Knowledge from underground: Leibniz mines the enlightenment

Earth Sciences History

Volumn 16, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 77-99

  Hamm, E P ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA   (Canada)

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EID: 0002357445     PISSN: 0736623X     EISSN: 19446187     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17704/eshi.16.2.5204u8j628w3027l     Document Type: Review

References (110)

1. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Protogaea, trans. Wolf von Engelhardt, vol. 1 of Werke, ed. W. E. Peuckert (Stuttgart: Kohlhammcr, 1949). p. 7.
2. Bertrand de Saint-Germain, ed. with intro, and notes by Jean-Marie Barrande (Toulouse: Presses Universitaires de Mirail, 1993). All translations from German or French arc my own, all untranslated quotations retain the spelling and punctuation of the editions cited.
3. Dennis R. Dean, "The word 'geology'," Annals of Science, 1979, 36: 35-43
4. For a discussion of the historiography of the founding of geology sec Rachel Laudan, "The History of Geology, 1780-1840," in Companion to the History of Science, ed. R. C. Olby et al. (London: Routledge, 1990), 314-325.
5. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3d cdn (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996), p. 13.
6. For a useful discussion of many of the historical and historiographie problems associated with Enlightenment studies of the earth see Roy Porter, "The Terraqueous Globe," in The Ferment of Knowledge: Studies in the Historiography of Eighteenth-Century Science, cd. G. S. Rousseau and Roy Porter (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 285-326.
7. Jacques Roger, one of this century's most distinguished Buffon scholars, has argued that the theories of the earth of Descartes, Burnet and Buffon, among others, should not be seen as preambles to modern geology but the framework within which the earth was studied in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, "La théorie de la terre au XVIlIc siècle," Revue d'Histoire des Sciences, 1973-74, 24:23-48.
8. Roger's argument needs to be revised: theories of the earth were a framework, but not the only framework available. Leibniz's correspondence with Burnet was significant, see Leibniz, Die philosophischen Schriften, 7 vols., ed. C. J. Gerhardt (Hildesheim: Olms, 1960-61, reprint of 1875-90 cdn), vol. 3, pp. 149-329.
9. Burnet's theory had both a political and an aesthetic career: for its political context sec M. C. Jacob and W.A. Lockwood, "Political millenarianism and Burners sacred theory," Science Studies, 1972, 2: 265-279
10. Roy Porter, "Creation and Credence: The Career of Theories of the Earth in Britain, 1660-1820," in Natural Order: Historical Studies of Scientific Culture, ed. Barry Barnes and Steven Shap-in (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1979), 97-123
11. Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Mountain Gloom and Mountain Glory: The Development of the Aesthetics of the Infinite (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1959)
12. Jacck Wozniakowski, Die Wildnis: zur Deutungsgeschichte des Berges in der europäischen Neuzeit, transi. Theo Mechtenberg (Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1987), esp. pp. 31 Off.
13. Geschichte der Geologie und Paläontologie bis Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich: Oldenburg, 1899), p. 76.
14. Rachel Laudan and Theodore Porter have shown the inadequacy of such a view. Laudan emphasizes the importance of chemistry in From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987)
15. Porter emphasizes mining and chemistry in "The Promotion of Mining and the Advancement of Science: the Chemical Revolution of Mineralogy," Annals of Science, 1981, 38:543-510.
16. Roy Porter has argued that it was not until fairly late in the cightccnth-ccntury that mining interests began to have some impact on the study of the earth, The Making of Geology: Earth Science in Britain, 1660-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 115, 135.
17. More recently Michael Shortland has argued that it was caves, not mines, that held attractions for British geologists, "Darkness Visible: Underground Culture in the Golden Age of Geology," History of Science, 1994, 52:1-61.
18. Laudan discusses the Freiberg Mining Academy as a source of "the radiation" of Werner" ideas. From Mineralogy, ch. 5, and in his important study of eighteenth-century mineralogy Gabriel Gohau does recognize the importance of mines and mining, but docs not examine it in depth, Les sciences de la Terre aux XVIl' et XVIII' siècles; naissance de la géologie (Paris: Albin Michel, 1990).
