The Experimental Fire
Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700
416 pages
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19 halftones, 2 tables
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6 x 9
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© 2020
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Conventions
List of Abbreviations
Conventions
Acknowledgments
Introduction: What Is Mercury?
Part I: The Medieval Origins of English Alchemy
1. Philosophers and Kings
2. Medicine and Transmutation
3. Opinion and Experience
Part II: The Golden Age of English Alchemy
4. Dissolution and Reformation
5. Nature and Magic
6. Time and Money
Part III: The Legacy of Medieval Alchemy in Early Modern England
7. Recovery and Revision
8. Home and Abroad
9. Antiquity and Experiment
Bibliography
Index
Index
Review Quotes
Chicago Review of Books
"Rich and vast. . . . The Experimental Fire challenges us to grapple with a more expansive idea of history, one that includes the lineage, development, and comprehension of false knowledge. Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean it’s not real, that it can’t be studied, argued over, or taught. Indeed, alchemy, Rampling argues, is nothing but the invention and reinvention of one type of knowledge. And what is literature, or history, or science, if not a variation of the same?"
Forbidden Histories
"A new and fascinating angle on how alchemy began to transform science into a modern enterprise. . . . Beautifully and clearly written."
Well-read Naturalist
"Captivating. . . . Whether your interest is in early modern European history, the history of science, or old occult practices, this is a book well worth giving consideration as your next reading selection."
Stephen Clucas, Birkbeck, University of London
"This book has so many novel elements that it is difficult to know where to begin. Rampling presents one amazing archival discovery after another like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat. Forging vivid and compelling narratives with her materials, while remaining keenly aware of the living history behind the documents, she has been able to sketch the outlines of what has previously been entirely unknown to the history of alchemy. This is a fully achieved piece of research that is destined to become the key work in the field."
Ann M. Blair, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, Harvard University
"Rampling offers a masterful survey of alchemy in England, from its status as the largest scientific genre circa 1400 through the patronage of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Building on the legacy of George Ripley, English alchemists developed expert skills in textual interpretation and experimental practice—focused on both medicine and transmutation—in order to portray themselves as philosophers rather than artisans. Rampling writes with admirable lucidity about cryptic manuscripts, colorful figures, and complicated archival evidence."
Lawrence M. Principe, author of The Transmutations of Chymistry: Wilhelm Homberg and the Académie Royale des Sciences
"This is an extraordinary and important piece of scholarship. Rampling carries the reader from the first origins of alchemy in Medieval England, through the Reformation, and down to the end of the seventeenth century—a remarkable temporal sweep. There has not previously been a study of the alchemical tradition that so thoroughly follows a coherently framed national context for so long a period. Rampling presents the material in a remarkably clear and concise fashion that does justice to its complexity yet still guides the reader."
New Books in Science, Technology, and Society:
"The Experimental Fire bridges the intellectual history of chemistry and the wider worlds of early modern patronage, medicine, and science."
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