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ABSTRACT
While the emergence of a new scientific culture in 16th-century Europe is well known, the role of the actors of the Hispanic New World in this time of renewal of knowledge has long been judged marginal for two reasons: first, because the strong presence of the Inquisition in the Hispanic World has been considered by historians to have been an obstacle for research or scientific innovation; and second, because the discontinuity of the territories of the Hispanic Monarchy and the problem of distances between Spain and the New World have long been interpreted in ways that suggest the marginality and peripheral status of the American colonies. However, some works counterbalance this dismissal and shed new light on the scientific activity of the Hispanic New World. This is the case with the treatise Arte de los Metales, by the secular priest Alvaro Alonso Barba, which would achieve remarkable fame and circulation, and would become a seminal work in the fields of metallurgy and mining until the mid-1700s. The article demonstrates that this treatise also presents ideas that can be traced back to a set of Paracelsian ideas combining alchemy, pharmacopoeia, and medicine, and studies specific examples of these ideas – the description of three fundamental substances (salt, mercury and sulphur) as components of all matter, references to Epatica sulfuris, an oil capable of turning silver into gold and curing certain diseases; and the use of antimony – that together testify to the spread of the ideas of Basil Valentine and of Paracelsian influences. From this point of view, Arte de los Metales can be viewed as part of a tradition unexpectedly renewed by the author through many observations based on his own work in Peru and the discoveries he made thanks to alternative techniques. This demonstrates the richness and diversity of knowledge rooted in the New World, and links Alonso Barba’s scholarly activity to some of the great schools of thought that spanned the Early Modern European world.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
* This work on alchemy in the mines of the Viceroyalty of Peru is part of a PhD project on Paracelsian ideas in the Hispanic world supervised by Charlotte de Castelnau and Koen Vermeir.
1 Didier Kahn, Le fixe et le volatil. Chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2016), p. 71.
2 Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Valérie Nègre, Delphine Spicq et Koen Vermeir, ‘Regards croisés sur le livre et les techniques avant le XXe siècle’, in Le livre technique avant le XXe siècle à l’échelle du monde, ed. Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Valérie Nègre, Delphine Spicq and Koen Vermeir (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2017), pp. 5–39.
3 Sacha Tomic, ‘Transmettre le savoir-faire: le défi des manuels d’analyse chimique au XIXe siècle’, in Le livre technique avant le XXe siècle à l’échelle du monde, ed. Liliane Hilaire-Pérez, Valérie Nègre, Delphine Spicq and Koen Vermeir (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2017), pp. 215–32.
4 José Carracido, ‘Álvaro Alonso Barba’, Bulletin Hispanique, 13–13 (1911), 352–60.
5 Modesto Bargalló, La amalgamación de los minerales de plata (México D.F.: Compañía fundidora de fierro y acero de Monterrey, 1969), p. 312.
6 Carmen Salazar-Soler, ‘La alquimia y los sacerdotes mineros en el Virreinato del Perú en el siglo XVII’, Bulletin de l’Institut Francais d’études andines, 30-3, 475–99.
7 Carmen Salazar-Soler, ‘Reflexiones entorno a la noción de procesos de americanización a partir de la historia de la mineria colonial peruana’, to be published.
8 Simon Schaffer, The Brokered World: go-betweens and global intelligence, 1770–1820 (USA: Science History Publications, 2009), vol. 35.
9 Peter Bakewell (ed.), Mines of Silver and Gold in the Americas (Aldershot (UK): Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Ltd.), , chs. 2–6, pp. 41–170; for environmental impact and its relevant chemical features, see Saul Jose Guerrero-Quintero, The Environmental History of Silver Refining in New Spain and Mexico, 16th Century to 19th Century : A Shift of Paradigm. Open Access PhD, McGill University, 2015.
10 Alvaro Alonso Barba, El arte de los metales (Sevilla: Fundación El Monte., Gráficos de Antonio Pinelo, 1995), p. IV.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid., p. V.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., p. III.
15 Ibid.
16 Ibid., p. I.
17 Ibid., p. II.
18 Ibid., p. 42.
19 Fererico Sonneschmid, Minas en España. Tratado del beneficio de sus metales de plata por azogue según el méthodo más comunmente usado en Nueva España (Don Juan López Cancelada., Castilla (Spain): Don Ramón Verges, 1834), p. 111.
20 Alonso Barba, El arte de los metales … , p. 105.
21 Ibid., p. 109.
22 Sonneschmid, p. 109.
23 Carracido, pp. 352–60.
24 Ibid.
25 Rose Marie Buechler, Gobierno, mineria y sociedad: Potosí y el « renacimiento » borbónico, 1776–1810 (Biblioteca minera boliviana, 1810), vol.5, p. 85.
26 Didier Kahn, Alchimie et paracelsisme en France (Paris: Librairie Droz, 2007), p. 20.
27 D. Kahn, Le fixe et le volatil. Chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier … , p. 28.
28 Ibid., p. 58.
29 D. Kahn, Alchimie et paracelsisme en France … , p. 18.
30 D. Kahn, Le fixe et le volatil. Chimie et alchimie, de Paracelse à Lavoisier … , p. 60.
31 D. Kahn, Alchimie et paracelsisme en France … , p. 144.
32 Ibid., p. 152.
33 Alonso Barba, El arte de los metales … , p. 19.
34 Ibid., pp. 19–20.
35 Ibid., p. 20.
36 Carmen Salazar-Soler, ‘La villa imperial de Potosí Cuna del mestizaje (Siglos XVI y XVII)’, in Colonización, resistencia y mestizaje en las Américas (Siglos XVI-XX), ed. Guillaume Boccara. (Perú: IFEA, 2002), pp. 139–160.
37 Didier Kahn, ‘The Significance of Tranmutation in Early Modern Alchemy: The Case of Thurneysser’s Half-Gold Nail’, in Fakes!? Hoaxes, Counterfeits and Deception in Early Modern Science, 2014, 35–68.
38 Alonso Barba, El arte de los metales … , p. 20.
39 Ibid., p. 21.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid., pp. 15–17.
42 Francisco de Quevedo, Los Sueños (Valencia: Juan Bautista Marcal, 1628), p. 36.