Rare Book & Special Collections Library

From Alchemy to Chemistry:
Five Hundred Years of Rare and Interesting Books


This website grew out of an exhibit held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Rare Book Room in April 2000. The Eastern Illinois Section of the American Chemical Society provided support for the construction of this website.

The exhibit, "From Alchemy to Chemistry: 500 Years of Rare and Interesting Books," was co-curated by Tina Chrzastowski (Chemistry Librarian), Vera Mainz (Director, VOICE NMR Lab, School of Chemical Sciences), and Gregory Girolami (Professor of Chemistry).

In the exhibit, the curators tried to convey some of the major shifts in the study of chemistry - not just the movement from alchemy to modern science - but also the way chemists changed the way they talked about their field. One of the themes of the exhibit is how chemists through the ages have used symbols to depict compounds and chemicals - sometimes as secret codes, as with alchemists, sometimes in standardized nomenclature, as with chemists. The exhibit shows how the "standard" nomenclature of chemistry changed many times over the years. See UIUC Press Release for more general information about the exhibit.

The exhibit contained thirty-six books, dating from 1500 to 1964. The links below connect to pages that describe each item and its author, and contain selected images from the pages of the book. Alternatively, you can use the buttonbar to view the exhibit items.

NOTE: The background file for these pages is 325 KB in size. If this causes a substantial delay in loading, the following will link you to a "background-free" exhibit.


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  1. BRUNSCHWIG, HIERONYMUS (1450 - c. 1512). Liber de arte distillandi; Das buch der rechten kunst zu distillieren. Strassburg: 1500.

  2. GEBER [Jabir Ibn Hayyan]. Alchemiae Gebri. Bern, 1545.

  3. FLAMEL, NICOLAS (1330 - 1417). His Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures - His Secret Booke of the Blessed Stone called the Philosopher's. London, 1624.

  4. PARACELSUS, THEOPHRASTUS PHILIPPUS AUREOLUS BOMBASTUS VON HOHENHEIM (1493 - 1541). Operum Medico-Chimicaorum. 3 vols. Geneva, 1605.

  5. LIBAVIUS, ANDREAS (ca. 1560 - 1616). Alchemia Andreae Libavii. Frankfurt, 1597.

  6. AGRICOLA, GEORG (1494 - 1555). De Re Metallica. Basel, 1556.

  7. BOYLE, ROBERT (1627 - 1691). The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes. London, 1680.

  8. LEMERY, NICOLAS (1645 - 1715). A Course of Chymistry Containing an easie Method of Preparing those Chymical Medicines Which are Used in Physik. London, 1698.

  9. STAHL, GEORG (1659 - 1734). Opusculum Chymico-Physico-Medicum. Nuremberg, 1715.

  10. MACQUER, PIERRE (1718 - 1784). Dictionnaire de chymie, contenant la théorie & pratique de cette science . . .. 2 vols. Paris, 1766.

  11. BERGMAN, TORBERN (1735 - 1784). Opuscula Physica et Chemica. 6 vols. Uppsala, 1780.

  12. PRIESTLEY, JOSEPH (1733 - 1804). Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air. 3 vols. London, 1775.

  13. SCHEELE, CARL WILHELM (1742 - 1786). Chemical Observations and Experiments on Air and Fire. Uppsala & Leipzig, 1780. Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer. Nebst einem Vorbericht von Torbern Bergman. Uppsala & Leipzig, 1782.

  14. KIRWAN, RICHARD (1733 - 1812). An Essay on Phlogiston, and the Constitution of Acids. London, 1787.

  15. DE MORVEAU, GUYTON (1737 - 1816); LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1743 - 1794); BERTHOLLET, CLAUDE LOUIS (1748 - 1822); DE FOURCROY, ANTOINE FRANCOIS (1755 - 1809). Méthode de Nomenclature Chimique. Paris, 1787.

  16. LAVOISIER, ANTOINE LAURENT (1743 - 1794). Traité élémentaire de chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes. 2 vols. Paris, 1789.

  17. DALTON, JOHN (1766 - 1844). A New System of Chemical Philosophy. 3 vols. Manchester, 1808, 1810, 1827.

  18. MARCET, JANE (1769 - 1858). Conversations on Chemistry. 2nd American Edition. Hartford, Conn., 1809.

  19. VOLTA, ALESSANDRO (1745 - 1827) [CONFIGLIACHI, PIETRO (1777 - 1844)]. L'identità del Fluido Elettrico. 1814.

  20. DAVY, HUMPHRY (1778 - 1829). Elements of Chemical Philosophy. London, 1812.

  21. BERZELIUS, JÖNS JACOB (1779 - 1848). Essai sur la Theorie des Proportions Chimiques. Paris, 1819.

  22. LIEBIG, JUSTUS VON (1803 - 1873). Die Organische Chemie in ihre Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie. Braunschweig, 1840.

  23. FRANKLAND, SIR EDWARD (1825 - 1899). Experimental Researches in Pure, Applied, and Physical Chemistry. London, 1877.

  24. GERHARDT, CHARLES (1816 - 1856). Traité de Chimie Organique. 4 vols. Paris & Leipzig, 1853 - 1856.

  25. YOUMANS, EDWARD LIVINGSTON (1821 - 1887). Chemical Atlas; or, the Chemistry of Familiar Objects: Exhibiting the General Principles of the Science in a Series of Beautifully Colored Diagrams, and Accompanied by Explanatory Essays, Embracing the Latest View of the Subjects Illustrated. New York, 1857.

  26. BUNSEN, ROBERT (1811 - 1899). Gasometrische Methoden. Braunschweig, 1857.

  27. CANNIZZARO, STANISLAO (1826 - 1910). Sunto di un Corso. Pisa, 1858.

  28. BROWN, ALEXANDER CRUM (1838 - 1922). J. Chem. Soc. 1865, 18, 230-245. London, 1865.

  29. KEKULÉ VON STRADONITZ, [FRIEDRICH] AUGUST (1829 - 1896). Chemie der Benzolderivate oder der Aromatischen Substanzen. 3 vols. Erlangen (vol. 1) and Stuttgart (vols. 2-3), 1867-1887.

  30. MENDELEEV, DMITRI IVANOVICH (1834 - 1907). Z. Chem. 1869, 12, 405, WITH Osnovy Khimii, St. Petersburg, 1869.

  31. VAN DER WAALS, JOHANNES DIDERIK (1837 - 1923). Over de Continuiteit van den Gas- en Vloeistoftoestand. Leiden, 1873.

  32. WERNER, ALFRED (1866 - 1919). Neuere Anschauungen auf dem Gebiete der Anorganischen Chemie. Braunschweig, 1905.

  33. CURIE, MARIE (1867 - 1934). Traité de Radioactivité. Paris, 1910.

  34. RUTHERFORD, ERNEST (1871 - 1937). Radioactivity. Cambridge, 1904.

  35. ASTON, FRANCIS WILLIAM (1877 - 1945). Isotopes. London, 1922.

  36. PAULING, LINUS (1901 - 1994), HAYWARD, ROGER. The Architecture of Molecules. San Francisco and London, 1964.


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