19. See especially Zilscl's "The Sociological Roots of Science," American Journal of Sociology, 1942, 47:544-562
20. "The Genesis of the Concept of Scientific Progress," Journal of the History of Ideas, 1945, 6:325-349
21. Paolo Rossi, Philosophy, Technology and the Arts in the Early Modern Era, trans. Sal-vator Attansio (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1970)
22. William Eamon, "From the Secrets of Nature to Public Knowledge," in Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution, ed. David C. Lindberg and Robert S. Westman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 333-366
23. idem, Science and the Secrets of Nature: Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994).
24. For the importance of practice in the sociology, history and philosophy of science sec also Steven Shapin and Simon Schaffer, Leviathan and the Air Pump: Hohbes, Boyle and the Experimental Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985)
25. Larry Stewart, The Rise of Public Science: Rhetoric, Technology and Natural Philosophy in Newtonian Britain, 1660-1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)
26. Ian Hacking, Representing and Intervening (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983).
27. "Lc Harz par lui-même, qu'est-il autre qu'un merveilleux théâtre où la nature et l'art viennent entrer en lutte?" "Rcprcascn-tanda," in Oeuvres de Leibniz, 7 vols, ed. A. Foucher de Careil (Paris, 1875), vii, 138-54, reprinted in Protogaea, cd Barrandc, 172-183, p. 173.
28. For Leibniz and fossils see Martin J. S. Rudwick, The Meaning of Fossils: Episodes in the History of Palaeontology, 2d edn (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985 [first published in 1976]), pp. 91-94
29. for a discussion of some of continuities between the theory of Protogaea and Cartcsianism and scholasticism see Roger Aricw, "A New Science of Geology in the Seventeenth Century?" in Revolution and Continuity: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Early Modern Science, cd. Peter Barker and Roger Aricw (Washington: The Catholic University Press, 1991), 81-94.
30. Two insightful discussions which do discuss the mining tradition are Paolo Rossi, The Dark Abyss of Time: the History of the Earth and the History of Nations from Hooke to Vico, trans. Lydia G. Cochrane (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), pp. 49-65
31. Jacques Roger, "Leibniz et la théorie de la Terre," in Leibniz, 1646-1716, aspects de l'homme et de l'oeuvre (Paris: Aubier-Montaigne, 1968), 137-144.
32. Rossi states that the best "global study" of Protogaea is G. Solinas, La 'Protogaea' di Leibniz ai margini delta rivolu-zione Scientifica (Cagliari: Pubblicazioni dellTstituto di Filo-sofia délia Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia dell'Università, 1973).
33. For nature on display sec Simon Schaffer, "Natural Philosophy and Public Spectacle in the Eighteenth Century," History of Science, 1983, 2/: 1-43.
34. Principles of Geology, 3 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990; reprint of 1830-33 edn), vol. i, p. 4.
35. J. A. May, Kant's Concept of Geography and Its Relation to Recent Geographical Thought. University of Toronto Department of Geography Research Publications, 4 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1970)
36. The notion that the basalt controversy was settled by James Hutton and James Hall in favour of "fire" has been shown to be wholly inadequate and historically simplistic, see: Laudan, From Mineralogy, pp. 133-35 and ch. 8
37. Mott T. Greene, Geology in the the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a Changing World (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), csp. pp. 53-68
38. Otfricd Wagenbrelh, "Abraham Gottlob Werner and der Höhepunkt des Neptunistenstreitcs um 1790," Freiberger Forschungshefte 1955 C225.T83-241
39. Emile den Tex, "Clinchers of the Basalt Controversy: Empirical and Experimental Evidence," Earth Sciences History 1996, 15: 37-48 (Pubitemid 126102320)
40. the most extensive discussion available is Bernhard Fritschcr, Vulkanismusstreit und Geochemie: Die Bedeutung der Chemie und des Experiments in der Vulkanismus-Neptunismus-Kontroverse, Boethius; 25 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1991).
41. Jacob Leupold, Theatrum machi-narum generale: Schau-Platz des Grundes mechanischer wissenschafften, dass ist, Deutliche Anleitung zur Mechanic oder Bewegungs-Kunst, 9 vols. (Leipzig: Christoph Zunckel, 1724-39)
42. Henning Calvör, Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica Circa Metallurgam, 2 vols. (Braunschweig: Fürstl. Waysenaus Buchhandlung, 1763)
43. Christoph Traugott Delhis, Anleitung zu der Bergbaukunst (Vienna: Joh. Thomas Edlen von Trallnern, 1773)
44. See also Jürgen Gottschalk, "Theorie und Praxis bei Leibniz im Bereich der Technik, dargestellt am Beispiel der Wasserwirtschaft des Oberharzer Bergbaus," in ibid., 46-57
45. Ulrich Horst and Jürgen Gottschalk, "Über die Lcibniz'schcn Pläne zum Einsatz einer Horizontalwindkunst im Oberharzer Bergbau und ihre mißglückte Durchführung," in Akten des II Internationalen Leibnizkongresses, vol. 1, Studia Leibnitiana Supplcmenta, vol. 12 (Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1973), 35-60
