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Description of  The Transmutations of Chymistry: Wilhelm Homberg and the Acad mie Royale des Sciences (Synthesis)

This book reevaluates the changes to chymistry that took place from 1660 to 1730 through a close study of the chymist Wilhelm Homberg (16531715) and the changing fortunes of his discipline at the Acadmie Royale des Sciences, Frances official scientific body. By charting Hombergs remarkable life from Java to Frances royal court, and his endeavor to create a comprehensive theory of chymistry (including alchemical transmutation), Lawrence M. Principe reveals the periods significance and reassesses its place in the broader sweep of the history of science. Principe, the leading authority on the subject, recounts how Hombergs radical vision promoted chymistry as the most powerful and reliable means of understanding the natural world. Hombergs work at the Acadmie and in collaboration with the future regent, Philippe II dOrlans, as revealed by a wealth of newly uncovered documents, provides surprising new insights into the broader changes chymistry underwent during, and immediately after, Homberg. A human, disciplinary, and institutional biography, The Transmutations of Chymistry significantly revises what was previously known about the contours of chymistry and scientific institutions in the early eighteenth century.