Newman, William R. 1955- (William Royall Newman)

PERSONAL:

Born 1955. Education: University of North Carolina, Greensboro, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1978; Harvard University, A.M., 1980, Ph.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of History and Philosophy of Science, 1011 E. 3rd St., Goodbody Hall 130, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405. E-mail—wnewman@indiana.edu.

CAREER:

Indiana University, Bloomington, 1996—, became Ruth Halls Professor of History and Philosophy of Science.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1978-81; grant to study Arabic palaeography, Medieval Academy of America, 1980; J.R. Partington Prize, Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, 1982; doctoral dissertation research grant, National Science Foundation, 1982-83; fellowship for graduate study in Belgium, Belgian-American Educational Foundation, 1982-83; Sheldon traveling fellowship, Harvard University, 1983-84; Whiting fellowship, Harvard University, 1984-85; Frances Yates fellowship, Warburg Institute (London, England), 1987; Schuman Prize, History of Science Society, 1986; grant, American Philosophical Society, 1987; Scholar's Award, National Science Foundation, 1989; Alexandre Koyré Prize for a young historian of science, International Academy of the History of Science, 1989; Joseph H. Clark grant, Harvard University, 1990-91, 1994-95; Milton grant, Harvard University, 1991-92; funded visiting fellow, Dibner Institute, 1993-94; joint grant (with Lawrence Principe) to study the collaboration of George Starkey and Robert Boyle, National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation; fellowship, National Science Foundation, 1999-2001; funded visiting scholar, Dibner Institute, 1999-2000; Guggenheim fellowship, 2000-01; funded member, Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Historical Studies, 2000-01; Pfizer Award, History of Science Society, 2005; joint grant, National Endowment for the Humanities and National Science Foundation, for the "Chymistry of Isaac Newton" project.

WRITINGS:

The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study, E.J. Brill (New York, NY), 1991.

Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1994, reprinted, with new foreword, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2003.

(Editor, with Anthony Grafton) Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

(Editor, with Christoph Lüthy and John E. Murdoch) Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories, Brill (Boston, MA), 2001.

(With Lawrence M. Principe) Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2002.

Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2004.

(Editor, with Lawrence M. Principe) Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2004.

Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

William R. Newman is a professor of history and science whose teaching, according to the Indiana University Faculty Pages, "has centered mostly on the history of medieval and early modern ‘applied sciences,’ which includes alchemy and astrol- ogy along with fields that are more familiar to moderns, such as medicine and engineering. His research also includes the history of medieval and early modern natural philosophy, material culture, and chemistry up to the nineteenth century." Newman's current research focuses "on early modern ‘chymistry’ and late medieval ‘alchemy,’ especially as exemplified by Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle, Daniel Sennert, and the first famous American scientist, George Starkey. Much of his research has centered on the history of matter-theory, especially corpuscularism and atomism, and on the history of early chemical technology. He has taught courses on these subjects in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, as well as courses on early science and its relationship to natural philosophy more broadly."

Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution is Newman's study of the man whose alchemical pseudonym was Eirenaeus Philalethes. Starkey (1628-65) became interested in science while observing insect life in Bermuda. Educated at Harvard, he practiced medicine and alchemy in London, England, during the 1650s and 1660s, and he died of the plague at a young age. When he arrived in London, he practiced Helmontian iatrochemical medicine and employed the use of alchemy in preparing perfumes and remedies. He circulated a story that a New England adept had shared with him secrets of transmutation, and he most likely believed that he did possess secret powers. Although he welcomed financial assistance from Boyle and the Hartlib circle, Starkey preserved the autonomy of his own work.

Renaissance Quarterly reviewer Nancy G. Siraisi commented: "Newman's thorough technical analysis of the iatrochemical writings Starkey published under his own name, as well as of his unpublished papers, rounds out the picture of a proficient and diligent iatrochemist, engaged in constant work in the laboratory." Of this study Siraisi wrote: "The result is a richly detailed account that provides many new insights into the intersection of medicine, natural philosophy, and alchemy in seventeenth-century education, medical practice, and scientific thought."