46. E. J. Aiton, Leibniz: a Biography (Bristol and Boston: Adam Hilgcr, 1985).
47. Henning Calvör, in a very important technical work on the mining machines of the Harz, claims to have relied on documentary sources in his study of Leibniz's technical work in the Harz, Acta Historico-Chronologico-Mechanica, pp, 101-109.
48. It is significant that an important early discussion on Leibniz's work in the Harz was written by F. W. H. von Trcbra, an important figure in the tradition of miner-mineralogists emanating from the Freiberg Bergakademie (see Section III above)
49. "Des Hofraths von Leibnitz misslungene Versuche an den Bergwerksmaschinen des Harzes. Aus Archivs-nachrichten milgeiheill," in Bergbaukunde, ed. I. E. von Born and E W, H. von Trcbra, 2 vols. (Leipzig: G. J. Gocschen, 1789-90), vol. I, pp. 305-324 and vol. II, pp. 299-315.
50. Horst, "Die Entwickelung von Theorie und Praxis," p. 59 n. 3.
51. For a list of some of the mining machines Leibniz worked on improving or inventing see Horst, "Die Entwickelung von Theorie und Praxis.," p. 6If.
52. Henning Calvör attributed the progress in German mining to "diligent and economical management (Haushalt)" and "the growth of the mechanical sciences." See, Acta Historico-Chron-ologico-Mechanica, p. 6.
53. Johann Christian Fritschius [Fritsch], The Grounds of Pyrotechnical Metallurgy, and Metalliek Assaying, in Pyrotechnical Discourses, trans, from Latin (London: B. Bragg, 1705), p. 186f.
54. Johann F Henckel, Pyritologia: Or a History of the Pyrites, the Principal Body in the Mineral Kingdom (London: A. Miller and A. Linde, 1757), pp. 55f.
55. Humphry Davy on Geology: the 1805 Lectures, ed. Robert Siegfried and Robert H. Dolt Jr. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1980), pp. 42
56. Sec also Jacques Roger, Buffon: A Life in Natural History (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997).
57. In Opera omnia, 6 vols. ed. L. Dulens (Geneva: Apud Fratres de Tourne, 1768), vol. 2. Les sciences de la terre, pp. 195f.
58. Johann Gottlob Lehmann, Abhandlung von den Metali-Müttern und der Erzeugung der Metalle aus der Naturlehre und Berg-werekswissenschaft hergeleitet (Berlin: Nicolai, 1753), p. 3.
59. Versuch einer Geschichte der Flötz-Gebürgen, betreffend deren Entstehung, Lage, darinne befindliche Metallen, Mineralien und Foßilien (Berlin. 1756), unpaginated "Vorerinnerung."
60. For Leibniz on going underground sec Horst, "Die Entwickclung von Theorie und Praxis.", p. 66
61. Goethe, letter to Charlotte von Stein, 9 Dec. 1777, in Briefe, ed. K. Mandclkow [aka Hamburg edition] (Munich: DTV, 1988), vol. 1. Abhandlung von den Metall-Müttern, p. 3.
62. Charles Webster, From Paracelsus to Newton: Magic and the Making of Modern Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 55
63. Münster, Cosmographei (Basel, 1550, reprinted Amsterdam: ihcalrum Orbis Tcrrarum, 1968), p. dxxvii
64. Tilas, Entwurf einer schwedischen Mineralhistorie, trans. Johann Beckmann (Leipzig: Weidmanns erben, 1767), p. 118
65. Ferber, Beylräge zu der Mineral-Geschichte von Böhmen (Berlin: Himburg, 1774), p. 5.
66. Minerophilus |pseudonym|. Neues und curieuses Bergwercks-Lexicon (Chemnitz: J. C. and J, D. Stößel, 1730)
67. Christoph Herttwig, Neues und vollkommenes Berg-Buch, 2d edn (Dresden and Leipzig: J. C. Zimmermann, 1734).
68. Francois Ellenberger, "Documents pour une histoire du vocabulaire de la géologie: I) le terme de géographie souterraine," in Gréco-Histoire du vocabulaire scientifique, 1983, 4: pp. 35-42, cited in Gohau, Les sciences de la terre, p. 238
69. Alexander Ospovat explains this in the notes to his useful edition and translation of Abraham Gottlob Werner. Short Classification and Description of the Various Rocks (New York: Hafner, 1971), p. 97.
