The Business of Alchemy: Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire [Hardcover ed.] 0691056919, 9780691056913

Table of contents :
Evocation
3
Provenances
14
Oeconomia rerum et verborum Constructing a Political Space in the Holy Roman Empire
56
The Commerce of Words An Exchange of Credit at the Court of the Elector in Munich
93
West Indian Interlude
141
The Production of Things A Transmutation at the Habsburg Court
173
Interlude in the Laboratory
228
Between Words and Things The Commerce of Scholars and the Promise of Ars
247
Projection
272
BIBLIOGRAPHY
279
INDEX
303
JTPIXIV

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SCIE NCE AND CULT URE IN THE HOLY ROM AN EMPI RE

Pamela H"' Smith

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LIBRARY OF THE CENTRALEUROPEAN UNIVERSITY BUDAPEST

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PRINCE TON UNIVE RSITY PRESS PRINC ETON, NEW JERSEY

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CONTENTS COPYRIGIIT © 1994 BY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS STREET, PUBLISHED DY PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 41 WILLIAM PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY 08540 CHICHES TER, WEST SUSSEX IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS,

LIST OF ILLUSTR ATIONS ACKNOW LEDG.M EN TS

vii

Xi

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Prologue LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG/NG-IN-PUBLICATION D,1111 SMITH, PAMELA H., 1957Y: SCIENCE AND CULTURE IN THE HOLY ROMAN ALCHEM OF BUSINESS THE

Evocation

3

ONE

14

Provenances

EMPIRE/ PAMELA H, SMITH,

P.

CM.

ISBN 0-691-05691-9

I. SCIENCE, RENAISSANCE.

2. SCIENCE -PHILOS OPHY-HI STORY.

3. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE- HJSTORY -1517-16 48. HiSTORY -1648-180 4.

.

TWO

INCLUDES BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES AND INDEX.

4. HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE -

5. BECHER, JOHANN JOACHIM, 1635-1682 .

t verborum.. Constructing a Political Space m Oeconomia rerum e Holy Roman Empire 56

th

e

THREE

Words: An Exchange of Credit at the Court of the Elector in Munich 93 of rce The Comme

I. TITLE. Ql25.2.S5 8

1994

306.4'5'09 43'09032- DC20

93-44856

CIP

West Indian Interlude

141 173

FOUR

TIils BOOK HAS BEEN COMPOSED IN TIMES ROMAN

. o f Things: A Transmutation at the Habsburg Court The Production

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS ARE PRINTED ON ACID-FREE P,).PER AND MEET THE GUIDELINES FOR

Interlude in the Laboratory

/ DURABILITY OF THE COMMITTEE ON AND PERMANENCE . I• PRODUCTION GUIDELINES FOR.BOQK LONGEVITY

OF THE COUNCIL ON 'LIBRARY RESOURCES PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 13579!08642

228

FIVE

Th e Commerce of Scholars and the . d Thmgs: d Between Wor s an Promise of Ars 247

Epilogue Projection 272 BIBLIOG RAPHY

INDEX

303

279

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1

Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8

Figure 9

Figure 10

Figure 11

Figure 12 Figure 13

Francesco Pianta the Younger (1630?-1692), The Spy or Excessive Curiosity, wood-panel carving. Scuola Grande di S. Rocco, Venice. 15 Portrait of Johann Joachim Becher, Mineralisches ABC, 1723. The Huntington Library. 16 Daniel Neuberger, Allegorical Self-Portrait, ca. 1651, wax relief. Kestner Museum, Hanover. 58 J. D. Welcker, Allegory of the Acquisition of Surinam by Count Friedrich Casimir of Holland, 1669, oil on canvas. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. 142 Daniel Neuberger, Scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses, 1651, wax relief. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 148 Daniel Neuberger, Allegory of the Death of Ferdinand Ill, 1657, wax relief. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 149 Frontispiece, Johann Joachim Becher, Politischer Discurs, 1673. 152 Jacob van Meurs (?), The Exchange, Amsterdam, 1663, in Philipp von Zesen, Beschreibung der Stadt Amsterdam, 1664, engraving. 153 Jacob van Meurs (?), The Kleveniers Doelen, Amsterdam, 1663, in Philipp von Zesen, Beschreibung der Stadt Amsterdam, 1664, engraving. 154 Jacob van Meurs (?), The West India House, Amsterdam, 1663, in Philipp von Zesen, Beschreibung der Stadt Amsterdam, 1664, engraving. 157 Jacob van Meurs (?), Heeren-Logement, Amsterdam, 1663, in Philipp von Zesen, Beschreibung der Stadt Amsterdam, 1664, engraving. 158 Jan van Kessel, Allegory of America, 1666, oil on copper. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. 170 Jan van Kessel, Kunstkammer with Venus at Her Toilette, 1659, oil on copper. Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe. 171

viii

N LIST OF I LLUST RATIO

LIST OF ILLUS TRAT IONS

Figure 27

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ix

Gustavus . the Kunstsc hra nk of. King f Uppsala 264 . Ornament crowmng 1630s University o Joachim Becher, h · Adolphus, · . embled. Jo ann 1689. The Huntington The Scyphus Bechen ~s~ H ermeticus Fatulicus, . Trzpus

Figure 14

Alchemical medallion produced by Johann Joachim Becher, 1675. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 174

Figure 15

Frontispiece, Johann Joachim Becher, Natur-Kiindigung der Metallen, 1661. 175

Figure 16

Alchemical medallion produced by Wenceslas Seiler, 1677. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. 180

Figure 29

Library. 274 h . broken down. Johann Joachim Becher, _ The Huntington The Scyphus Bee en . . . . Tripus Hermeticus Fat1d1cus, 1689

Elevation view of the Kunst- und Werckhaus, designed by Johann Joachim Becher, 1676. Ms. 8046, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Handschriften-Abteilung, Vienna. 194

Figure 30

cus Library. 275 h n Joac h"im Becher, Tripus Hermet1 6 Huntington Library. 27 Emblem from Jo Fatidicus, 16 89 · e

Figure 17

Figure 18

Floor plan of the Kunst- und Werckhaus, designed by Johann Joachim Becher, 1676. Ms. 8046, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Handschriften-Abteilung, Vienna. 195

Figure 19

Floor plan for the house of the director, Kunst- und Werckhaus, designed by Johann Joachim Becher, 1676. Ms. 8046, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Handschriften-Abtei!ung, Vienna. 196

Figure 20

Folio 6r from Johann Joachim Becher, "Referat ... Was in dem Kunst- Undt WerckhauB ... ," 1676. Ms. 8046, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Handschriften-Abteilung, Vienna. 197

Figure 21

Frontispiece, Johann Joachim Becher, Physica Subterranea, 1669. 205

Figure 22

Folio 2r from Johann Joachim Becher, "Gutachten iiber Herrn Daniels Marsaly Process zur Tinctur," 1674. Ms. 11472, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Handschriften-Abteilung, Vienna. 218

Figure 23

Frontispiece, Philipp Wilhelm von Homigk, Oesterreich iiber alles, wann es nur will, 1738. 220

Figure 24

Frontispiece, Heinrich Khunrath, Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae, 1609. Deutsches Museum, Munich. 229

Figure 25

After Pieter Breughel the Elder, The Alchemists in the Peasant's Kitchen, sixteenth century, engraving. Deutsches Museum, Munich. 232

Figure 26

David Teniers the Younger, The Alchemist, 1640s (engraving by Pierre Franc;ois Basan). Courtesy Fisher Scientific. 233

Figure 28

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

N 'YRITI NG this book I have incurred a number ofunpayable obligations, lwhich, unlike other sorts of debts, it gives me great pleasure to acknow to owe I edge. I am especially pleased to make clear the intellectual debt and, by Owen Hannaway, who both suggested the primary matter of this study and his ity the example of his own approach to the problems of early modern d to close readings of texts, imparted an organizing form. I am also indebte society German Mack Walker, whose concept of the structure of early modern provided a matrix of place for the characters and ideas in the story. DeAs this book evolved, it benefited from the institutional support of the Program the ity, Univers partment of History of Science of the Johns Hopkins e, and for Comparative European History at the Villa Spelman in Florenc chAustaus ischer Akadem er P~mona College. Fellowships from the Deutsch Widand Long the , Museum dienst, the Forschungsinstitut of the Deutsches research mont Memorial Foundation, and Pomona College made possible the Otto Dr. to thanks owe I ips, fellowsh for this book. In connection with these also am I . Munich in Museum es Deutsch Mayr and Frau Nida-Riimelin of the Figala Karin Dr. or Profess by d provide grateful for the institutional framework and and the Deutsches Museum. My doctoral dissertation, "Alchemy, Credit, of Courts the at Becher Joachim Johann Things: and the Commerce of Words con1990), ity, Univers s Hopkin (Johns 2" 1635-8 , the Holy Roman Empire this tains the original German of all passages translated here. Material from ge Patrona in purpose t differen a with and form t differen in book has appeared Court, n Europea the at e Medicin and ogy, Technol , and Institutions: Science and 1500-1 750, ed. Bruce T. Moran (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1991),

I

Isis 85 (1994) . espe. Among the many people whose comments have helped me, I would Jo Betty cially like to thank Mario Biagioli, William Clark, Ronald Cluett, Meinel, ph Christo Dobbs, Anthony Grafton, Sharon Kingsland, Pamela Long, r, and Bruce Moran, Richard Olson, Orest Ranum, Lisa Rosner, Simon Schaffe

