Antonio García Belmar

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE EUROPEAN PERIPHERY: SOME HISTORIOGRAPHICAL REFLECTIONS

In less than twenty years a number of developments have dramatically reshaped much of what was considered as common (historiographical) values among members of the established communities of historians of science and technology. The intense discussions concerning a number of theoretical issues, and the subsequent re-thinking of foundational historiographical problems, took place within a context characterized by the impressive scholarship produced by a continual increase in the number of scholars working in the history of science and technology, and also in the expanded range of themes to be studied. Relevant to this was an increase in funding, the establishment of new research centres, the availability of new academic positions, the consolidation of professional bodies, and the launching of many well-funded programs. Concomitantly, the proliferation of book series together with the access to a variety of new sources, and the implementation of a multitude of projects involving the digitalization of standard archival and bibliographical collections, all played a major role in defining the contours of the professional community of historians of science and the scope of the discipline. During the same period major transformations took place in both the actual study and the institutional contexts of the history of science and technology in a number of countries of the European periphery. On the whole, the developments which took place within the more established communities of historians of science and technology Hist. Sci., xlvi (2008)

La revolución química : entre la historia y la memoria

En la famosa Encyclopedie de mediados del siglo XVIII se afirmaba que «el gusto por la quimica» era «una pasion de locos». Los quimicos formaban «un pueblo distinto, muy poco numeroso, con su lengua, sus leyes, sus misterios, casi aislado, en medio de gentes poco curiosas por conocer sus actividades», que no esperaban «nada de su arte». Al acabar el siglo, la situacion habia cambiado de manera radical, hasta el punto que un autor de esos anos llego a afirmar que la quimica se habia convertido en el «idolo» frente al que «se arrodillaban» personas de toda condicion. Este libro analiza la transformacion que situo a la quimica en una posicion destacada entre las ciencias. La voz de los protagonistas permite construir una narracion plural, que a menudo difiere sustancialmente de las versiones elaboradas en el siglo XIX y que todavia mantienen una fuerte presencia en los manuales de ensenanza y en la literatura de divulgacion.

Pedro Gutiérrez Bueno (1745-1822), los libros de texto y los nuevos públicos de la química en el último tercio del siglo XVIII

El presente trabajo se enmarca en un proyecto de investigacion acerca del papel de las practicas y los conocimientos quimicos en la transicion de la materia medica a la farmacologia experimental. Dentro de ese esquema general, el objeto de este articulo es el estudio de los libros de texto destinados a los estudiantes de medicina y de cirugia durante los anos finales del siglo XVIII y la primera mitad del siglo XIX. En un estudio anterior, publicado en esta revista nos ocupamos de establecer las coordenadas institucionales generales dentro de las cuales fueron escritas, publicadas y leidas estas obras. Este trabajo es una continuacion del anterior y esta dedicado al analisis del «Curso de quimica» de Pedro Gutierrez Bueno. A traves de esta obra, se intenta ofrecer nuevos datos sobre los nuevos publicos de la quimica a finales del siglo XVIII y su influencia en la estructura y contenidos de los nuevos libros de texto.

Louis Jacques Thenard's Chemistry Courses at the Collège de France, 1804–1835

Abstract This article is concerned with the public courses and lecture demonstrations given by Louis Jacques Thenard at the Collège de France during the first decades of the nineteenth century. The expectations and needs of Thenards auditors will be studied in order to understand the role played by chemistry courses at the Collège in the context of the growing and changing Parisian teaching market during the first third of the nineteenth century. The preparation and performance of lecture demonstrations was the main driving force of several major changes in the premises and the personnel associated with the chair of chemistry. Our analysis of the parallel process of expansion and functional differentiation of spaces and personnel will show the multiple interactions taking place between the research and teaching activities developed by Thenard and his team of assistants and students.

Los libros de texto de química destinados a estudiantes de medicina y cirugía en España (1788-1845)

Este trabajo forma parte de en un proyecto de investigacion sobre la farmacologia en la sociedad espanola del siglo XIX, en particular, acerca del papel de las practicas y los conocimientos quimicos en la transicion de la materia medica a la farmacologia experimental. Dentro de ese esquema general, el objeto de este articulo es el estudio de los libros de texto destinados a los estudiantes de medicina y de cirugia durante los anos finales del siglo XVIII y la primera mitad del siglo XIX. Se trata de establecer las coordenadas institucionales generales dentro de las cuales fueron escritas, publicadas y leidas estas obras. El estudio arranca en 1788, fecha alrededor de la cual aparecieron numerosos libros de texto de quimica, entre los que figuran varias traducciones francesas y el «Curso de quimica» de Pedro Gutierrez Bueno. Tras senalar la importancia de las obras de Antoine Fourcroy, se estudia la polemica acerca de las aplicaciones de la quimica en medicina a traves de un texto de Juan Manuel de Arejula. A continuacion, se describen las principales instituciones de ensenanza de la medicina y la cirugia en las que se impartieron clases de quimica, con especial atencion a los programas y a los libros que se publicaron para estas clases. El articulo finaliza en 1845, fecha de la reforma de planes de estudios de Jose Pidal.

Constructing the Centre from the Periphery

During recent decades, scientific activity in the Spanish Enlightenment has attracted the attention of many historians of science. The policies of enlightened governments have been regarded as an important step in the process of modernisation of eighteenth-century Spanish society. At the beginning of that century, a new Bourbon dynasty was established in Spain and its policies have been regarded — mainly by conservative historians — as an attempt to introduce “foreign” ideas and practices into Spain. These policies have also been considered as a major effort to “modernise” a supposedly traditionalist country isolated from the rest of Europe and under the control of the powerful Catholic Church. Due to this caricatured image, enlightened Spanish governments have been very appealing for a group of politicians and historians who actively participated in the recent so-called “Spanish transition” from dictatorship to democracy, as they considered themselves engaged in a process of modernisation very similar to that initiated by their eighteenth-century forerunners. This trend reached its apex during the commemorations of the bicentennial of Carlos III, the most outstanding representative of Spanish enlightened despotism. One of the most important parts of the so-called modernisation process, then and now, was science. According to this view, the isolated Spain scarcely participated in the Scientific Revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and enlightened governments tried to solve this problem by implementing three main policies: (a) Reforming the recalcitrant universities, which were anchored in old scholastic ways of teaching, or, to avoid opposition, founding new scientific establishments in which new science could be taught and cultivated; (b) Appointing foreign scientists in some of the new institutions, so that they could introduce new ideas into Spain and train disciples; (c) Sending young students — pensionados l— abroad in order to improve their scientific background in the most famous European academic centres. Scientific trips are therefore considered a key part of Spanish enlightened policies and are mentioned in almost every study concerning eighteenth-century Spanish science.2