70. David Oldroyd has tabulated the major geological surveys of the world in the nineteenth century and found that English geologists did more overseas work than other European geologists and that "there was a significant correlation between British colonialism and English-language geology." Thinking about the Earth: a History of Ideas in Geology (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 124-127.
71. The scope of eighteenth-century travel literature was vast. One of the most important works was Histoire générale des voyagees ou nouvelle collection de toutes les relations des voyages par mer et par terre, 17 vols., cd. Abbe Prévost (Paris: 1745-61); in Germany there were at least eight series of publications of translations of travel accounts, Paul Hazard, European Thought in the Eighteenth Century from Montesquieu to Lessing (London: Hollis and Carter, 1954), p. 369.
72. The secondary literature on travel and science is growing rapidly, see, for example, Barbara Maria Stafford, Voyage into Substance: Art, Science, Nature and the Illustrated Travel Account (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984
73. the essays in Cultures of Natural History, ed. N. Jardine. J. A. Secord and E. C. Spary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).
74. "Ohnmaßgeblicher Vorschlag, auf was An und Weise man zu einer genauem Entdeckung der unter der Erde verborgenen Dinge, oder kurz zu sagen, zu einer unterirdischen Erdbeschreibung gelangen könne," Physikalische Belustigungen vol, 2, no, 11 (1752), 27-42, p. 31.
75. Herber, Beylräge zu der Mineral-Geschichte von Böhmen and idem, Briefe aus Wälschland. an Ignatz. Edler von Born (Prague: Gerler, 1773)
76. J. C. W. Voigt, Mineralogische Beschreibung des Hochstifts Fuld (Dessau and Leipzig: Vcrlags-Kasse, 1783)
77. idem. Mineralogische Reise nach den Braunkohlenwerken und Basalten in Hessen (Weimar: Hoffmanns Wittwe und Erben, 1802)
78. idein. Mineralogische Reisen durch das Her-zogthum Weimar und Eisenach und einige angränzende Gegenden, 2 vols. (Dessau, 1782-1785).
79. Tilas, Entwurf einer schwedischen Mineralhistorie, pp. 116-125
80. Füchscl, "Historia terrae et maris ex historia Thuringac, per montium descriptionem erula," Acta Academiae Electorales Moguntiae scientiarium Milium, Erfurt, 1761, 2:45-208
81. See also Rudolf Möller, "Mitteilungen zur Biographic Georg Christian Füchseis," Freiberger Forschungshefte. Kultur und Technik D43 (1963).
82. John Harley, "The Map and the Development of the History of Cartography," in The History of Cartography, edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward. 6 vols projected (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987), pp, 1-42
83. idem, "Silences and Secrecy: The Hidden Agenda of Cartography in Early Modern Europe," Imago Mundi, 1988, 40:57-76
84. Josef W. Konvitz, Cartography in France, 1660-1848: Science, Engineering, and Statecraft (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987)
85. Jane R. Camerini, "The Physical Atlas of Heinrich Berghaus: Distribution Maps as Scientific Knowledge," in Non-Verbal Communication in Science Prior to 1900, ed. Rcnato G. Mazzolini, Nuncius 11 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1993)
86. Numa Broc, Les Montagnes vues par les géographes et les naturalistes de langue française au XVIIIe siècle; Contribution à l'histoire de la géographie (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale, 1969).
87. The whole question of the importance of visualization for the history of science in general and geology in particular was opened by Martin J. S. Rudwick, "The Emergence of a Visual Language for Geological Science, 1760-1840," History of Science, 1976, 14:149-195.
88. Abhandlung von den Grundsätzen der Berg-und Kameralwis-senschaft (Vienna: Kaiserl. und Königl. Hofbuchdruckern, 1773).