Robert Westman. of Many wonderful hours were spent in libraries and archives in various parts the of staff the thanks special the world, but I would like to single out for iv Bayrische StaatsbibJiothek in Munich, the archivists of the Hofkammerarch . Rostock in ity Univers the of in Vienna, and the very helpful staff of the library ation convers in too spent ere Intense and wonderful hours- even days-w and with friends, and their insights helped shape this book. David J. S. King Dennis, l Michae did as work, this of Mary Voss participated in most stages Wall, Dianne Pitman, and Jay Tribby. More recently Paula Findlen, Helena

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ACKNO WLEDG MENTS

Peggy Waller, and Elazar Barkan have provided intellectual companionship and much appreciated encouragement. I am glad to have an opportunity to express my debt to my parents, Ronald Smith and Nancy Crenshaw Smith. Finally, I think with loving memory of my grandmother, Elisabeth Cluverius Crenshaw Working, whose love of books and storytelling, as well as her frustrated intellect, made their way to me in transmuted form. It was an impulse -not at all times fully conscio us-to redeem her stymied aspirations that impelled me in the writing of this book. Claremont, California October 1993

THE BUSINESS OF ALCHEMY

PROLOGUE EVOCATION

F THERE WERE a musical interlude to introduce this text it would be the overture to an opera, a piece that could evoke the dramatic intricacies to er come. We would hear the dark tones of the basso continuo, rising in te e~ce~do, framing the drama, representing the increasing centralization of the . of that center at the court of the . g locat10n . . · ofE urope and the compellm terrntones the encroaching values of a signal would c ntonal ruler. A burst of strings their bows sounding out a world, agrarian r ommercial econom y on the feudal, winds, weaving its way the of part The cash." epeated, urgent "cash, cash, related to these parts strings, the of theme the through and rame • abround tl1e b·ctss f the organization of plays own, its of dynamic internal an / t clearly working on played by the motif a is winds the of theme the hnow ledge. Recurring within hear a single we Finally things. and words vo~ns, the relationship between the themes and bass strong the of s . . mterstice the . around between h ' da. ncmg ofo1ce This small music. the of parts disparate the ng vo·t e_h,gher register, connecti but he voices, other the between mediates He al. individu an of life ice is the al so Th'me d'iates them for us. He is our link to the past. is book is not an opera, but it does try to tie together diverse elements into a h /rm~nio us narrative. It tells the story of a single individual as well as a tharr;tive of intellectual and cultural transformation. The voice of this book is c e ife of Johann Joachim Becher, spanning the last half of the seventeenth ;~tury (1635-8 2). Becher, who spent his life at the territorial courts of the k O Y Roman Empire and who was passionately concerned with the reform of . the cacophony of the past e an d of material . allows us to enter mto . hfe, d a nowledg t; ~hape it into a coherent piece. Out of his writings, the ideas expressed a :em, his actions, the artifacts of his world (such as an alchemical medallion), c n t?e narratives he told about himself and his world (such as his tale of a · to parts of the compos1t· 1on · · ) we may connect the vanous r alchem1st dunnmg s of dynamic che meate the parameters of his world as well as the long-term

I

ange. . . . d was a crisis · process of change in the early mo dern peno of At the h eart of this specgical chronolo and t au th ority. This crisis spanned an epistemological crisis of authority felt by a Luther or a rum ' re ac h'mg from the deep personal · 1 Th tual~re·M or~ to ~o_nathan Swift's satirical Battle of the Books. I~ the mte leevery and ns foundat10 the le . . aim this cns1s translated into a debate about Put words? to things of hip d'gf;timacy of knowledge. What was the relations d · · 1 b eg1t1mate e senses the through acquired ge 1 1 erently, how could knowled

,l

4

PROLOGUE

and what was its relation to discursive and deductive knowledge? These questions were part of a cultural change by which a world view founded in texts a nd the manipulation of words was replaced by one based in natural objects and the h manipulation of things. This debate about words and things was played out in the wake o~ t e emergence of a controversial "new philosophy" and its "new method o~ philo~ophizing." The proponents of this new philosophy claimed that, unhke their predecessors, they dealt with visible, tangible, material things (and we shall see it is significant that these things often had a commercially determinable value). Active rather than contemplative, this new philosophy was a practice, rather than a set of theories, and it flourished in such places as laboratories, theaters of nature, and cabinets of curiosities. The practitioners of the new philosop~y might dispute its precise methodology and its limits, but they knew for ~ertam that it had to do with "things": the collection of things, the observat10n of things, and material, visual demonstration by use of things in place of the logical demonstration by means of words. This new method did not storm the citadels of knowledge, but slowly transformed habits of practice and thought as it became useful to a growing numb~r of individuals and groups, as scholarly alliances formed around it, and as it provided more satisfying explanations within the new "materialistic" epistemology. It was patronized by courts, institutionalized in the academies, and gradually incorporated into an educational curriculum that had been base~_on the mastery of a corpus of words and texts. We can see this momentoftransit10n at which old and new interpenetrated in a description of the "new" method pursued at the Julian Academy at Helmstedt: first, the phenomena are observed; second, their construction is noted; and, third, they are subjected to demonstratio from certain principles. Subject headings in the account are Aristotelian: "De corpore," "De motu," "De vacuo," "De elementis" (water, earth, air, and fire), "De meteoris," "De animalibus," and so on. In contrast, the text under these headings exemplifies the new: "De corpore" contains microscopic observations of objects such as flour and sugar. "De motu" concerns machines, while "De elementis" contains a section on a transmutation of iron into copper, and "De animalibus" lists the animals-stuffed and preserved-that have been collected by the academy. The last two subjects-"De visu" and "De auditu"run through an assortment of instruments and their use.' Similar examples of this melange of old and new could be drawn from the Royal Society, the Academie des sciences, the Academia naturae curiosorum, or the numerous collections and laboratories of new philosophers and princes all over Europe. Becher's explication and adaptation of the new philosophy illuminates this fluid cultural moment when "science" had not yet achieved its preeminent modern 1

Johann Andreas Schmidi, Theatrum Naturae et Artis. Singulis semestribus novis machinis & experimentis augendum in Academia Julia curiosis B .C.D. pandet /.A.S.D. (Helmstedt: GeorgusWolfgangus-Hamius Acad. Typogr., ca. 1710).

to compete with a oN 5 but instead had as . . ·mator of truth, hasis on practice w . rsuits. position as the sole legitl h'losophy and its emp , ·twas manifested number of other intellectualyu Connected to the rise ofthishnewkJo~ledge of human af~.' :~~ mechanics" andf . gi·ven tot e nd the know Jedge od r for the advan ce o. a greater importance . 1processes, a art provi'ded a mo de1 p with the new phi.m machines, teeh mca · d by. an artisans. The progress of human ro ress became boun i uht be practice knowledge, and technology an~! n!ural philosophy me; what his education, losophy. While some asserted t his eyes open, no matt Thus the advent of the hy to the.gentlema~d· ls who did not have artisan or by anyone who kept · d'vi hilosop 1 . ed them. to call t.hem-f i ua ossibilities for m others tried to limit natura P new philosophy both opened ~p: that would hav~ al:~ormation of an eht~ o an intensive text-based educatlod resulted as well mt e from rude mechamchs. • h e O Id style. ' dant distance them selvesf the moderns ver t e selves learned mt 0 natural philosophers who tne t~ated the progress o that neither theory n~r Human art not only demonsfve of things in a w~y d to involve not on y ancients, but it was also proTdhuc niew philosophy cla1mTehus the rise of the newl · as .art. . the' scheme f knowh • eb as productive c re · . had been b eio practice O theory and practice, but also to e tal reorganization m en what had been tde · s betwethe difference that ha . d the boundane philosophy brought on a fundamen 1 duct1on as well . blurre hy f ords and the pro . t'ce and art, as edge. The new phi osop h ry P. i d, manipulatio · no w d' _ ation ofthe relationf separate realms oft eo ' rac existed between the pr~ductlt t:s story of t~e transh~cted as an inter~e ;e and manipulation of thmg~. n Johann Joach1m_Bec and that of scholars~m ship between words and thmgs, the world of arti~a~sllectual-betweenh t~der~ ary. Himself halfway ~etwee;0 th physical and mbe tween linking the o d lso became a go- e becomes an intermediaryI mo ern 1 a . f e he Like many others of his im the territorial r~ _er. history of the ear y ted his f he circumven b ut the pohtical of productive knowledge an o cost h power, . o a ell ce e t Because Becher's life tells us as w . creased his own ·tory period. As the territori~l rulerh: revenues of the te;r~an ~o look to com~e~ad local nobility and its gnp on t the territorial lords e Although merchan s did mselves and · reased ' source of revenue. . . . power me b'J'ty noblesthe mamtammg wer · · " as a O ii , and the "empire of thmgs, s and taxes for then The basis of thei~ p 0d on the always been a source of loan mercial economy. d an economy baseh . only oug tis · s an · the com . on land, not actively take part m . feudal relations11ip . need for cash wr etary ·an society based nsforrnation this their code of values lay m . of the 1an d · The tra hange from an agran commerce and mondieval natural fruits one part of the very long, slow ~o a society based h~\ began in late m~heless agriculture, and gift exchan~; transform_ation, ~I ~:volution, w_as ~o~:flected exchange. Such a process d until the mdustna Such resha?mg is he used an Empire, for nteenth century. society and was not complete . the sevets of the H0 ly Rom radically reshaped dunng . . . at the cour . Becher's activities m E

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PRO LOG UE

natural philosophy to make commer ce acceptable to his noble patrons. Thu s, his texts and projects illuminate this moment of transformation in cultu ral values, as his emp loym ent of natural philosophy reveals some of the reas ons that science cam e to hold a central plac e in the evolving modern state.

