Michael Bycroft: Gems and the New Science

Cover: 9780226644608 | Gems and the New Science | Michael Bycroft | Buch | Synthesis | 2026

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Sprache: Englisch

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Beschreibung

The first book-length history of gems in early modern science offers a thought-provoking new take on the Scientific Revolution. In Gems and the New Science, Michael Bycroft argues that gems were connected to major developments in the "new science" between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. As he explains, precious and semiprecious stones were at the center of dramatic shifts in natural knowledge in early modern Europe. They were used to investigate luminescence, electricity, combustion, chemical composition, and more. They were collected by naturalists; measured by mathematicians; and rubbed, burned, and dissolved by experimental philosophers. This led to the demise of the traditional way of classifying gems--which grouped them by transparency, color, and locality--and the turn to density, refraction, chemistry, and crystallography as more reliable guides for sorting these substances. The science of gems shows that material evaluation was as important as material production in the history of science. It also shows the value of seeing science as the product of the interaction between different material worlds. The book begins by bringing these insights to bear on five themes of the Scientific Revolution. Each of the subsequent chapters deals with a major episode in early modern science, from the expansion of natural history in the sixteenth century to the emergence of applied science early in the nineteenth century. This important work is not only the first book-length history of the science of gems but also a fresh interpretation of the Scientific Revolution and an argument for using a new form of materialism to understand the evolution of science.

Über den Autor

Michael Bycroft is associate professor in the history of science and technology at the University of Warwick. He is the coeditor of Gems in the Early Modern World: Materials, Knowledge, and Global Trade, 1450-1800.

Details

Erscheinungsjahr:	2026
Genre:	Importe , Technik allg.
Rubrik:	Naturwissenschaften & Technik
Medium:	Buch
Reihe:	Synthesis
Inhalt:	Einband - fest (Hardcover)
ISBN-13:	9780226644608
ISBN-10:	022664460X
Sprache:	Englisch
Einband:	Gebunden
Autor:	Bycroft, Michael
Hersteller:	The University of Chicago Press Synthesis
Verantwortliche Person für die EU:	Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße:	235 x 161 x 27 mm
Von/Mit:	Michael Bycroft
Erscheinungsdatum:	27.03.2026
Gewicht:	0,642 kg