Thirteenth Century

The thirteenth century is distinguished by a remarkable development of culture in Europe.1 The crusades covering a period from the end of the eleventh century to the middle of the thirteenth, exerted a great influence to that end. They brought western civilization into contact with Arabian culture, and opened to western scholars freer access to Constantinople and its treasures in manuscripts of Grecian classical literature as well as to later Byzantine developments. The crusades therefore functioned in that respect as a great international world fair. As we have seen the twelfth century was especially notable in the history of chemistry for the introduction of Arabian texts to European scholars and for the circulation of many such works in Latin translations. 

1 See the interesting work of J. J. Walsh, The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries, New York, 1911. 

It was not without difficulties that the reestablishment of the authority of Aristotle was effected. Some of his doctrines such as his concept of the eternity of the physical universe, and other ideas which seemed in conflict with the doctrines accepted by the church, excited some opposition. In 1209 the vyorks of Aristotle were condemned and forbidden. In. 1210 at the Provincial Synod at Paris the teaching of Aristotelian doctrines of natural philosophy was forbidden—nec libri Aristotelis de vaturali philosophia nec commenta legantur Parisiis publice vel secreto. 

From these works can best be seen in what, to the most prominent scholars of the thirteenth century, chemistry consisted. It must be remembered however that not yet were the phenomena of matter classified as chemistry in the sense in which we use the term. They speak of alchemy 

This encyclopedia, appearing apparently a little before the more comprehensive works of Vincent of Beauvais and Albertus Magnus, evidently had much influence in its time. 

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Galen, a physician whose views outUved him by about a thousand years, died about 200 AD. He beUeved that mercurials were toxic, and did not use any mercury compound therapeutically. However, as a result of Arabian influence, the therapeutic uses of mercury were slowly recognized by Western Europe. In the thirteenth century mercury ointments were prescribed for treating chronic diseases of the skin. Mercury and its compounds, such as mercurous chloride, mercuric oxide, mercuric chloride, and mercuric sulfide, were used widely from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, and to some extent in the twentieth century. During the first half of the twentieth century, the primary therapeutic uses of mercury included bactericidal preparations, such as mercuric chloride, mercuric oxycyanide, and mercuric oxide and diuretics, such as aryl HgX (Novasural) and mercurated ahyl derivatives (14). 

By the thirteenth century AD, essential oils were being produced along with medicinal and herbal preparations in pharmacies. Around this time improvements in distillation techniques were made, in particular the development of the alembic apparatus, which would eventually estabUsh the quaUty of such matenals. As a result, many of the essential oils in use today are denved from those produced in the sixteenth and seventeenth centunes in terms of odor character, even though production methods have continued to evolve. The current practice of aroma therapy is an indication of this common root of medicinal and fragrance chemistry. 

Air. Studies have shown that 2500 years ago lead pollution caused by Greek and Roman silver smelters was a significant problem (4). Based on analysis of lake sediments and Greenland s ice, it was found that lead contamination from smelters in southern and central Europe was carried throughout the northern hemisphere. As long ago as the thirteenth century, air pollution has been linked to the burning of coal (4). The main concern was the smell from the sulfur in the coal and the effects of the soot. It was not until many years later that the effects of air pollution on people s health were discovered. 

The Industrial Revolution came hand-in-hand with the use of fossil fuels. Although coal had been used for heating and in metallurgy since at least the thirteenth century, it was not until the invention and refinement of the steam engine that coal consumption increased greatly. By the middle of the nineteenth century, work done by machines exceeded the work done by animal power. While steam engines were mainly fueled by coal, the advent of the internal combustion engine required a volatile fuel, and petroleum distillates are perfectly suited for this purpose. 

Song, S.-Y. Alchemical theories in the thirteenth century with special emphasis on Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus. Soul Taehakkyo Kyoyang Kwajongbu Nonmunjip, Chayon Kwahak-Pyon 2(1970) 1-11. 

Szulakowska, Urszula. Thirteenth century material pantheism in the pseudo-Lullian S- Circle of the Powers of the Soul. Ambix 35, no. 3 (Nov 1988) 127-154. 

Abate, Mark T. "Roger Bacon and the rage of antichrist the apocalypse of a thirteenth century natural philosopher." PhD thesis, Boston University, 2000. 

Some Contributions in English The Arbor Scientiae A New Encyclopedia in the Thirteenth Century Occitan-Catalan Cultural Context / Lola Badia — The Structure of the Arbor Scientiae / Anthony Bonner — The Role of Numbers in the Structure of the Arbor... 

Steele, Robert. "Roger Bacon and the state of science in the thirteenth century." In Studies in the history and method of science, ed. Charles J. Singer, ii, 121-150. Oxford Clarendon P, 1921. 

Maria the Jewess Pt. 3 The Early Arab World Abufalah s Alchemy A Hebrew Version of the Book of Alums and Salts Pseudo-Khalid ibn Yazid Pt. 4 The Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries Artephius The Great Jewish Philosophers Kabbalah and Alchemy A Reconsideration Pt. 5 The Fourteenth Century Raymund de Tarrega Marrano,... 

This paper discusses the various names that were given to potassium nitrate in Arabic, and the equivalent words that were used in Latin. In investigating this subject the following question was posed what were the names of potassium nitrate in Arabic before the word barud became common Because the term barud was applied in Arabic to potassium nitrate in the thirteenth century, some historians of science and technology assumed that familiarity with potassium nitrate in Arabic chemistry and alchemy dates from the thirteenth century only"... 

Clark, R. J. H. and K. Huxley, K. (1996), Raman spectroscopic study of the pigments on a large illuminated Qur an, circa thirteenth century, Sci. Technol. Cult. Heritage 5(2), 95-101. 

There comes a time in any literary endeavour when one has to recognize that time has run its course, that a line has to be drawn in the sand, that one simply cannot continue to surf the Internet, that there is an ultimate limit to the recent publications that one can include in the final text. As the Thirteenth century Chinese scholar Tai T ung (The Six Scripts Principles of Chinese Writing) wrote Were I to await perfection, my book would never be finished. So, at the beginning of the veritable Twenty-first century, the real Third millenium, it is time to conclude, with all of the regrets which that implies. That perfection could ever be attained in a field which is undergoing such an explosive expansion and development at the present time is quite simply impossible. 

Figure 2.15 APCI (+) mass spectrum of the lipid extract obtained from a ceramic vessel recovered from the thirteenth century church of Sant Antimo in Piombino (Central Italy) (a). TheAPCI MS/MS spectrum obtained by selecting ions at m/z 315 (b). The latter made it possible to determine that ions at m/z 315 are due to protonated 7 oxodehydroabietic acid. (Adapted from ref. [29])...

The teachings of the Arabian alchemists gradually penetrated into the Western world, in which, during the thirteenth century, flourished some of the most eminent of the alchemists, whose lives and teachings we must now briefly consider. 

The date and birthplace of Arnold de Villanova, or Villeneuve, are both uncertain. He studied medicine at Paris, and in the latter part of the thirteenth century practised professionally in Barcelona. To avoid persecution at the hands of the Inquisition, he was... 

In the ninth century, oil fields were exploited to produce naphtha in Baku, Azerbaijan. These fields, described by the geographer Masudi in the tenth century, had increased output to hundreds of shiploads in the thirteenth century as described by Marco Polo. 

Ars Magna A thirteenth century Christian kabalistic system developed by The Spanish mystic Ramon Llull (also spelled Lully)... 

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