Alchemy Tried in the Fire

«Eirenaeus Philalethes and his influential writings were the creation of the American chymist George Starkey» — la adjudicación matriz del libro.

«Starkey's notebooks may not (alas! ) tell us how to prepare the Philosophers' Stone» — Sí dan una mirada sin precedentes al trabajo diario del laboratorio.

«Starkey was by far the more active and experienced laboratory experimentalist» — comparado con Boyle.

«throughout the seventeenth century the words "alchemy" and "chemistry" were not consistently distinguished» — el argumento etimológico que sostiene su neologismo *chymistry*.

«the widespread restriction of the definition of "alchemy" to "gold making" was a development of the period around 1700, which took advantage of an etymological error»

«the most widespread and popular interpretations of alchemy (as a subject radically distinct from chemistry) devolve from anachronistic constructions, particularly those of Victorian occultism»

«This is the view of alchemy as a spiritual discipline, first popularized by the occultists of the nineteenth century» — *mystical* y teosóficos: Lévi, Mary Anne Atwood, Waite.

«What is really significant is the alchemist's state of mind or meditation.» — así resumen la posición que van a discutir.

«This concept of a spiritual alchemy, so appealing in the early twentieth century» — a un Jung recién salido de las sesiones con su prima Héléne Preiswerk y a un Eliade inmerso en la antroposofía de Rudolph Steiner; las dos grafías son las del texto.

«the idea that alchemy was primarily a meditative pursuit remains a preconception that any speaker or writer on the subject must assume of an educated audience»

«the foundations of this interpretation of alchemy—whether spiritual or overtly Jungian—are strikingly weak»

«they are based ultimately upon Victorian occultist views with very little reference to the historical reality of the subject»

«The key result of its prevalence is that the spiritual interpretation has served—sometimes almost unconsciously—to set "alchemy" radically apart from "chemistry" in the modern sense.»

«there did exist a strong experimental tradition in the alchemy of Western Europe»

«the clean division of alchemy from chemistry, which seemed so "obvious" at first glance a generation ago, did not exist for most in the seventeenth century»

«published treatises are "cleaned-up" versions of a research program, prepared and organized for public consumption» — la justificación metodológica de trabajar con cuadernos y no con impresos.

«Starkey purchased blank, bound books at the stationer's to serve for recording his laboratory investigations»

«the culture of concealment and secrecy so pervasive in early modern chymistry»

«Besides the use of extravagant allegorical conceits and Decknamen so popular in chrysopoetic works» — hay además los métodos de dispersion, syncope y parathesis.

«Starkey copes with all four of these techniques in his notebooks.» — cuatro, porque los Decknamen cuentan como la primera; ver Notas de carga.

«the fire cannot err; ergo there must be an error in transmission» — la regla de Starkey cuando el experimento contradice al texto.

«Philosophus per ignem ("Philosopher by Fire")» — la autodenominación de Starkey.

«the wise master or praeses who delivers the vera solutio» — el fuego ocupa, en el método de Starkey, el lugar del maestro que preside la disputa escolástica.

«a process so precise and clear as this could be the work only of the careful quantitative mind of a Newton» — el argumento que el libro rechaza: el proceso es de Starkey.

«All matter has weight, and that weight is conserved even in the "final tortures" of the most striking physical and chemical change» — la lectura que hacen del principio helmontiano.

«The Helmontian appreciation of mass balance was an independent development arising mainly out of preexisting traditions.» — la conclusión historiográfica sobre la línea Van Helmont → Lavoisier.

«Homberg's process proves identical to Starkey's in all details.» — el proceso del mercurio sófico reaparece en la Académie Royale des Sciences.

«Starkey likened the antimonial alloy to a "soap" that could "wash out" the heterogeneities of mercury.»

«Iron is no longer a desired ingredient.» — el abandono del regulus marcial en favor del regulus per se.

«Starkey's reliance on God in the laboratory is not to be seen as the product of a visionary fervor.» — la corrección de perspectiva sobre la piedad de laboratorio.

«the natural philosopher will supply the ideas and theoretical frameworks, while the storehouse of the chymists' experiments can be plundered» — su lectura de la relación de Boyle con la química.

«Chemistry is not an armchair activity.» — la primera frase de la conclusión.

«the transformation of one substance into another (generally a more desirable or salable one) is one of the constant themes of alchemy /chymistry/chemistry from late antiquity down to the present day»

«George Starkey's notebooks bear this out with striking clarity.»

«we have re-joined some of the dissevered parts of the broad chymical tradition and argued for early modern chymistry's vitality and independence as a discipline»

«Our contention that rational laboratory practice and methodology provide a locus of continuity between "alchemy" and "chemistry" rather than acting as a new, defining characteristic of the latter»

«Within Starkey's work there is no methodological or epistemological division between the quest for the transmutatory Philosophers' Stone and his other works.»

«It is not as though Starkey worked as a rational "chemist" one day on one project, and then as a "mystic alchemist" the next.»

