The aspiring adept
Subtitle: Robert Boyle and his alchemical quest : including Boyle's "lost" Dialogue on the transmutation of metals
By: Lawrence M. Principe.
Contributors: Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Princeton, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 339
Subjects: Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Alchemy.; Chemistry -- Great Britain -- History -- 17th century.
Description: The Aspiring Adept presents a provocative new view of Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution, by revealing for the first time his avid and lifelong pursuit of alchemy. Boyle has traditionally been considered, along with Newton, a founder of modern science because of his mechanical philosophy and his experimentation with the air-pump and other early scientific apparatus.

However, Lawrence Principe shows that his alchemical quest - hidden first by Boyle's own codes and secrecy, and later suppressed or ignored - positions him more accurately in the intellectual and cultural crossroads of the seventeenth century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [319]-333) and index.