89. For a general discussion of cameralism in the Gcrmanies of the eighteenth century see Keith Tribe, Governing Economy: The Reformation of German Economic Discourse, 1750-1840 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988)
90. for the relation between cameralism and technology sec Ulrich Troitzsch, Ansätze technologischen Denkens bei den Kameralisten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts [Schriften zur Wirtschafts-und Sozialgeschichte; 5] (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 1966).
91. Ferber, Beyträge zu der Mineral-Geschichte, "Vorrede," Gerhard, Versuch einer Geschichte des Mineralreichs, 2 vols. (Berlin: Himburg, 1781) vol. I, pp. 2f.
92. Unvorgreiffiiche Gedanken, betreffend die Ausübung und Verbesserung der Teutschen Sprache, in Leibniz und Schottelius, cd. by August Schmarsow, Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach-und Culturgeschichte der Germanischen Völker, v. 23 (Strassburg: Karl J. Trübner; London: Trübner & Comp., 1877), pp. 47-48, and 48f.
93. Melallographia: or, an History of Metals (New York: Arno, 1971; reprint of 1671 edn), p. 215.
94. "Beantwortung der Frage von dem Einfluß der Meinungen in die Sprache und der Sprache in die Meinungen," in Dissertation qui a Remporte le prix proposé par l'Académie Royale des Sciences et Belles Lettres de Prusse, sur l'influence réciproque du Langage sur les Opinions, et des Opinions sur le Langage, avec les Pieces qui ont concouru (Berlin: Haude and Spcncr. 1760), p. 32.
95. for a discussion of the debates surrounding the naming of living things sec Gordon R. McOuat, "Species, Rules and Meaning: The Politics of Language and the Ends of Definitions in Nineteenth-Century Natural History," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, 1996, 27:473-519. (Pubitemid 126168138)
96. Trebra's manuscript, dated "August 1784", is reprinted in Goethe, Die Schriften zur Natunvissenschaft, pt 2, vol. 7, pp, 127- 130, the quotations arc from 130.
97. See also Johanna Salomon, Die Sozietät für die gesamte Mineralogie zu Jena unter Goethe und Johann Georg Lenz. Mitteldeutsche Forschungen. 98 (Cologne: Böhlau, 1990).
98. For Born see Helmut Rcinalter, ed., Die Aufklärung in Österreich: Ignaz von Born und seine Zeit, Schriftenreihe der International Forschungsstelle "Demokratische Bewegungen in Mitteleuropa 1770-1850," 4 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1991)
99. idem, ed., Joseph II. und die Freimaurerei im Lichte zeilgenö ssischer Broschüren, Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Neuere Geschichte Östeneichs, 76 (Vienna: Böhlaus, 1987)
100. Mikulas Teich. "Bohemia: From Darkness into Light," in The Enlightenment in National Context, ed. Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 141-163. csp. 149-153.
101. The classic work on freemasonry in the Enlightenment is Rcinhart Koselleck, Critique and Crisis: Enlightenment and the Pathogenesis of Modern Society (Oxford: Berg, 1988, first published 1959).
102. J. C. P. Erxleben, Anfangsgründe der Naturgeschichte (Göttingen: J. C. Dielerich. 1768)
103. idem, Anfangsgründe der Chemie (Göttingen: J. C. Dictcrich, 1775)
104. idem, Anfangsgründe der Naturlehre (Göttingen: J. C. Dieterich, 1772).
105. For an introduction to the large literature see Londa Schiebinger, "Gender and Natural History," in Cultures of Natural History, pp. 163-177.
106. For a discussion of mines and sexuality see Theodore Ziolkowski, German Romanticism and its Institutions (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pp. 49-57, and for one of the rare essays which address gender and geology see Michael Shortland, "Darkness Visible."
107. Thomas Burnet, The Sacred Theory of the Earth (London: Walter Kettilby, 1684), unpaginated Preface.
108. Alexander Ospovat, "Romanticism and German Geology: Five Students of Abraham Gottlob Werner," Eighteenth-Century Life, 1982, 7:105-117.
109. Des Mines de Freiberg en Saxe et de leur exploitation, 3 vols (Leipzig: P. P. Wolf, 1802), vol. 2, p. 247.
110. For some technical differences between metalliferous and coal mining sec H. S. Torrens, "The History of Coal Prospecting in Britain, 1650-1900," in Energie in der Geschichte: Zur aktualität der Technikgeschichte (Düsseldorf: ICOHTEC, 1984), pp. 88-95.