«There can be no doubt that the unfortunate Mr. B. of this story is none other than Robert Boyle, who had died less than seven years before this Essay Concerning Adepts was published.» — Newman y Principe identifican al Mr. B. del ensayo anónimo de 1698 con Robert Boyle, muerto menos de siete años antes.

«Thus “Philalethes” did in fact interact with Boyle in a very real sense, even if Starkey hid his identity as Philalethes so well that even Boyle never unraveled the disguise.» — la consecuencia que los autores sacan de su adjudicación: el trato con Philalethes fue real, y Boyle nunca supo que era Starkey.

«Alchemy tried in the fire : Starkey, Boyle, and the fate of Helmontian chymistry / William R. Newman and Lawrence M. Principe.» — la ficha de catalogación de la Library of Congress, con el año 2002 y los dos ISBN.

«William R. Newaan and Lawrence M. Principe» — así sale la portadilla del facsímil: el OCR come la *m* del apellido.

«WILLIAM RK» — Así sale la cubierta, aún peor.

«the last great philosophical alchemist of the seventeenth century» — el mote con que un historiador de la ciencia prominente fijó a Starkey/Philalethes en el pasado alquímico.

«Westfall's evidence was that the "Key," "unlike virtually all other alchemical literature . . . described laboratory procedures in detailed operative terms that could be repeated today."» — el argumento con que Westfall atribuía la *Clavis* a Newton.

«a detailed recipe for preparing a "philosophical mercury," could not have been written by an alchemist» — la premisa que Dobbs y Westfall daban por buena y que el libro devuelve a Starkey.

«Alchemie ist unabdingbar» — arranque de la tesis de Dietlinde Goltz, en su propio alemán, que ata la alquimia a una Weltanschauung y por eso excluye a Geber; los autores la rechazan.

«Nothing comes into being from nothing. Hence weight comes from another body weighing just as much.» — Van Helmont, según Newman y Principe.

«for these things it is not enough to wear out books, but you must buy coals and vessels, and spend night after night awake» — Van Helmont vía Starkey, según los autores.

«God sells the arts for sweat» — la máxima helmontiana que Starkey adopta, según los autores.

«God sells secrets for sweat.» — la misma máxima, en la otra forma que registra el libro.

«God communicated to me the whole secret of volatilizing alkalies.» — Starkey, según los autores.

«I dare not affirm, with some of the Helmontians and Paracelstans, that God discloses to Men the Great Mystery of Chymistry» — Boyle marcando distancia, según los autores; la grafía *Paracelstans* es la del texto.

«I who had the good Fortune to Learn the Operations from illiterate Persons» — la frase con la que Boyle borra a su maestro, según los autores.

«Experimentum Stirkii—"Starkey's Experiment."» — el nombre que el experimento del frío tuvo antes de que Boyle lo publicara como propio.

«too desirous of fame» — el juicio de Newton sobre Boyle, según los autores.

«Agricola Rhomaeus» — el nombre que la portada de la *Enarratio methodica* (Londres, 1678) da como maestro de Philalethes, y que es anagrama de *Georgos Stark*.

«Dr. C. a Person of Great Skill in Chymistry» — el traductor de Suchten al inglés, identificado tentativamente por los autores.

«The Business of Alchemy» — citan a Pamela H. Smith por su nombre, junto con *Vital Spirits*, en el volumen *Rethinking the Scientific Revolution* de Margaret J. Osler.

«We may lay it down as an incontestible axiom, that, in all the operations of art and nature, nothing is created;» — Lavoisier, según los autores.

«Kuhn» — Thomas Kuhn figura entre quienes señalaron la oposición de Boyle a las especies químicas fijas; Clericuzio critica esa lectura mecánica.

La fecha del contacto Homberg-Boyle está en disputa: Marie Boas Hall y el *Dictionary of Scientific Biography* dan 1674 y Alice Stroup corrige a 1677-78.

«Alchemy vs. Chemistry: The Etymological Origins of a Historiographic Mistake» — el artículo propio de 1998 al que el libro remite para el argumento del término.

«According to our first intent, the present book was to have begun with this material, but it soon took on a life of its own, first splitting off into a separate paper, and then, by virtue of an overgrown footnote, into two rather lengthy papers.» — los autores cuentan que el material historiográfico con que pensaban abrir el libro se les desprendió y acabó publicado aparte, en dos artículos.

«The second paper—“Some Problems with the Historiography of Alchemy” (in Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, ed. William R. Newman and Anthony Grafton [Cambridge: MIT Press, 2001])—recounts the historiographic fortunes of alchemy from the eighteenth century to the present» — el segundo de esos artículos, del que el libro toma su relato de la suerte historiográfica de la alquimia.

«The results contained in these publications are used widely throughout this volume, and readers are encouraged to consider these two papers as studies linked to this one, and propaedeutic to much of the further material detailed here.» — los autores piden leer esos dos artículos como propedéutica del volumen, porque su argumento se apoya en ellos.

