Divining Science: Treasure Hunting and Earth Science in the Early Modern Germany (Studies in Central European Histories, 52) - Hardcover

Dym, Warren

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 9004186425 ISBN 13: 9789004186422

Publisher: Brill Academic Pub, 2011

Synopsis

The patronage of dowsers by mining administrations through the eighteenth century challenges common assumptions about the Enlightenment. Rather than decline in importance like alchemy and astrology, dowsing transformed from a study of mineral vapors into an experimental branch of geophysics.

About this title

About the Author

Warren Alexander Dym, Ph.D. (2005) in History, University of California, Davis, is presently visiting assistant professor at University of Miami. He publishes on German mining and earth science history.

Review

"Dym marshals an impressive array of sources, ranging from mining archives to philosophical treatises, to make his case. He finds, contrary to what we might expect, that the practice of dowsing persisted even as high-profile Enlightenment writers ridiculed it." Andre Wakefield, Isis

"Dym's stories of eighteenth-century dowsers, some of whom worked for the Freiberg Mining Academy, are all very interesting, educational, and at times even thrilling." John A. Norris, Early Science and Medicine

"Divining Science thus offers considerable treasures for those interested in the relations between magic, science, witchcraft, folklore, and popular culture anywhere in early modern Europe, as well as for those interested in the impacts of increasing state control during this era." Alix Cooper, Renaissance Quarterly

"As a pioneering effort in the field and as a contribution to historians' understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of the Scientific Revolution, this work is to be highly commended." Richard L. Gawthrop, German History

"In this fascinating account, Warren Dym shows that dowsing remained a quotidian technique of ore and mineral prospecting in the mining districts of Europe well into the eighteenth century." Pamela H. Smith, The Journal of Modern History

Edition details

• Publisher: Brill Academic Pub
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 9004186425
• ISBN 13: 9789004186422
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 216