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Chemical compound
(839 words)

Along with the concept of the elements, the concept of compounds is one of the fundamental theoretical concepts of early modern chemistry. Earlier historiography sought to trace its origins back to classical atomism with its notion of temporally stable atomic constellations [2] and the theory of minima naturalia of the high Middle Ages, the smallest qualitatively distinct particles of a substance [9]; these were brought together around 1620 in Isaac Beeckman’s concept of the homogeneum physicum (“molecule”) [8. vol. 1] or in the 1670s in Robert Boyle’s notion…

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Meinel, Christoph, “Chemical compound”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_029515>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20160907



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