As the wandering son of a guild-town mother and a Lutheran pastor, Bec her received a distinctive education that provided him with a model of a cycl e of sustenance in the guild town on the one hand , and the potential of com mer ce on the other. He established him self at court as an adept in chemistry and the mechanical arts, eventually receivin g the official position of court mathema tician and physician. His position and activities in the court world were cond itioned by his status and the knowledg e associated with it. As mathematicia n and machine maker, Bec her had a connection with and a knowledge of the mechanical arts and artisanal activity, and he exploited this in his struggle for pow er at court. As court physician, Bec her used both the status of his posi tion as a mem ber of the republic of letters and his knowledge of natural processe s in carrying out his projects. Bec her's use of his knowledge of nature and his mechanical aptitude constitutes the subs tratum of this book. Bec her employe d his knowledge and ability as a scho lar and an artisan in a variety of way s at court: first, he claimed the status of a man of theory who was com pete nt to adjudicate and organize the knowledg e of practicing artisans. Second, he drew on the association of both chemical know ledge and mechanical aptitude with a set of practices viewed as leading to "pro duct ive" knowledge. Finally, he sought to bring the results of both his knowledge of nature and the mechani cal arts -pro duc tive kno wle dge -int o the sphere of the territorial ruler. Bec her spent the majority of his life attempting to introduce commercial forms and activities into the world of the noble court. His attempt ran up agai nst many difficulties, usually attributed by historians to a lack of "org aniz ed" and "rati onal " court bureaucracy and a defi ciency in courtiers' understanding of the mechanisms of the market and com merce. I argue, on the contrary, that Bec her' s difficulties stemmed from the fact that the structure and rationality of the court was based on a different set of practices and principles than that of the commercial world. Bec her's success, such as it was , was due to his ability to mediate between the two worlds. He framed his commercial projects in the traditional idiom and gesture of nobl e court culture, and his knowledge of natural processes as physician and alch emical adept assisted him in translati ng commercial values into court culture. In elaborating the link between Bec her's chemistry and com mer ce, I develop a second argument about the broader significance of Bec her's activities. His activities embodied a vision of refo rm that was "ma teria l." Bec her was concerned with the temporal world, with material increase, with the elevation of

EVO CAT ION

7

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. e and experience. This conrvation, pract1c , things over wor ds, an d WI'th obse . Id characterizes the concep tual trans.forit cem with the observable mate nal wor I modern period. We may also ~ee in d mation from words to things of the ear y lture of artisanal modes of seeing _an • · Euro pean cu an assertion and co-option in tton, . n understanding of pro du~ (I on , crea which doing. Artisan al culture embodied a , t of skills and techniques by f and working with the h an d,s, as well as a se . It perated rom . te material thing s. 0 pu1a ' this kno wled ge was employe d to mam . . hip to the matenal wor Id an d thedpower . ions an unde rstan dmg o f the hu man relat , , ble of pro uc·t·ve I . tl1at humankind was capa ·ed a view 2 of hum an art. It em bOd1 .. human ar t ·1m1·tated · ·tatu r natu ram . abilities similar to those O f n ature ' for ars nm .. nature. . h uild c1t1es o f t he Holy h · culture 111 t eg 'Id that The world of the artisans. and / for human production. The ~u~al~able Rom an Emp ire e~b_odied ~his i::: rul centers for the man ufac t~:d~echniqu es dominated these c1t1es we1e p roduction of the knowledge d trans ferred good s as well as ~enters for !he ri,h ere scholars reproduced a; d e by doin g that sustained this productto~. nal structures reproduce? kno ; eH~ly Rom an knowledge by writing, the arttsa ers that charactenzed t e h they and imitating. I~ .the balance ao!i~~:c tive social stru~tu.re, ~~; ~r:t pr~ duc Emp ire, guild c1t1es took on . . production that imitate by art the provided a model of self~sustaint71 1rough the imitation of ~atur;uch no;io ns tion. Nature was producttve,l an .' wed as potentially produ.cttve. the center of . as a so vie world of human bein as gs w . . us dimension, an d the. city . . . I s1gnt'fi can ce·. God gave of generation posses sed. a reh11g10 d powerful spm tua hat previously hum an art and produc tton .a h ands w ' to create fort he.mselves h wer of art was humans the pow er to use the~ a tiful nature in Paradise. T eJ~u man s wou ld had been supplied to them by oun . for by work of the han ' . b t redemptive, thus not only creative , u . . . . regain Paradise. ct1V1ty 111 de ed 'a parasitd was an unproductive a h 'cleo fpro duct ion Com mer ce on the other hand n'tage of deficiencies in.t edcy draining wealth · ' 1cal one, for mere h an ts took aMvachan ts were thus pe rce1ve asctivity for merin the town and on the land. er s cons idered an unnatura Itad as mlddlemcn, from a tow n, and commer~e ~ag noth ing. Instead th~Y act~us profiting from chants were viewed as pro t:111 ther mem bers of society,! s The unnatural 0 distributing goods produced honest work themse ve · I e doing no the labo r of others, W11·1 ,5 d'rect ion of a 1989 1

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Hannaway · . ·ew I am indebted to ~~en chno logia ': Language and Tec~ m: In helpi ng me to shape this v1 . ' D C.' entitled Te . 1· ular to two of the read mg semi nar at the Folge r Insut• u 1e, Washington, · " and m par ic en 1' ' M taphysical Foun d a tions of 1 Enlightenm • . · ssance to 11e cal Know ledge from the I,enm . I y and the e N· iral Ph1losop 1 1 and the h Ile New York c·ty for that semin ar: Neil. Kami·1 ' "War a11 ' · 51·1 1988 )· ' 'd Atlantic Colony.• La Roeh e Hopk ins · Umv , n Mi er y, . Artis anal Thou ght in an Ame nca ' s Jo ns 1517 1730" (Ph,D , d'is·: JPhil osoph y,"f/i story o,·•Sc1ence , digm South weste rn Hugu enot P ara M chamca ' . . plly and the e . 'Pht 1oso andJ . A. Benn et, "The Mcch amcs · 2

24 (1986): 1-28 .

8

PROLOGUE

offspring of this unnatural activity was money. Money was considered unnatural because it was a means of exchange that did not contain the seeds of its own regeneration. It was a means and not a fruit of labor. Money and commerce did not imitate productive nature, as agriculture and guild society did. Yet this barren, parasitical, and unnatural activity paradoxically provided surplus wealth-wealth that formed a source of power as great as the violence of arms and the force of noble rank. Merchants, while dangerous to the community because they were consuming, rather than producing, members of society, seemed nevertheless to hold a key to material increase.

Chapter 1 explores the background from which Becher fashioned his own identity and drew his principal ideas. It argues that he was attuned to a view of the city as a center of human production and the reproduction of productive techniques, as well as to the possibilities of commerce and mobility. Becher brought the results of his experience to the court world, and offered the court a solution to its need to create surplus wealth. His scheme combined the structure of the guild city and its "material knowledge" of human art and production with the surplus-creating capabilities of commerce. In seeking to implement his plan, he had to find a coherent structure that would combine the guild town, as a center of human production, with the commercial world, in order to make it attractive to the court. To achieve this, Becher drew on his knowledge of the mechanical arts and of medical chemistry and alchemy. The mechanical arts-the province of the guilds-represented productive knowledge to Becher, and he attempted to capture not only the skills of individual artisans but also the productive knowledge they possessed; indeed he sought the very material understanding by which the artisan transformed raw materials into valuable goods. To express this artisanal understanding, Becher sought to formulate an unornamented "material discourse" and a method of cognition that captured the technique and knowledge of the artisan. Chapter 2 treats the period during which Becher established himself at court as medicus and mathematicus, and began to formulate this material understanding of knowledge and reform. Chapter 3 shows how Becher sought to draw material, productive knowledge, embodied in commerce, into the world of his noble patrons, while the first Interlude, in recounting a single episode, illustrates Becher's use of natural philosophy in attempting to integrate commercial values into the court world. Alchemy and chemistry provided Becher with a language by which to represent the processes of natural creation and regeneration, and the means by which these processes could be imitated by the hu.man hand. Becher's chemical and alchemical works were directed toward gaining knowledge about the creative principles of nature and imitating them by human art. Being both art and

9 . . h'1 O f the artisan to his matenal · · , te the relations · science, alchemy could i·11 umma . h Pholar a language m which to and the productive process, as well as give the sc thus became the vehicle by • · an d process · Ale , The talk about this relat10nsh1p d emy t' and material ·mcre;·11:t1,.. ~\s.,, - _\!,-~-,-~

Nr~:.. !'.J~,~~"~":.:'...;:..-"-·· ;;.;,;'Ttt,:-.r:;=; y#·,::/·/.•·,- •.,. ~:.x~--31~~.,.. -::-2C:2ll.~-~h: __.._.,_~~~:-__;~"-~'"' --~---_,,___- -"-- .--~-:-~-~ ..

t_~

Figure 25. After Pieter Breughel the Elder, The Alchemists in the Peasant's Kitchen, sixteenth century, engraving. With permission of Deutsches Museum, Munich.

Figure 26. David Teniers the Younger, The Alchemist, 1640s (engraving by Pierre Franc;ois Basan). The skulls and gutted candle on the wall as well as the hourglass symbolize the alchemist's vain pursuit of profit. His efforts literally go up in the smoke billowing out of the fireplace in the background. Courtesy Fisher Scientific.

.

