Abstract

PALOMARES TORRES, Elisa Silvana. The perpetual begetting of silver. Books and experience in the mining knowledge of the New World (17th century). Estud. hist. novohisp [online]. 2017, n.56, pp.77-95. ISSN 2448-6922.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ehn.2017.04.001.

From the study of two Ibero-American mining and metallurgical treatises of the 17th century, we will discover the role that printed books had in the reorganization, systematization and foundation of artisanal mining knowledge. This knowledge experienced a discrete transformation, but its broad scope in the book field led to the establishment of a modern wisdom in accordance with the schemes of the new Natural Philosophy that, during the eighteenth century, generated the emergence of the disciplines related to Chemistry. Also, we will analyze the new roles that the experience and the book learning assumed in the artisanal mining-metallurgical treatises as a new formula that claimed some aspects of the alchemical philosophy, but that was challenged in the light of the demands of the Spanish Empire and the own production of printed materials during early modernity.

Keywords : Books; Mining knowledge; Bookish culture; Experience; Alchemy; Circulation of knowledge.