Alexis Smets, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and Chemical Heritage Foundation
Chemical Heritage Foundation
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
What is a drawing about in a publication of chemistry? In researching early-17th-century chemistry, when allegories were still fashionable in the field and when the first diagram of chemistry was invented, this question can be raised. In this period Jean Béguin published a textbook, The Elements of Chemistry, and in one of the numerous editions was printed what is often regarded as the first chemical diagram ever. This diagram, which efficiently renders Béguin’s chemical theory, was not reprinted in the following editions. In this talk I will examine the circumstances around this inaugural chemical diagram.
Alexis Smets is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Philosophy at Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands). In his dissertation he researches the role played by imagery in the theory of matter in 17th-century chemistry. Before becoming interested in the relation between iconography and chemical theories of matter, Smets studied the relation between chemistry and other disciplines at the dawn of the 18th century, in particular in the works of the chemist and physician Georg Ernst Stahl.