The Correspondence of Joseph Black - Rilegato

Jones, Jean

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0754601315 ISBN 13: 9780754601319

Casa editrice: Routledge, 2012

Riassunto

Joseph Black (1728-1799) was one of the central figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. His friends and colleagues included David Hume, Adam Smith, Adam Ferguson, William Robertson, William Cullen and James Hutton; together, they formed a celebrated intellectual circle which regularly met, conversed and dined. Black was widely admired for his discovery and characterisation of 'fixed air' (carbon dioxide}, which arose from investigations he undertook at Edinburgh for the dissertation which counted towards his MD degree. His first teaching appointment followed at Glasgow University, where he developed ideas about latent and specific heat, all the more intriguing as there he formed a close friendship with James Watt, whose ambition grew to improve the performance of steam engines. Black's reputation lay largely as a highly talented teacher. From 1766, when he became professor of medicine and chemistry at Edinburgh, his large classes included pupils who were drawn from as far away as America, the West Indies and Russia. Black was also admired for his skill in applying science and economics to the improvement of agriculture and to the developing industrial landscape. According to a contemporary commentator he was, "the best judge, perhaps, in Europe" of such matters. This publication includes more than eight hundred items of Black's extensive correspondence, most of them published for the first time. It reveals relationships with businessmen, entrepreneurs and former pupils, as well as with prominent scientific and cultural figures of the day, including Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, James Watt, Benjamin Rush, Josiah Wedgwood and Robert Adam. A number of letters and reports written to and from fellow physicians indicate that Black practised medicine throughout his career, particularly caring for the health of his friends, David Hume among them. There is also a revealing series of letters which point to the financial struggles his Ulster family endured at a period of political unrest in Europe and America, and showing how Black saved them from bankruptcy on various occasions. Documents associated with Black's domestic life and academic work are also included. The letters are preceded by an important introduction, covering Black's life and work, and the context and history of the correspondence, and are provided with extensive annotation. A comprehensive index concludes the work. These volumes therefore comprise an indispensable resource for all those interested in medicine, teaching, the growth of scientific ideas, the social fabric, and the rise of industry in the eighteenth century, and in the Enlightenment itself.

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L'autore:

Robert G.W. Anderson is an historian of science whose career was spent largely in museums: he was Director of the British Museum from 1992 to 2002, and previously, from 1985, of the National Museums of Scotland. He has been President of the British Society for the History of Science, is currently Chairman of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, and is Vice-Chair of the Chemical Heritage Foundation, Philadelphia. He has long been interested in eighteenth-century chemistry: an early publication of his, The Playfair Collection, dealt with how Joseph Black and other professors of chemistry conducted their teaching at the University of Edinburgh. He is now Vice-President of Clare Hall, Cambridge and an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. Jean Jones was born in the Scottish Borders, and lived most of her life in Edinburgh. Educated at school in St Andrews, and at the University of Oxford, LSE and Edinburgh, she was a professional editor and a successful painter. Her exceptionally wide scholarly interests ranged from literature and the arts to social history and the history of science. She devised and organised three thought-provoking exhibitions in the National Museums of Scotland in 1986, 1988 and 1991 which dealt with the Scottish Enlightenment, scientific revolutions, and Adam Smith. She published widely, most importantly on the Scottish geologist James Hutton, who was a lifelong friend of Joseph Black. Jean Jones died in 2009.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Routledge
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0754601315
• ISBN 13: 9780754601319
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 1582
• Redattore: Anderson Robert G W