Lavoisier and the History of Chemistry.

During the eighteenth century, authors of chemical treatises and courses on chemistry often introduced their work with a chapter devoted to the history of chemistry. While there may have been different reasons for the use of history, its importance was never seriously questioned. However, when Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794) took a professional interest in chemistry in the early 1770s, he progressively became uneasy with this literary tradition. In this essay, I intend to explore the ways in which Lavoisier looked at the history of chemistry and to show how, from the 1780s onwards, he began to adopt a hostile attitude towards historical erudition. This vision, which culminated in the publication of the Traité élémentaire de chimie (Paris, 1789), was not only the result of a stylistic preference but constituted a direct attack on a way of doing chemistry from which Lavoisier intended to distance himself.

Stahl in France: an unknown Latin translation of the Zufällige Gedancken und nützliche Bedencken über den Streit, von dem so genannten Sulfure (1718) owned by Étienne-François Geoffroy, Jean Hellot and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier.

This essay focuses on an unknown Latin translation of Georg Ernst Stahl's treatise on the nature of sulfur (Zufällige Gedancken und Nützliche Bedencken über den Streit von dem so genannten Sulfure). The original edition, published in 1718, laid the foundation for the phlogiston theory, which dominated European chemistry until the early 1770s. However, the dissemination of the treatise on sulfur outside the German states remained limited. Its Latin translation proposes a different scenario as it was owned by three prominent French chemists: Étienne-François Geoffroy, Jean Hellot and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Geoffroy's early interest in Stahl's chemistry has been evidenced and it is suggested that the acquisition of the manuscript might be linked to his connection with Stahl through Caspar Neumann, a chemist from Berlin. When he entered in the possession of the manuscript Jean Hellot wrote a long excerpt of Stahl's work. Lavoisier acquired the manuscript in 1766, and his critical reading of Stahl's work significantly influenced his own effort to outline a new theory of combustion. This manuscript represents a significant historical connection between Stahl's phlogiston theory and Lavoisier's revolutionary ideas.

Glassmaking Goes Public: The Cultural Background to Antonio Neri's L'Arte Vetraria (1612).

Glassmaking has prospered as an art since the late Middle Ages. It is therefore surprising that the first systematic treatise exclusively devoted to it appeared as late as 1612. In this article I explore the experimental background of Antonio Neri's L'Arte Vetraria, and its intimate connection with an ancient alchemical tradition and with more contemporary efforts to introduce technical innovations. Furthermore, the active role played by Antonio Neri, a clergyman and alchemist in the service of Antonio de' Medici, sheds new light on the patronage of the Medici court. This article aims at contextualizing Neri's book within the Florentine tradition of glassmaking and, above all, within Francesco I de Medici's alchemical interests in this art. Finally, the almost contemporary publication of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius and Neri's L'Arte Vetraria raises the question of the role played by alchemists like Neri and by Florentine glassmakers in the making of optical instruments.

Between the Workshop and the Laboratory: Lavoisier's Network of Instrument Makers.

Throughout his career, Lavoisier paid particular attention to the apparatuses he intended to use in his experimental pursuits. Lavoisier engaged many instrument makers in Paris, the French provinces, and abroad, and he made several efforts, more or less successful, to design a new environment for chemical experimentation. In addition to working with famous instrument makers such as Fortin, Mégnié, and Ramsden, Lavoisier had his instruments made by more than seventy other different makers. In this essay, I outline their contributions and make a preliminary attempt to establish their role in the design of Lavoisier's instruments and in the changes that occurred in chemical experimentation.

Imaging the experiments on respiration and transpiration of Lavoisier and Séguin: two unknown drawings by Madame Lavoisier.

This paper presents two hitherto unknown drawings by Marie-Anne-Pierrette Lavoisier dating to the early 1790s that illustrate the experiments on respiration and transpiration of her husband Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his assistant Armand Séguin. These works may be associated with the well-known sepia drawings that were published for the first time by Edouard Grimaux in 1888. Details contained in these newly discovered drawings by M.me Lavoisier provide fresh evidence as to the nature and aims of Lavoisier's innovative experiments. As we will show, these drawings were intended to illustrate the collection of papers on respiration being prepared by Lavoisier for his Mémoires de physique et de chimie (1792-1805).

The changing role of the historiography of chemistry in continental Europe since 1800.

Throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, many distinguished chemists attributed an important, at times crucial, role to the historical narrative. When the first professional histories were published during the nineteenth century, their role was intimately interwoven with the identity of chemistry, a science that in spite (or because) of its rapidly growing importance in the industrialisation of Europe, did not have the same reputation as either the exact sciences or the medical-biological disciplines. With the works by Berthelot, Lippmann, and Mieli, the history of chemistry focused on its rich and varied documentary sources. The histories of chemistry produced during this period set the ground for a variety of approaches that reflect, to a large degree, the main currents of old and recent history of science. Moreover, historians of chemistry, both continental and Anglo-American, had a prominent role in establishing the history of science as an independent discipline.

Synthesis of functionally diverse and conformationally constrained polycyclic analogues of proline and prolinol.

Alkylation of the monoenolate of N-Boc-l-pyroglutamic acid methyl ester with a variety of benzylic halides and their homologues gave the corresponding anti-C-4-alkylated products as major products. Formation of the N-Boc-iminium ion and Friedel-Crafts intramolecular cationic ring closure afforded a series of fused 1-azacyclodihydroindene derivatives with interesting topologies. Functional diversity was introduced via further manipulation of pendant groups on the original proline motif as well as on the aromatic moiety.

The revival of Lucretian atomism and contagious diseases during the renaissance.

This article examines the influence of Lucretius' De rerum natura on the theory of contagious diseases which Girolamo Fracastoro developed during the second decade of the 16th century. It is apparent that the use of the concept of semina morbi was neither an anticipation of modern germ theory, nor a mere adaptation of the terminology of classical atomism. In fact, the combination of the humanist interest in the poem of Lucretius with a renewed attention towards direct observation resulted in the publication in of Fracastoro's De morbo gallico (1530), containing an innovative and effective interpretation of the notion of contagion.