Beautiful Seventeenth-Century Chemistry Texts

The thermodynamics of this reaction can be calculated using standard enthalpy and entropy of formation data in M.W. Chase, Jr., MST-JANAF Thermochemical Tables, fourth edition. Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data, Mono aph 9, 1998 (see also the NIST Website at http //nist.gov). For a metal having weaker affinity for oxygen, such as in mercury(II) oxide, both enthalpy and entropy favor this reaction. For a metal having somewhat stronger affinity, as in copper(ll) oxide, enthalpy disfavors the reaction but is overwhelmed by entropy. 

I am grateful to Dr. Lyrm Gamwell, Director, University Art Museum, State University of New York at Binghamton for kindly providing this image from the museum collection. 

Following Libavius Alchymia, a series of useful and beautifully illustrated textbooks appeared throughout the seventeenth century. Let us begin the Be-guin—Jean Beguin s Tyrocinium Chymicum ( The Chemical Beginner ) was first 

CHRISTOPHORO GLASER, Ordinar - 5(pot()ccfer be irotiigrt ttnb 

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