~

234

INTERLUDE IN THE LABORATORY

235 uDE IN THE L ets of alchemy I sly said that the seer Id only be ndeed, philosophers in past ages ex~res ch a way that they cou ral rule in Were to be found written down, but m su cannot take this as a ~e~~Because, Understood by the learned. But the counselor h d different goals. derail cases because more recent p h"l a un the t osop hers have rocesses, wh"ic h can be [to however, today's gold-hungry world only wants p modated themselvesd artly sto 0 d 1· . h have accom derstoo P 1terally so the ph1losop ers that can be un . d some rnarket!] and have written plenty of process_es "15 Becher behe:Ve ould er . nuscnpts c quivoce, partly analogice, an d par_tly ad literam. and some old ma . in printed true processes could be understood ltterall{ ounselor in exai~in g d signished great light on the chemical work, sobt_ e. cier1·s Recipe, cogzta quoy s1·gnify P , .. - --=-·tma rocesses could not always assume th at " u 1 vu -erveJ;thinK, ion . ts and, fie tD · ~---lrwuITy.rec · manuscnp 1 e ecipe" (wherc·yoirsce-rec1pe ' rocesses in . Jved the dee · ) 16 Id k for true P . This invo e!Ve . The counselor shou 100 manuscnpts. h claimed rno re specifically . d , of those . in the concor ances . consuming, as Bee ercordance testi ng f ' and o processes so was extretnely time- s himsel f • Such.a con theoretica I to k , . d processe ss1b e now from the testing of six thousan . . • n of all the P0 d1 d classes. rnust b . . f' the d1v1s10 . !ly or ere f egm from theory that 1s, rom s into log1ca . h this list o · and . ' , · J processe red wit . practical operations of alchemica Id then be compa h most basic A.II Processes brought to the laboratory cou h conformed to t e operations in order to determine whe th er t ey dance of ch concor aracteristics of a true process. 17 . ts and books, a C respondenIn adct·1t1on · to the concordance Of manuscnp • viva orriments. "ls • wanting 1s a I. Ive e . bl d· "What ts nd expe d . Xpenence should be assem e · f the processes a .d boratorY an t1a, an oral conference and concordance o ded a splend1 1a to teJI. The A.s soon as word gets out that a Iord has [oun . show up WI"th secrets 11 g "19 spe nd s something on it all sorts of people wih_ cou nselor should "listen ' to all an d sco rn not tn · d lie until. the beams . terials an the basis t-.,r . . f re and ma . eandon iners W11] come and bring all kmds o o I nels will com b the worst O th emselves · hts and co out to et want bend. Ruined counts, kmg ' 'fl1ey will turn anY of the1r · reputation they will propose processes. These vagabonds do nouch peop1e deceivers, · a thing that has often happene dtome. • deed they areoftens learned . . theirwork]; 10 commissioners [to examme cess as N. 20 when the pro y e Even t he ma l'h but trust no on ·. n interes ' Us the counselors should listen to all ork in his ow Seller does not seem to demand money or to w ABORATORY

INT ER L

)

consilium to his plan for the laboratory. This model set out in scholastic fashion a consilium on a three-line recipe (in the vulgar tongue) for ennobling base metals by smelting them with glass and a small amount of gold and silver. 9 The counsel contained a thesis (the recipe), the method, the dubia (the arguments against the method), and the theoretical and practical resolution of these doubts. Clearly these natural philosophical counselors of the laboratory must be men of theory in order to give authority to their counsel in their dealings with the court. It was the counselors' task also to ascertain their lord's intention in the laboratory: whether he desired medicines, natural curiosities and principles of nature, or silver and goldmaking. The counselors were then to obtain process~s suited to their lord's purposes. 10 To do this they had to know where to obtain good recipe~ and how to choose among them. In this they showed themselve~ men of practice as well, who not only were able themselves to do Handwerk an experiment, but could also converse with the vulgus thronging the doors of the laboratory. Being men of theory, however, they would be able to order the babble of the crowd, tame it, and draw out what was useful from it. Becher set out general rules for the counselors of the laboratory they could follow in hunting up recipes and in dealing with the crowd. In general th e~ should accept the principle that all recipe sellers were thieves for if the sellers ' processes were successful in making gold, they would not desire to sell them. 11 "The process h awkers lie · ·m a marvelous manner. They swear to, an d"deed m u~e, all wonderful arts in doing alchemy, so that a person should first study _a pickpocket, a cutpurse and a politician [court official] ifhe wants to differentiate these nasty fellows' machinations." 12 The Consilarius must carefully exa~th ine e life of the process seller, for if the seller is not virtuous, success in alchemy was impossible. In general, the counselor was directed to diS truSt sellers, but he could make an exception if he knew the seller had tried th e process himself, or had it from a good source, or offered original manuscript~- 13 Books of recipes, the other source of processes a counselor must examine, were faulty for the same reason: Much less are these things written down or printed and so indifferently set before th e eyes of the world. If they had been, such great secrets would already long ago have been revealed to the world, for the many thousands of the world's laboranten st who orm through all the recipe books would easily have found them, practiced them, and made them known.14 "Ibid., pp. 76-80. JO Ibid., p. 88. 11 Ibid. 12 Ibid., p. 91. 13 Ibid. 14 lbid., p. 89.

15 16

17 18

Jg '

0

Ibid Ibid: . Ibid. p. 90 ' • Ibid., p. 39.• Ibid., p. 92 Ibid. .

236

INTERLUDE IN THE LABORATORY

still plan a deceit, in the way that the alchemist N. deceived Becher at the cou:t of the emperor. The counselors should bind the petitioners arriving at the'.r laboratory by a civil contract and hold them as long in the laboratory as the1; processes seem to warrant, in order to get as much useful information out \ them as possible. 21 However, the petitioners should quickly be shaken off 1 they proved useless, for "what one gives to alchemists and whores is the sam~ thing, in that one cannot bring [the transaction] before the court, nor deman what one has given back again without loss of respect. "22 The form of the contract was of great importance, and Becher included in the laboratory plans a model contract that he had made with the counts of Potting in 1672 in which he obligated himself to separate a ducat of gold from a mark of silver weekly, wi th no loss of silver. Becher promised to teach the process to the counts in return for 120 silver marks of capital each quarter and a third of the gold ducats produced. If Becher taught the counts the process to their mutual satisfaction, the counts promised to give Becher a certificate attesting to this fact and 62,400 go~d ducats within ten years. Becher appends this contract to the laboratory pla~s in order to show "how honestly, even in alchemy, both sides can transact in a 23 contract. " In this way, Becher transported the characteristic document of commercial society-the contract-into the workshop. In addition to possessing knowledge about where to find processes and hoW to prove their truth, the counselors of the laboratory must know how to set up experiments investigating the nature, transmutation, maturation, and ennobl~; ment of metals, and that find the great Elixir in both the dry and wet ways.These learned men of theory should work in a space containing "a good alche. l l'b · which · they keep the consilia and contracts, together Wl'th the mica 1 ~ary, " m whole collection of recipes, and the finished products and reports of all the processes worked.25 · , - - . ·· or 1he second class m the laboratory was the Dispensator Laboratora "Ober-Laboranten," who received instructions from the counselors for u nd ertaking processes based on a deliberation of the consilium by the counselors. When the dispensators are given the process, they should not "tinker with it ~r add anything to it, but should perform it as it is written down and annotated_m th 26 e consilium." The dispensator should note in what circumstances the tnal was made and how long it took. He should visit the Laboranten often, make a 21

Cont rac t·mg WI"th aJc I1enusts · had often been a part ofBecher's duties (or strategies · )m · Mainz, nd Munich, a Vienna. See, for example, the contract with Colonel Boon discussed in Chapter z_ 22 Chymischer Glucks-Hafen, p. 92. 23 "w·ie re dl"IC I1 man auc - J1 111 • der Alchynu- beederseits in Contracten umbgchen -· konne. " Ibid., p. 86. The contract is on pp. 82-86. 24 Ibid., p. 88. 25 Ibid.,. p. 99. "W:ann er nun emen · . .. d· rvon/ Process bekommet/ so solle er an dcmselben mchts kunstlen 1 a oder darzu setzcn/ sondern wie er geschrieben/ und von elem Consilio angcmerckt/ treulich arbeitcn ]assen" (ibid., p. 99). 25

uo

O E I N T II E L A B R A

TOR y

237

• ht When the and weig · 'd f Jly the volume J't set it as1 e protocol of each process, and note care u . obtained, Jabe 1 '. · to the tna · 1comes to an end, he must retain · th e matena1f the trial to be given y time 1 · Vv'th ·t a report O cess at an its relevant process, and :,vn e roblems in the pro counselors. He is to obtain advice about P t divide 0 f ~we 27 rom the counselors. as its title sugge ' t types of 1NT E R L