Newman and Anthony Grafton are the editors of Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, a collection of eight chapters containing the work of ten historians, including Newman and Grafton, who examine alchemy and astrology, with the latter being allotted slightly more space. Subjects include Renaissance astrologer Girolamo Cardano, the Rosicrucians, John Dee, medical alchemist Simon Forman, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler. Astrology was a valid science during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and according to one of the writers in this volume, between twenty and fifty percent of people in developed countries and one hundred per cent of those in undeveloped countries believed in astrological forecasting. Galileo and Kepler credited astrology with their astronomical discoveries.

Jeanne Harrie reviewed the volume in the Renaissance Quarterly, calling the essay by Newman and Lawrence Principe a "critical analysis of the historiography of alchemy from the eighteenth century to the present that every student of Renaissance occult traditions should read. The authors show how nineteenth-century occultism has shaped modern interpretations of alchemy, including twentieth-century psychological and anthropological views. The result has been a ‘spiritualizing’ of alchemy that has radically separated it from chemistry and an uncritical adoption of interpretations that are fundamentally ahistorical and inappropriate."

Newman collaborated with Principe in writing Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry, in which Starkey is the central figure. In this volume, rather than focusing on Starkey's career, the authors concentrate on his laboratory work, drawing on his notes and other documents. Boyle is shown to have two views when it came to plagiarism. He seldom credited Starkey and Sennert when relying on their work but strongly protested when his own was "borrowed." It is noted that Starkey was critical of university curricula, a fact that "is no less interesting to modern audiences," noted Vladimir Karpenko for the Hyle Book Review online. Karpenko wrote that "this book provides an excellent picture of a period of transition, an epoch when the development of chymistry accelerated, against the background of deeply rooted scientific traditions that resulted in the vacillation between elements, principles, and corpuscles, and between alchemy and chymistry."

The subject of Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature is mankind's attempt to improve on nature, and in this regard it is connected to other pursuits that also manipulate natural order, including medicine, magic, and art. Newman notes that with regard to alchemy, however, its practice was compared to interfering with the powers of God, which led to it being considered heresy as far back as the thirteenth century.

In reviewing the book in Science, Iwan Rhys Morus wrote: "Maybe it was through alchemy that science inherited its dangerous edge, open to accusations of both charlatanry and impiety in just the same way." Noting Newman's reference to the artificial man, or homunculus, Morus wrote: "The possibility of artificial life could be a number of things to medieval and early modern commentators: it could be fraud, it could be heresy, or it could be the highest example of man's newfound powers over the natural world. What Newman does make clear is that none of these debates were conducted in black and white."

Newman is the editor, with Principe, of Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, a collection of the writings of Starkey, as well as his letters to Boyle, Samuel Hartlib, and John Winthrop, Jr. These writings provided the basis for Newman's Promethean Ambitions, and in this volume they are presented in both the original Latin and in English translation, along with extensive annotations.

With Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution, Newman studies alchemical experimentation and theory from thirteenth-century Latin alchemist Geber's Summa Perfectionis to Boyle's theory of matter, which he called "the mechanical philosophy," according to Mary Ellen Bowden in Chemical Heritage.

"Newman's new book demonstrates alchemy's influence on specific methods and theories advanced by early modern thinkers," noted Margaret J. Osler in the Canadian Journal of History. "He further argues that the mechanical philosophy, the origins of which have usually been traced to the recovery of Greek atomism, had roots in alchemical practice…. Newman's book—based on scrupulous scholarship and thorough analysis—presents compelling reinforcement for the important role of alchemy in the Scientific Revolution."

Newman is the general editor of the "Chymistry of Isaac Newton," a project of the Indiana University Digital Library Program funded by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Science Foundation. In addition to contributing to scientific discovery, Newton was also involved with alchemy, but only a fraction of the texts Newton wrote on this subject have been published. Newman's project is in the process of transcribing pages for the online site, complete with images and interactive tools.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Albion, spring, 2004, William E. Burns, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire: Starkey, Boyle, and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry, p. 112.

American Historical Review, April, 1996, Gale E. Christianson, review of Gehennical Fire: The Lives of George Starkey, an American Alchemist in the Scientific Revolution, p. 555; February, 2004, Pamela H. Smith, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 244; April, 2005, John Hedley Brooke, review of Promethean Ambitions: Alchemy and the Quest to Perfect Nature, p. 545; February, 2007, Jole Shackelford, review of Atoms and Alchemy: Chymistry and the Experimental Origins of the Scientific Revolution, p. 266.

