Rhoda Rappaport - Böcker

"An essential perspective for those seeking a serious introduction to early geological science and a fundamental point of departure for future research.... No other book has this scope and conceptual focus."—Kenneth L. Taylor, University of OklahomaIn the years between 1665 and 1750, geology was a new kind of science, combining physical law with historical process. Rhoda Rappaport explains its novelty and provides a transnational account of the development of geological thinking. She begins with the establishment of formal institutions of international exchange, including the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London and the Journal des savants in Paris, and shows how new media fostered increasing communication among scientists, particularly in England, France, and Italy. Early geological thinking was thoroughly integrated with epistemology, historical and biblical scholarship, natural philosophy, and natural history. Ancient written documents supplemented what was called "physical conjecture," providing human witnesses to past events. How to combine elements of law, empirical observations, and texts posed serious problems in debates about the biblical flood, which Rappaport presents as a prime example of a well-attested historical event. Buffon argued forcefully that geology should be wholly a physical science and that historical texts were irrelevant to the reconstruction of physical processes. Rappaport explains how his contemporaries responded to this novel proposal and how Buffon heralded the end of an era.

In a scholarly career spanning five decades, Rhoda Rappaport published perceptive analyses of science in the culture of early Modern Europe, France in particular, with strong emphasis on geology's early development. Of the sixteen papers in this volume, most focus on aspects of geology's cultivation during the 'long' 18th century, from the times of Hooke, Leibniz, and Fontenelle to those of Lavoisier, Werner, and Cuvier. Among the topics most closely treated here are the French mineralogical mapping project initiated by Guettard; contemporary efforts to interpret the earth historically (such as through Noah's Flood); and difficulties presented by the vocabulary often used in traditional histories of geology. Much of Rappaport's research addressed two problems prevalent within 18th-century earth science: the proper understanding of petrifactions, or fossil objects; and struggles to establish reliable knowledge of the earth's past. She also examined the chemistry of G.-F. Rouelle, which she saw as effectively an attempt at systematic comprehension of the entire mineral realm; trans-national features of scientific pursuits as illustrated in the careers of the naturalist Vallisneri and the mineralogist (and philosophe) d'Holbach; and aspects of science's promotion in France through government patronage and academic privilege.