The real task of this second class _of ~or~e~elegate it to the ?iff:::ording to each process into its proper operations an . main operat1on 'ther be 1 b0 .nto three . ls may e1 a rers. Becher divided all processes 1 • ls The matena stalized, the mechanical action applied to the raw matenaak.ed evaporated,fcryperations 1 PU Verized, washed and made into s Iu dge·' or soThese ' three se ts o fio 8 and distilled· or dried and put to the fire.z fearth water, and !Cream.mer," ' (oncorresponded' loosely to the natural proces ses o the "Dispensa l ·es After Th ratory was laboraton . .1 O b I e dispensator's space in the a ' h other three d materta Wh ere he dispensed . t rials to t e . the refine the weighed ma e uld bnng t' on in the ea h 1, borers wo xt opera 1 c mechanical operation, the lower c1 d •ton to its ne ce and was to th e d'1spensator's room . d and h e w ould sen . Ied a sea1e and ba1an as require appropriate laboratory. Thus his space cont~J~ts The dispensatort bookkeepfilled With all the necessary chemicals and sptne ~nd to keep ord~rl~ taken from ever f his spac f matena 29 . Y quarter to make an inventory O The amounts o . the processes. tng to ensure the honesty of the workers. aunts used m l·ed as in the h'18 shelves must be found to agree 'th the am · ventor WI b ordered and in . th e dispensator's stock of materials was to f e merchant. d orderiY• Bis Workshop of an artisan or the warehouse o ah d industrious, an aterials and Th e dispensator must be loyal, c Ios e · mout eked ' after va luablemhis relati·ons 1 loyalty to the laboratory was essential for he oourse of the trials. 1~hed for they had to keep a true record of his stock and thelcod to be ciose-~ou -i'ndeed, if 1 With the three other groups of laborers, he a nother's ope rauons hare the en tire mu t b of one a ever s s e kept in complete ignorance 11 he must n h le process. f-Ie Po ssi'b le, of each other's existence. Naturah Y,last to see the w O f om each opera. Process With any of them. 30 He was in fact t e the materials r_ g of the ent1re ~eeded industry and order so that he could keeopnfusion or sloWtn h ti on moving on to the next operation wi'th no c er " the thre s Work. h "Trifurir-Camm d~ into sludge. e d and maa small mi·n that . Th e third chamber of the laboratory was t pulverize d tng/ . . · ls were . water, ) an a grinding room in which matena of running ssoriurn' . T his ' . a source ·11 (E.xcu h rpen1ng space would enclose a spnng or . _ a stamp mt tions-s a . enWould run a grinding mill (Trituraronum)d, for these o~erah mber and mv Shake ( · this c a r Conquassatorium). er1 0° l s needeId be kept in st ones, sieves, vats, and the like-won 27 2s

29 30

lbid. Ibid., p. 100. Ibid. Ibid.

,.-~, 238

INTERLUDE IN THE LABORATORY

toried regularly. 31 The workers in the third chamber were "rough, strong people who should understand nothing else. " 32 Operations with water were carried out in the fourth chamber of the laboratory, the "Destillir-Cammer." Here ~ere located distillation vessels of glass and pottery, and furnaces for boiling, digestion, sublimation, and distillation. The inhabitants of this space were distillers and good "Wasser-Brenner, who, however, needed to know nothing further. "33 "Schmelzer" (smelters) and "Probirer" (assayers) worked in the fifth and final chamber, where they carried out the operations of the fire, dealing exclusively with dry materials. Their chamber was filled with furnaces for drying, reverberation, cementation, calcination, smelting, and other processes, as well as with fireproof instruments such as earthenware vessels, crucibles, ladles, and tongs. The workers in the last three chambers would ideally be unable to read and write, and they must not be allowed paper or writing instruments. They were to be kept in ignorance of the entire set of operations carried out in the other parts of the laboratory so that they could neither attempt to imitate nor steal any of the processes for sale or private use outside the laboratory. The laborers were not to be allowed to handle any raw materials, but only those already prepared and dispensed by the dispensator. Further, the finished products they produced by their operations should be taken quickly from them so that they could not keep any samples. Becher believed if the laborers were not given raw materials and could not know of the other operations, they would have no notion of how th ey produced any given material. Even if at the end of the entire operation, the laborers of the fire produced gold and silver, they would have no idea how it had been done. Most important, the workers in the last three estates should not be allowed to talk, eat, or drink with each other, and, ideally, they should not eve: see or know of each other's existence. In the laboratory, they should only com · contact wit · h the Consilarius, the dispensator, and the "SpeiBme1ster, · "or m cook. Organized in this manner, Becher believed the whole work would proce~d "?~il?sophically": the counselor engrossed in his studies, the dispensator in his division of labor and materials, and the laborers in their unthinking toil. Each ~o~ld progress, by constant repetition of single operations toward perfecti~n of his Job, and, because, as Becher stated in a burst of baroque pleonasm, "nei th er th e processes, the operations, the materials the instruments nor the human bemgs . ' come together, mix, confuse collude' confer communicate or-What is usual with the Laboranten-drink togethe:," there' will be perfect order and secrecy.34 31

Ibid., p. 101.

32

gehiiren in diese Cammer grobe starckc Leuth/ die weilers nichts vcrstehen dorffen" (ibid.,"Es p. IOI). 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid., p. 102.

239 h J1, E LA n O RAT INTERLUDE I N II . r notions of t e a 'Jd workshop, both with earl1e Becher's laboratory contrasts sha~l.y nal structure of the g.u1n of valuable 0 rad1 . the producuo chemist's place of work and the t tl lasses Jh h places. t three c a t ough it retains the aim of bo th t ese f human art. The 1as be trained goods from raw material by the Handwerk o h than apprentices.to 'th beery ?f Workers were obviously hired laborers, rat de: guild brothersh1p .w1 akin to 1n ·1 b nfirme Ill duct10n, gui d secrets or journeymen to e co ains a center of pr~ he workers confraternity. While Becher's laboratory rem anner in which t crets of th · d the m · the se . e guild workshop, he has transforme roduced. Keepmg ed the way interact and the way in which the skills are r? but Becher has chang kers to its '.he Workshop has continued as a primary g~a ow ledge by the ;orher calls a in. Which this is achieved from control o boratorY, whom dec and puts alienation from them. The counselor of thef a ductive knowle gfie,ure who, natUral ph1losopher, • ' f controls the secre ts o hprohas here createda hig_holders 0 them h · Bee er . andt e W olly at the service of the pnnce. en the pnnce b th the chartnuch like himself acts as an intermediary. betw~ himself from O rk within Proct · ' J d1stancmg who wo d Uctive knowledge simultaneous y d the laborers ·ectors an lat ' tory an h proJ . ans Who crowd the doors of the iabora th centuries sue d me to con· lt3s Th d ighteen . an ca h · roughout the seventeenth an e d e of artisans g]eovert e naturaI Ph'1losophers appropnate . d th e knowle 'Jd g secrets. This strug e peno . d by 1 troJ th e processes that had once been heId as gu1 . the san . f guilds Ill id descn'be co d truct10n o r wou ,, ntroJ of knowledge paralleled the es . J seph :Macque . t of the seven. I chem1s ver/a , . . • 36 Pierre- 0 rkger and pnncely mtervent10n. . the typ1ca t·ons of wo somewh . . . . ifChenustry h opera I h misat later m his Dzctwnary o d unravel t e . arts of C e . teenth century who worked to "discover an ost essential p . ns and thelf rn · d the m erauo h tr e~;tho though not Chemists, exerc1s;r brought th~se o~he result of succt y. Becher's ordering of the !aborat Y f the pnnce. de! of perfe Products more effectively under the control ohe laboratory ~ mt\n of theory, orga . . Id make t mb1na I Id result in a co distance I. d nization, Becher believed, wou n Ustr · 1·t wou pted to " 0 Ry

k

i°

Y, and the work done Ill . pilers attern phi·Josopher, h1loso N 1ural f 35 .1n which natura I P anic and a " he House o th Recent work has focused on the way ~rooke as Mech Shapin, T h tar and a r 48' Steven "A Sc o " NoCllJse[v es, from mechanics. J. A. Benne It , "Robert so-SJ): 33- , . jdenl, England, Bxtes_& Records of the Royal Society 35 (19 . 79 (1988): 373-.404E,arlY Modern/ rt Hooke: PerillJ • d"/s1s .. erin Roie • G ent in Seventeenth-Century Eng 1an ' . 'fie Practlll0 n h "'er eds., bove His . enuellJ . f h Sc1ent1 1 n Sc au' ' "Id ,as a . }fisto an: The Problematic Identity o ~ e Hunter and Simo purnfreY, . "e Z9 (1990· ,, ry of Science 24 (1991): 279-327; M1chae I 1989)' Stephen . r)' of Sc1e11c ''ew St d' d II Press, , " H1sto .I Stati _u ies (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boy e . of Experiments, . The Socia I on. A Social Study of Hooke's Curatorship •s J931 essay 71) and -44 · Hessen rtig 19 ' . 3".T crcsetoutinBons ewYork:H,Fe ,47(J94J-2)and E: he crudest components of this struggle w b rt s. Cohen, N o,JSocio/og) histor)' of 0 1 · Roots or · · ·. (ed · Ro e"Ainerican Journa·nI the su bs-equenented inEct con m1c 1 Newton's Pnnc1p1a at the g· z· f s · nee,. t 1·nterpretatto · ns. ·ted 1 "paper pres 544 ar tlsel, "The Sociological Roots o c1e 9? -62 p · Manos R v1s1 ' 19 ~· ·v Sci · ·or a discussion of the fate of their Craftsman e C December ) PP· ~iii-~ 1 · I an~:~e, see Pamela 0. Long, "The Scholar a~d t 1~ashington, D.' r''cadell, 1771 ' 37 l 11Jeeting of the History of Science Soc1ety,F ,nch (London, . AD·ictionary · of Chemistry, trans. from the re

II

240

)

