkey's Addresses in England, 1650-1665
Appendix II An Autobiographical Note by George Starkey
Appendix III Missing Starkey Manuscripts
Appendix IV Robert Boyle's "Excuses of Philaletha"
Appendix V A Bibliography of Starkey's Writings
Abbreviations
Notes
Index
A Note on Terminology
Foreword, 2002
Introduction
1 Starkey in America
2 Arcan Maiora: The Hartlib Years (1650-1654)
3 The Background to Starkey's Chymistry
4 Revelation and Concealment: The Writings of Philaleths
5 A Sonne of Contention: 1655-1665
6 Philalethes in Context
7 Isaac Newton and Eirenaeus Philalethes
Appendix I Starkey's Addresses in England, 1650-1665
Appendix II An Autobiographical Note by George Starkey
Appendix III Missing Starkey Manuscripts
Appendix IV Robert Boyle's "Excuses of Philaletha"
Appendix V A Bibliography of Starkey's Writings
Abbreviations
Notes
Index
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