«This study depends on a considerable amount of archival material, for access to which we thank the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the Harvard University Archives, the Royal Society of London, the University of Glasgow, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Massachusetts Historical Society.» — la base documental que el libro declara para sí mismo.

«But that Honourable Person, who had such Natural and acquired accomplishments, and was so well qualified for Philosophy, and extremely desired to see an Adept, yet took no notice of a very great failing; he was too communicative, and his house was so disposed, that nothing was done in it could be Secret.» — el ensayo anónimo de 1698 sobre los adeptos, citado por los autores: el reproche al Honourable Person es que hablaba de más y tenía la casa abierta.

«As a result of this “dangerous disposition” Philalethes decided not to contact “Mr. B.” at all, but instead met a far more cautious man, and gave him “as much of the White Elixir, as suficed to make 60000 I. Sterling worth of Silver.» — el mismo ensayo, citado por los autores, con la anécdota del elixir blanco entregado a un hombre más cauto; la grafía de la cifra es la del facsímil.

«In the second chapter we explore the background to Starkey’s chymical practice by briefly sketching issues of quantitative and qualitative chymical practice from the High Middle Ages down to the seventeenth century.» — el plan que el libro declara para su capítulo segundo.

«Finally, in chapter 6 we look at the continued influence of Helmontian notions and practices after the 1650s, first in Boyle’s mature chymistry, and then down to that late eighteenth-century admirer of Van Helmont and reformer of chemistry, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier.» — el arco que el libro se fija para su último capítulo, de la química madura de Boyle hasta Lavoisier.

«In chapter 4, we explore further aspects of Starkey’s laboratory practice, particularly his evaluation of sources of authority (including the role of divine illumination in chymical practice), and his deployment of the logical investigative techniques that he learned at Harvard College and the laboratory techniques that he acquired elsewhere in the young Massachusetts Bay Colony.» — el plan declarado del capítulo cuarto, con la iluminación divina y la lógica de Harvard entre los objetos de estudio.

«Starkey recalls that he and Boyle first met “by the occasion of our mutual Friend, Dr. Robert Child”, see George Starkey, Pyrotechny Asserted (London, 1658), Epistle Dedicatory» — Starkey en su Pyrotechny Asserted, citado por los autores, atribuye el primer encuentro a un amigo común.

«As Michael Hunter has observed in his study of these documents, however, the middle of the year 1649 marks a time of “conversion” in Boyle’s interests; the corresponding collection for 1650, entitled “Memorialls Philosophicall,” contains no rhetorical material, but is instead entirely devoted to medical receipts.» — los autores recogen la observación de Michael Hunter sobre el viraje de intereses de Boyle a mediados de 1649.

«Dobbs pronounced much the same idea, saying that the “Key” betrayed “the fine-grained quality [of] the instructions for achieving the best results” that one associates with Newton’s experimentalism, as opposed to the supposedly rough-and- ready character of alchemical practice.» — Betty Jo Teeter Dobbs leía en el Key la finura instructiva propia de Newton frente al carácter tosco que suponía en la práctica alquímica; los autores registran su posición y discrepan.

«The remarkable survival of several of George Starkey’s laboratory notebooks from the 1650s provides an invaluable primary source for answering such questions.» — el libro declara de dónde saca su respuesta: los cuadernos de laboratorio de Starkey conservados de los años cincuenta.

«Starkey’s status as an important and prolific writer on transmutation (i.e.,as.an “alchemist” ), his position as a vocal Helmontian chymical physician, and the fact that he was on close terms with Boyle during the writing of these records enormously enhance their intrinsic interest and their pertinence for this study.» — por qué esos cuadernos sirven al argumento, según el propio libro: su autor era a la vez escritor de transmutación, médico helmontiano declarado e íntimo de Boyle mientras los escribía.

«Indeed, this fixing upon Boyle was encouraged by what Adrian Johns has recently called the “iconic status” of Boyle, particularly as an exemplar of modesty, piety, veracity, and civility.» — los autores recogen de Adrian Johns la noción de un estatus icónico de Boyle como dechado de modestia, piedad, veracidad y civilidad.

«though I am a great Lover of Chymical Experiments, and though I have no mean esteem of divers Chymical Remedies, yet I distinguish these from their Notions about the causes of things and their manner of Gencration.» — Boyle en su propia letra, citado por los autores: aprecia los experimentos y los remedios químicos y los separa de las nociones de los químicos sobre las causas. La grafía corrupta del final es la del facsímil, por generation.

«where he portrays chymical doctrines as positively dangerous, because their adoption leads otherwise sober men to take up “precarious and superficial accounts of divers Phaenomena of Nature” and to forsake “the investigation of the true and fundamentall causes” of things.» — la otra mitad de esa postura, según la citan los autores: las doctrinas químicas son peligrosas porque apartan de la investigación de las causas verdaderas.