I NT E R L UDE I N T HE L ABOR AT O R Y

practice, and civic virtue: "Utile [sic], Honestum & Scientia all together. "38. Becher's Kunst- und Werckhaus centered on its chemical laboratories, and it can be inferred that Becher wished to set up these laboratories and the other workshops in the house on the qiodel of his projected alchemical laboratory. 39 Economic historians have seen the organization and goals of Becher's KunS t_ und Werckhaus as prefiguring the factory system of manufacture that emerge,d in the territories of the German Empire in the eighteenth century. 40 Bech~r.s laboratory plans exhibit elements of a factory system, particularly in the div~sion of labor. While it is tempting to draw a linear connection between Becher s plan and the manufacturing industries of later centuries, it is worthwhile to pay close attention to his use of the word industria. For Becher, this word connot~d not industrial manufacture but civic industriousness and all that it involved. It is precisely through Becher's joining the form of his Kunsthaus to the notion of industrious activity that "industry" took on its modern meaning, but it is necessary to remember that he called it a "Kunst- und WerckhauB "not a "Manufakturhaus." For Becher, "industry" hovered in the space betw'een artisanal guild town, Verlag, and manufactory. Like so many of his other ideas, we can see in _it a moment of transformation. If one takes a sufficiently narrow sighting of th'.s 1'd . b . ea, it can e slotted mto a modern understanding, but when the scope IS broadened, we find that something as mundane as a chemical industry is occurring in a space as alien as an alchemical laboratory. Becher linked the form of his Kunsthaus to the notion of industria as part of his attempt to integrate the court and commercial worlds. Kunst could evoke for th e pr~nce the artificialia of the Kunstkammer made by the artisans train~d in th e gmld towns, as well as the human potential to imitate the creative principles of nature, whereas industria conjured up the productive cycle of the town world. Ju st as in the colony project, Becher had attempted to entice the count of Hanau to take on the values of the commercial republic by overseas commerce nd a colonization, so in the manufactures of the laboratory and the KunS t _ und ~e~ck~aus, he desired to persuade the emperor that industrious activity and civic virtue were values that could be brought under his control in a KunS thaus.

Ludus Scaenicus: Industry in the Laboratory The laboratory, a microcosm of human industry and the place of ars, beca~e th st e age where Becher completed the integration of court and commercial rld wo . Becher began the discussion about the obligation of great lords to fou nd 38 39

Chymischer Glacks-Hafen, p. 103.

Ibid., p. l02, states that illustrations of the laboratory are appended at the end of Article 4 • but they were apparently never included. 40 .. ter. .H ans J· H-atsc hek , Das Manufakturhaus auf dem Tabor in Wien. Ein Beirrag ziir os

re1ch1schen Wirthschaftsgeschichte des 17. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1886).

241 .. Th prince's aim in 1 nd of the work. e . . al princely aboratories with a section on the proper e ercise the tradition terials founding a laboratory must be to enable him to ekx the ennoblement o'. ma biects fun . . ct·ion as protector of his subJects · He must . see his land and freet·ng his su J in the laboratory with the aim of protectmg frorn the burden of taxes· h they have a . h d too muc ' I and if they a ries schoo s, Great lords can never have too much money, h rches, mona 5le ' poor hUndred . name1 t0 found c u opportunities to use 1t; Y, . tudy and trave I' to dower decrease ho Spi!als, · r children s and orphanages, to he 1P poo d fortify thelf• ]and ' to. Turkey, daug hters, to improve common roa ds, to protect an the poorpn·soners JU ks all the contribution [head tax] of the su b'~ec ts ' to suppor1d many more good worfgreat ' 0 t0 . · places, an . venues spread the Christian religion 111 foreign f the ordmary re t are perof wh'1ch need means that are d1fficu • . It tO supply rom • rdinary me ans tha Iords. Therefore great lords should th111 . k '·1bout extrao . h 1 rn· ss1ble · and do not burden anyone. 41 I only be fou ndmt• e . ould legitimate y the regeneratt~e Such extraordinary means of mcome c demonstrated d direct thtS alchemical laboratory, for it was there that a~t hoW to harness an ·cal Jaboracapacity of nature and the alchemist learne t'ned in the alchemt!th· re generative , The capacity. fabulous pro fit .to be ga forms of Jan ded wea . tory had many advantages overt he tradittona1 . rnostmo des tprocessd S I when even its Reichsthaler an , Uch types of income only alchemy can supp yf, . er is worth ten k by rneans 1s true, as, for example granted that am ark o si 1v·eld in on YOne wee 'e in s1Jver . ) 1 ' ·1 rcan y1 decreas equa\ to five [gold] ducats, this mark of s1 ve koning in the . I year. Th US of aJchemy, one ducat of profit. That is · 1·n sum (rec ent profit JU · asJUgd ernerchan t's a IOO percent profit in eight weeks and a 1,000 pe_rcthere in the worl .an hoW ]ittle th . . Where is t mentI 0 •n e capital has been multiplied ten umes. 't l? I will no . apital on a tract e that its capi a · rd h1S c ·t t can obtain such an intereS on id bear to haza . llY when 1 is even the best mines can produce• Who wou d nd power, espec1a din his. wn 0 uncertainty and to put it outside of his • own han ta ry out of dan ger ants or ]ending • not necessary, when he could keep it. 111 . his labora o rnerchan ' . Or with the d not so usehou · . • I d in mmes us an . se mstead of investing it 111 his an ' . dangero b worked in it t . . b densorne, s can e be o prmces or lords, which is ur that its processe one's needs can . f~l: ... Alchemy also has the advantage as needed, so that ]ace to place JU different places and can be duplicated as often is driven frorn p 'ts of the ]and se • ral fruI ith rved m all places which is necessary when.. one ) or the natu . erything w War. .,,this is not possible ' [L idguter rnes ev d rnan with land ar 'd• He who ca , nY a bol . [Fr" • ena1 , uchte]. For this reason, the Phi·i osop her sai · daily see that rna, t the 1rnP h1rn When we , salary a rnuch ]den [Becher s d ]irnb; hOW . 1 ' needs not the aid of others. · · · oses h.1s f recdom for a paltry thous and gu . h danger to life an. ss e can pa this Court'] . ther wit . 11 t111s, on . · , and must serve and wait on ano ddition to a It Would be worth to him to be his own Io rd , In a INTERL

41

u

ABORATORY

D E I N T II E L

C hymischer Gliicks-Hafen, p. 81.

·Ill·~'

, 242

Becher here reiterates that the movable wealth supplied by alchemy is better than land, for even the natural "Landgiiter" and "Friichte" of great lords do not have the capacity for generation and multiplication of alchemical processes. Moreover, real property, as well as creating dynastic disharmony and a burd~nsome and ultimately lethal system of taxes, cannot be carried into war or exilej As a conclusion to his plan for the laboratory, Becher attached a propos~ made to the emperor in 1674 shortly after submitting his Commercial Referat in which he advocated the manufacture of mineral dyes and materials in the Habsburg domain. 43 As with the Kunsthaus, this manufacture would create the means for founding and running the laboratory Becher had described so carefully. Thus "out of the industria of chemistry itself" would come the means for the laboratory project.44 It has been told to me at different times that Your Imperial Majesty is graciously inclined not only to alchemical, but also to other mathematical and philosophical sciences, inventions, rarities, and curiosities, and that you desire very much to support and protect their cultivators, not doubting that many rare and important things will come to light and be discovered. For, besides the usefulness, Your Imperial Majesty can extract much pleasure and contentment, especially because it is laudable when splendid arts and artists are maintained and put to work [verlegt] by high potentates. In these days, times and events have resulted in a shortage of money; in contrast to which the expenses are so great that one can hardly cover th e necessary daily costs. At the same time, the subjects count every Kreutzer they are taxed and give as much attention to the application of their tax money. They quickly begin to murmur if, in their opinion, the money is not applied in th e necessary places. But if some extraordinary means of income could be fou nd , · which is not connected with the taxes of the subjects and much less with the treasury of Your Imperial Majesty, but instead could be effected through induS try for the good of the territory, Your Imperial Majesty would need have no misgivings about designating it for the maintenance and collecting of all kinds of arts and t artiS s. Thus such means would be a fund out of which the necessary costs for ese th things could be taken.4s 42

43

Ibid., pp. 81-82. Ibid., pp. I 04-7.

44 45

Ill

I NTERLUDE I N THE LABORATORY

science on to one's children as their inheritance, without diminution of the substance and always with preservation of the capital. It does not harm one brother when the other practices this art, too. This is the reason, then, that all great lord s should aspire to make this art above all others a source of God-given extraordinary income, and not depend only upon direct taxes from their poor subjects, as an eagle remains sitting on a carcass. 42

"auf3 lndustria der Chymi selbsten" (ibid., p. 103). Ibid., pp. 105-6.