Architectural Science Review, March, 2007, H.J. Cowan, review of Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe, p. 86.

British Journal for the History of Science, March, 1997, Scott Mandelbrote, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 109; March, 2003, Sophie Page, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 93; September, 2005, M.D. Eddy, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 364.

Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, fall, 2003, Daryn Lehoux, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 219.

Canadian Journal of History, autumn, 2007, Margaret J. Osler, review of Atoms and Alchemy, p. 291.

Chemical & Engineering News, March 7, 2005, Elizabeth Wilson, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 47.

Chemical Heritage, summer, 2004, Daniel Stolzenberg, reviews of Alchemy Tried in the Fire and Gehennical Fire, p. 45; fall, 2005, Kathleen R. Sands, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 47; summer, 2006, Daniel Stolzenberg, review of Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, p. 48; winter, 2007, Mary Ellen Bowden, review of Atoms and Alchemy, p. 44.

Choice, June, 1995, C.W. Beck, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 1618; May, 2003, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 1573; May, 2003, M.H. Chaplin, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 1573; June, 2005, D.V. Feldman, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 1840.

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, spring, 2004, Susan M. Groppi and Matt Sargeant, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 404; fall, 2006, Lauren Kassell, review of Atoms and Alchemy, p. 181.

History of Science, September, 2003, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 360; September, 2003, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 365; September, 2003, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 362; March, 2006, review of Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence, p. 120.

Isis, December, 1995, Jan Golinski, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 648; December, 2002, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 767; March, 2003, Ruth Glasner, review of Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories, p. 140; June, 2006, Frank Klaassen, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 343.

Islam & Science, winter, 2006, Yashab Tur, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 181.

Journal of Chemical Education, April, 2005, Pedro J. Bernal, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 531.

Journal of Modern History, June, 2005, Allen G. Debus, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 422.

Journal of the History of Philosophy, April, 2003, Gad Freudenthal, review of Late Medieval and Early Modern Corpuscular Matter Theories, p. 273; January, 2004, Rose-Mary Sargent, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 104.

Nature, February 23, 1995, David Knight, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 669; September 25, 2003, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 347.

New England Quarterly, June, 1995, Rick Kennedy, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 312.

New York Review of Books, November 16, 1995, Anthony Grafton, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 38.

Renaissance Quarterly, spring, 1997, Nancy G. Siraisi, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 331; autumn, 2003, Jeanne Harrie, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 846; spring, 2004, Pamela O. Long, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 308; summer, 2005, Michela Pereira, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 678; fall, 2007, Nicholas H. Clulee, review of Atoms and Alchemy, p. 997.

Science, October 1, 2004, Iwan Rhys Morus, review of Promethean Ambitions, p. 59.

SciTech Book News, March, 1992, review of The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber: A Critical Edition, Translation and Study, p. 13.

Sixteenth Century Journal, spring, 2003, review of Secrets of Nature, p. 237.

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies, April, 1994, Robert P. Multhauf, review of The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber, p. 540.

Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, June, 1997, Antonio Clericuzio, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 369; December, 2004, Lauren Kassell, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire, p. 845.

Technology and Culture, July, 1997, William Eamon, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 758.

Times Higher Education Supplement, June 30, 1995, P.M. Rattansi, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 27.

William and Mary Quarterly, April, 1996, Roy Porter, review of Gehennical Fire, p. 409; October, 2003, Walter W. Woodward, review of Gehennical Fire.

ONLINE

American Scientist Online,http://www.americanscientist.org/ (April 13, 2008), Peter Dear, review of Promethean Ambitions.

Chymistry of Isaac Newton Web site (Indiana University), http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/newton (April 13, 2008).

E-Streams: Electronic Reviews of Science & Technology References,http://www.e-streams.com/ (April 13, 2008), Ursula Ellis, review of Promethean Ambitions.

Hyle Book Review,http://www.hyle.org/ (April 13, 2008), Vladimir Karpenko, review of Alchemy Tried in the Fire.

Indiana University Web site,http://www.indiana.edu/ (April 13, 2008), faculty profile.

William R. Newman Home Page,http://mypage.iu.edu/~wnewman (April 13, 2008).