Overview

The substantial collection of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier’s apparatus is not the only surviving collection of eighteenth-century chemical apparatus and instrumentation, but it is without question the most important. The present study provides the first scientific catalogue of Lavoisier’s surviving apparatus. This collection of instruments is remarkable not only for the quality of many of them but, above all, for the number of items that have survived (ca. 600 items). Given such a wealth and variety of instruments, this study also offers the first comprehensive attempt to reconstruct the cultural and social context of Lavoisier’s experimental activities.

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9789004408692

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Reviews

“This book catalogs the surviving laboratory equipment of the chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743–94). [...] The volume concludes with a bibliography of primary sources and a comprehensive inventory, including the institutions now holding the instruments. This is a beautiful book that would be at home in any chemistry or history of science collection.” --P. Larsen, University of Rhode Island

Author Information

Marco Beretta, Ph.D. (1994), Uppsala University, is Professor of History of Science at the University of Bologna. He has primarily worked on the history of chemistry from antiquity to the early modern period. He has published several books and articles on Lavoisier. Paolo Brenni (1954-2021) graduated in experimental physics at the University of Zürich. He then worked in Florence for the CNR, the Museo Galileo and the Fondazione Scienza e Tecnica. He restored various collections of historical instruments and wrote several articles on the history of scientific instruments.

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