..

o RA

TORY

243

, rdiI 'med extrao echer c ai ' the B . I however, In tlrnes when money was short and expe nses great, In this proposa ' . h would in nary Income . could be provide db Ythe laboratory. b t through in dus try' wh1c . ry form 0 f means Would not be supplied by alchemy, nu This new extr~or!1~~tation, able turn produce the means to pursue alche_i y. tyle befitting his r p Not only rev enue would allow the emperor tO live in• as the arts an d sciences. id stabilize 11is to pu . . • d patronize b t wou h" rsue his court d1vers10ns an ~ d pleasure, u quieting t 1s Would it allow him reputation, divers10n, an h"1s subiects, thus the good of · from Power by removing the burden of taxatton b broughtJ aboU~ •·for e obtained inost dangerous of enemies. 46 All ti1is could. e means Of incom• ry means th e land through industry." . ex tra ordinary This . ·1ar to the ex traord111aThey both th rough the industry of manufacture s was s1m1hemical Iaboratory. of inconl e th at could result from the foundatwn · of an ,aIcd provide . d a means gav_e a high return on the funds investedha~1:ecured his rul\n for it characent1re[y at the disposal of the noble lord~ I ,· nificance as w , wn model of Bec her's industria had a moraI an d soc1a sig ce in Beeher's ,to words the to ter·!Zed the busy productive eye Ie Of sustenan . Becher s • clear in human society. its connection to alchemy 1s. it emp · I Marsa1Y· Therefore eror about the alchemist, Dame [ faJchemYltitute t, o so he will pros .vtarsa)y's life lacks proportion to the venerable science d modestly, ribed to his 15 . d . iously an . to be asc esirable that he change it and hve P . blic. Much is ... , nd to se duc. · c1vdr, a ·ts UCJther himself nor the science, nor ma kc 1t. pu ·nprudent1a. ,K •estY perm 1 Y . m . expenence I enal iviaJ OU th, his ignorance in politicis, his h'ch Your ImP rton; in • particular to the freedom and 1·ice nse w 1 •• d ·n civil h'•n1.47 1 J'f an . o!itical I e_ "bilrgerl'h . . the acuve p tn a . The e alchemist must be expenenced in t· nding hoW to Jiveactive ]Jfe. d Pr ct a · tuous ·· t un I' u ence, Which for Becher meant un ders d racticing a v1r d" ("beschuZ h ee !Ch[e] Gesel!schaft" (civil society),48 an ptected and servhe 'ssocietyoft ·rnd fi bIna[. goa I of a civic society was "to be pro m ]ished bYBee . erwatche d overd ader ed1ent zu seyn") 49 These ends were acco Ph.le the prince i·ty ("Stan I est . h r w I . d ne ates, each of which served the ot ~ h" the estate of human Becher c1a1me the :otected them, by restraining them wit :ical Gutachten, other estates, al:he1enschheit"). As is clear from the Alche_ ty and serve the nother. The at the a Che . ' done a o the lllist should take part in the Cl·vii soc1e d protecte ,, and con•orm 1' Pe_asants, artisans and merchants served an liche Nahrung, 1timatelY it wahs mii111st rn b ' .,. f"bilrger .. ,ust epartoftheactiv e 111eo t"ce virtue, but. ut e InhtS· Ale e needs f h I ust prac I . ts' v1r u . o t e common good. I- e m his subJec dangerous tesp Onsi"b ility of the noble ruler toe nforce . us subject 1·s J11orc

1N T E R L

th

uD E

, 1 A ll

I N TH E ,

hat one % ll Po/itischer Discurs, 2d ed.• P· 37 ' says t an tenCcher, f . . 47 48 49

oreign enemies. ilchemical Gutachten, fol. 7v. echer, Psychosophia (1705), p. 85 · Ibid., p. 81.

rebelhO

~'

244

I NTERL UDE IN T H E LADO R ATO R y

cal Gutachten, then, Becher adjudicates not just the process of D·an iel Marsaly, r The but also the virtue of the civil society and its relation to the noble ru 1etc·ome traditional sphere of the noble ruler, once external to c1v1c · · m · d ~ stry'that muscan be to encompass and direct the power of Handwe rk and the virtue produced by it. . . h Jabora· But industria also connoted the industria, or Fleij], practiced m ~ e tion of tory by the dispensator in his diligent, assiduous, and purposeful de egt~ons It tasks and materials, and by the laborers in the repet_ition o: the1r · opera 1 mer· · of the could also mean the accumulation of wealth by the mdustnousness inces chant-Verliiger, whose activities Becher considered a model bo for P:le of th and merchants. Becher's use of industria thus implied both the busy c;rm of sustenance, as well as the Verliiger and his manufac . ture. 50 B· ec her 's re1O dent on court revenue proposed to make the prince's reputation and power d~pen rtisan this industria that simultaneously combined the "manual work" of e a th with the "manufacture" of the Verliiger. . bora· Becher has transformed the great work of the Paracelsian alchemica11 ~ and tory as a microcosm of human salvation into a model o civic f . · negotia but manufacture. The alchemist must no longer be infused with . d'ivi~e 5 as • powerfar with the mundane virtue of action in the civil society. Salvatwn, sod to be Becher considered it, was to come in the form of material increase ~n e accomplished by a civic industry of manufactures directed by the pnnc ·

Finis: Safe Port The GI previous chapter noted that Becher's alchemical work, ChY,nischer - ·(ies .. ks-Hajen, took the name of the . u~ Leipzig lottery becaus~ b 0 th eactIV flow1 of sigrnfied to Becher honest and ingenious means of increasmg nsth revenue into the treasury. If the noble ruler was attentive to these new mlela the commerce among them-h e would gain authority and reputat10 5 at · n, aswe aelY material surplus with which his power was sustained. Ifwe look more cios Becher's alchemical book, we find this verse on the title page: Die Welt die ist ein Gliickes-Topff/ The world is a lottery Die stets hcrummer liiufft/ that goes round and rou nd _ Da gilt es eines jeden Kopff/ Each head counts equally. Wann das Verhangnu/3 greifft: When doom strikes Es geht blind zu/ man sagt kcin Wort/ ·ct it proceeds blindly, no wordis sai ' Nicht richtet/ niemand schreibt; nothing directs, no on e writes. ay· Geliickts/ so mul3 der Konig fort/ . aw ' That's luck! So must the Kmg Der Esels-Treiber bleibt. the donkey driver stays. 50 · th Al mos·t one hun dred years later industry could be summed up as follows.· "'thereby is. rneaotr e active . . energy of free workers and of merchants, together with the so-ca II ed savo1r. fiaire 0

245 me like the lottery " new means ofrnco was not only a Gli.ickshafen" ( safe haven)- whet herthe f merce or alchemyfrom the h · eans o Fortune, com ort e regenerative and creative m a place to. escape ich the storms harbor of fortune, but a harbor from s the harbor m wh incessant vicissitudes of Fortune's wheel. It wa d comf of fortune could be weathere d • . Ichemy an f this safe haven a oet-guide and Long before Becher's elaboratwn teenth-century P e Both . 111.erce, Marcellus Palingem.us, Becher's hers'h ston . man . sixf the philosop t rich t h . d possessio n o h d said t a a eac .er, had equated virtue an , eel: Palingenius. a ' for this man can Provided protection from fortune s wh who is vlftuous, ty cannot. is not one who possesses real property but one the man of real proper ta·1ns and carry · tued sus his wealth with him wherever Ileg oes ' asbile mercury, Vlf L 1 the ,philoso.k e the philosophers' stone, ma de from mo a man. y·rtue an •ves neuer 1 brings happiness wherever fortuna may toss d it "Vertue true gt Phers' stone are ~ne. For, as Marcellus phrase ' . " an ct·· Place to Fortunes frowning spite, e to frame, . the Heavenly Ston me. Then whiche no art more worth y 15 ' • obtaine the sa k we can Which wicked people never no , nor d II in any land, hand.s1 • may we and force f robbers And this whosoever doth enJOY f the O Bothe free from feare offOrtu nes whee Ie, . sness o tain . industnou the creative e his uncer The social virtue of civic industry an d ble ruler to overcom who entered it. alchemical laboratory could enable the :oof chance, an~ those however, from fortuna. The Leipzig lottery was a gam Paradox1callY,_ who staged b. SU ~ected themselves to the wh'ims of fortune. tability, for the pnnce • this game of th·is game of risk and · g wot1ld come s s won m gamblm d h. s state alway ~ tune para JIeIs a the lottery could subdue fortune. He an ~eans to control ~rof risk, such as chance. Becher's use of the lottery as t:nding of other for~ife insurance an~ transformation occurring in the unders_ J'ke the lottery, ya calculus o in surance. Begun as a form of ga mblmg I I te seventeen th centur data divi de when ann Utty · policies came to represen t by the a d 52 Bee h r stoo e Probabilities by which risk could be contro11 e . . h's sense, Jodust? . ies. And mt I ome Towns. c. leverness at . from.favorableopportumt aJker, Gern1~n }/ress, 1970, extracting all possible gams d. "' Mack W. II University p 1 708ff, 1s s t · 1an . I783), P· C e 11 contrast with stable property and with _1871 (Ithaca.. Corne adie (Berhn, . Rause New48 0tnmunity, State and General Estate, 16 •sche Enzyklop ge (London. Pp 12 ' .. · Oekonomz b'e Goo · 1-22, quoting Johann G. Krumtz, Life trans. Barna_I !947),PP· 186 I88 · s1 Marcellus Palingenius The Zodiake of ,.I' '. 1·1es & Repnnts, /1e11 Geistesle'b_e ,ufesBar· Dasto0, b 5· · erie, 1576; fasc. repr. New' York: Scholars • Facs1msgedanke im deutsc hi 1954); Lorrame 1988)· Jan 2 s ,., e, Press ' ee nans Schmitt-Lermann, D er Versicheruhngiften-VerIag J· Je University ock Und der A1ifkliirung (Munich: Kommunalsc_ r eton· Princeton ·t Press, 1975). 'Aon fabian, America 11 Sl_assica/ Probability in the Enlightenment (PnnCc· mb;idge UniversN1 ~etee11th-Cent11r\a1isrn io a , Cacki ng, The Emergenc . in 1arnbhog e ofProba b'/' . I zty (London: a. Gamb mg andcapI 1 1 ard SI arps Dream Books Bucket Shops. d'alectIC . be1wceng and (ltha . ' ' ) f llows the 1 ct· ca. Cornell University Press, I 990 , 0 Ifferent setting. INTERL

unE

. 'LABOR ATORY I N 1 II E .

°

.

°

ry

246

I

INTERLU DE IN TUE LABORA TORY

. the very bases of rationality and of rational . were bemg . transformedi·val by action new economic practices and by a new understand mg . o f t he worId · The rev 'ght in the late sixteenth century of Stoic doctrines that claimed . · d'iv idua th·em . 1mirac· triumph over fortune by a com b.mation • o f w1-11 , virtue, · an d philosoph1c . a1P of tice53 flowered by the seventeenth century into a behe . t· t h at this contro 1"or . terr~tory, fortune might be exercised for the benefit of an entire . . deed even 1' _m b burg society at large. Becher's gathering of statistics on the artisans m the Ha. \y of domains represents the very beginnings of a habit of app:ying the ce:~:ough m. athematical calculation to the inscrutable forces of fortune. h' s of Becher's own nse · to favor may have been made poss1'bl e b Y the . wr im,that Jortuna (or Providence), he helped to institute a concept of ratw~a the depended on prudent calculation and careful measureme nt of potentia_ · pro· same way, Becher's belief in the possibility of alchemical trans~utatJ O; om· vided a bridge to what we believe to be the more "rational" prac!ices O t:rnal mercial manufactur e and investment. This bridge stood rooted 1~ the eDutch verities of nature, however, for although Becher evinced interest m the sses forms of life annuities- Lyf-Rente n-he still thought in terms of the pro~:d to of the natural world and their imitation by the human hancl. 54 He attemp s of make clear to the prince that by unclerstancling and contro mg II . the force der· nature, such as generation, creation, and material procluctio n-for~es u~the stood by the "Real-Weisheit" of the alchemist, mechanic, and artisa? the pnnce . cou Icl overcome the uncertam . returns to h'1s treasury by harnessing very sources of the creation of wealth.

t{n

53

. Dunker &Humblot, Gerhard Oestreich, Geist und Gestalt desfrilhmoder nen Staaten (Berlin: b hhand1969); Gotthardt Friihsorge, Der politische Karper (Stuttgart: J. B. Metzlersche Verlags uc lung, 54 1974). . , . hie! on [ife Mss. var. 1(2), fols. 636r-647v, contains a copy of Johann de Witts pamp Sche[tus, annuities: Waerdye van LyfRenten naer proportie van Los-Renten (The Hague: Jacob 1671).

FIVE OMMERCE

BETWEEN WORDS AND THI NGS·. THE C OF SCHOLA RS AND THE PRO

MISEOFARS

f the Holy Roman en the courts o . a group of HE MOVED back and for th b~t;~hroug hout his !Ife by projected, Empire Becher was accompame ked in the laboratory, e!ed· they ' . h ' . men like himself, with w om he. wor hi mobile an d we.JI trav the rnechamand quarreled. These individuals were h1g with an interest in ·t of official usua Ily combined the learned • 0 f "Doctor · pursm urt these title ·nee in their I pr1 of co with) , the ca arts, and they competed for the favor ofthe t'fice the baro que·1y P ·· · thear 1 ·man os1tions at court. Although immerse d m 'fi d themselves pn h This group Ill.en usually came to court from (or ident1 ~ the new philosop ~-ctor Bengt r_epu bhe . of letters and they all · terestfft m the Swedis • I1 proJe ' .d had an m Jly Gottfne tncJudect the ubiquitous Johann Daniel ~;aH;nau, and, eventua ' Skytte, whom we know from the court rne world as \ViJheJm Leibniz ( l 646-1716) . th 'b . as inhabiting ehse: reveals that ll· . qJstonans . ted ' usually do not spea k O f Lei . mz tions WI·th Bee fascina Be h . 's mterac 'b iz was . wn c er, but an examinatio n of Lei'b mz d nt1'als, Lei n b tween his o de spite · his more convention al learne d ere e d y e · 's no boun ar for Leibniz eve n o bsessecl by · · · • and. saw tigate easons and Becher's act1v1t1es, the r urnptions Sph ~re and that' of Becher. I Indee d ' I.f we mves hared a number of ass mon vocabu Jary fascination with Becher, we find tha~ they s drew from a corn olitical circum; linderstandings about the world, which theyd economic and pbased upon th~d of ideas . and sources as well as f' m share . ac tions. · n1ca . Jly' d1 ro d their Stances. . unclerstand . 0 f h world an . which, If Their mg o t e f ationahty, ce outsI'de the . Linderstancling helped shape a new tion o r a spa no . work to hosen to give lll.u c b ch to relegate a large portion o f their own t scholars 11·ip has ) weight to t11oseI oundaries of that new rationality. Sub~equhencase of Becher counting severa Ill.ore (' . . I ss (Ill t e . I z In re Ill the case of Le1bmz) or e 'd ed rat10na · te aspe t separa c s of their work which are now c ons1 er belonging to ck"

r,

d Leibniz as en Jes Baro d'.e I • rd Becher an . in Erfindung 'bniz und I IVorI An_ exception to those historians wh_o rc_gaund weise Narrhe!l nd "Becher, _Le~o!fenb#tte/er ;\ ds ts Herbert Breger "Niirrischc Weisheit ). JJ4-22, a b[ished Ill t esthetik ' (0 tober 1981 · 7 to be pu . , Rar . Und Kommunikati on 45-4 6' c . G spriich, 198 • . anuscnpt, history. 0 nc " tonahtat," Proceedings of a Becher Arbe1ts- e me to see Ill m d inteIIectua1 ·on (1952; •·orsch to • ce an R /all ungsreihe which he was kind enoug I1 allow h' ·torY of scien century ev0 Wi[he m ' S h· 1 ' · t ·n the is not b Uc Judgments have been more ev1dcn_ 1 . nd the Seventee nth-literature, su'ch Jas982); Got t,, a le exception is Rudolf W. Meyer, Le1bmz a d' es of baroque_ eyer Verlag, '~Cw Yo kstu I M·ax N1en1 lt,

d c,,,uali•\ . '""'able Robeet Boy . I 985. th c;,;/i,ati" ,m " & RoW, 1f,e· Boyle, Roh,rt. Th, Wa,icr of ' Hm I 772. 82 Vols. London: J. & F. Rivington, merce. Vol. 2ofNew York: Ha1enbutteler B,.udel, F«o,nd. Th, Wheels aJC:m Sion Royoolds. ioo,litit." Wo d die Rat 15th to 18th Century. Translated y

. ""n

"InNlll hn 'b n iz un erett Men deJso Natural Sc1·ence, . Lei "Becher, Herbert. Breger, h / etik f the Mess iah. Ill edite d by Ev · sc ungsreihe, forthcommg.

--:--. "Elias Artista-A Precu;t~~%1 and Dysto;~:del, 1984. es Barock," Aest l ·, i,;bE,ghty-Fon,c Sd,nce between Now Yo 0. fiod'"i"' d . Brand," Studi anct Helga Nowotny, pp. _49- 72. eise Narrheit Ill :;2. d zur . t1ennlllg 1981): 114 - - - . "Narrische Weisheit uu w se1trag deckers (October 46 dfdth'" Eio ,ht. Phospho,-Eot ""d Kommnrnkatfon 45- . und Naturre "ten J7. un - - - . "Notiz zur Biograph1e des k Wolf Kameralismus !land des spa nitiana 19 (l 987): 68-73. b i und Wer Bruckner, Jutta. Staatswissenschaften.' ha·Ft im Deutsc i e Jer B ck~· 1977 · h Geist. Le e,49 Geschichte der Politischen w·is semc er Miill~r, ,,19In .Neue Weg ... cOtto e ,europcus_ H C . und 18. Jahrhunderts. Mumch: · slated Otto. Adeliges Landlebe 688 Salzburg. o" konomtk, Brunner, Ii Tran . 956 ..•sche . 1612-1 echt, 1 · IAUstrza.. rsitY of d' alteuropai elmhards van Hohberg, - - - . "Das 'gauze Haus' und ie h eek & Rupr ·11Medieva hia: Un1ve domes· Sozialgeschichte. Gottingen: Vau fobh•Y"

nc el '. Jo hann. Coll Ch

,Guse,Norton, l. E., ""d P. M. Rottsnsi. "Ncwto• ,nd the 'i1P" of p,n."' Note< ood MW.~1990. R,cocds of th• Royal Socio~ of Landa• 21 (1966)• 108-43, Mc,~d: C_hristoph, "De pn,cstantio et ntilitatc Chemi,c, Sdbstdatstcilnng """ jongcn D,suplm im Spiegel mres pcog"'mmorischcn Schrilttnms," s,dhoif< A,cbfr 65

.

Lamer · Y, Joh 1716 ·, Y Johann C aspar En ymicum experimental Laspc' "· 'E"'°P' f gdlOOe,, Hamb '• ade, Labm-atod.m G yre_s, Etienne "Mo_ th, Courts"; u,g and Ldp,Jgc Saornd esch1chte d : ittci!ung . ournal oif M ,{'; en aus Le"schbrz.,tfiir dieergemede rI"andischen N .p·ieter De Laodern C H'zstory 55 (1983): 669-81. ,e vre ' N',oholassammt ational te,/ Go ' S taatswi,.con h oecooomikourts de Ischn'ft,n, dn Bcit"'g '"' so w~nlld Guldnes.klei rmdan translation :f aft 18 (1862)· ;307ten Jahrhunderts." Zeitwie no : Da . the 1660 . -74 Schriffi dxt, IIChymischer Handleigem,in handeln! men di, Chymzsche . '"" RichUge Anfiihrzmg/ French re · , ec It verstehen/ I ten/ welche v un de tl'zch e Unterweisungl ma isc er Wissenschatt ins wze als! . on Chym· h . I U' n nach 1·1z rer Ordnungl solche y

M '""• bndge:Moreci. Cambridge University 1992.by W. D, 8,lls. New Yock ,nd Londoo Th• Gift, J950, Press, r"'nsls/00

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