THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO A VITAL MATTER: ALCHEMY, CORNUCOPIANISM, AND AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE DIVISION OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY BY JUSTIN ROBERT NIERMEIER-DOHONEY CHICAGO, ILLINOIS DECEMBER 2018 Copyright © Justin Robert Niermeier-Dohoney All rights reserved For Carly, Wyatt, and Emerson, my tria prima And in memory of my grandfather, Robert Lentz, a farmer and storyteller TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures v Acknowledgements vi Abstract xiii A Note on Sources, Translations, and Terminology xvi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The “Hermaphroditical Salt”: Saltpetermen, the Chymistry of Salts, and the Textual Origins of the Sal Nitrum School 29 Chapter 2 “Rusticall Chymistry”: Benjamin Worsley, Hartlib Circle Saltpeter Projects, and the Search for Artificial Fertilizers 79 Chapter 3 A Laboratory in the Field(s): The Alchemy and Chymistry of Seed Steeps and Fructifying Waters 129 Chapter 4 “Turning Plow-men into Philosophers”: Gabriel Plattes, the Alchemy of Soil Fertility, and Agricultural Improvement 171 Chapter 5 “Concerning the Transmutation and Improvements of Plants”: Alchemical Operations, Botanical Change, and the Meanings of Transmutation 224 Conclusions 280 Bibliography 302 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Saltpeterman digging under stable, mid-sixteenth century 44 Figure 1.2 Woodcut of a saltpeter workshop 51 Figure 1.3 Niter beds or nitraries 55 Figure 4.1 A farmer sprinkles gold on cropland 172 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to acknowledge the efforts of my committee members, Adrian Johns, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, and Robert J. Richards, without whom neither this dissertation nor my graduate education, in general, would have been possible. Adrian Johns has been an indefatigable advisor for this work and a major resource for all things about the history of early modern science, of which he has seemingly cornucopian knowledge. His direction, support, and guidance—on everything from which archives to visit to editorial decisions in the manuscript to how to manage an academic career while having children— have been indispensible. Perhaps more than anyone, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson has challenged my conception of what the proper territory for a historian is in ways that have expanded my horizons in welcome and wholly unexpected ways. He has also convinced me and given me the tools to articulate how essential history will be in our rapidly changing twenty-first-century future. And Robert J. Richards has been a wonderful mentor and a true model for how to approach scholarship, teaching, and the academy. Each of them has molded me into a better scholar than I could ever have hoped to be without their tutelage. They have left an indelible mark on this dissertation. For these and countless other reasons, I thank them. Several chapters and earlier drafts of various parts of this dissertation have been workshopped through the distinctive Council for Advanced Studies workshop system at the University of Chicago, and I’d like to thank my colleagues, including fellow graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty members, who attended and commented on my work in progress. The History and Philosophy of Science; History of the Human Sciences; Early Modern; and Energy, Environment, and Anthropocene workshops all welcomed my vi papers, provided friendly but productive criticism, and assisted me in refining my arguments and viewing the historical problems I tackled from a variety of viewpoints. I would especially like to thank those who prepared commentary during these meetings, including Zach Barr, Kristine Palmieri, and Amy Coombs. Whether I was presenting or not, these highly interdisciplinary workshops were an integral component of my graduate education, and I would like to thank all who provided feedback and support in these settings, including Dipesh Chakrabarty, Ted Cook, Lorraine Daston, Cornell Fleischer, William Monter, Ada Palmer, Steven Pincus, and Michael Rossi, as well as my committee members. Beyond the University of Chicago, I have been fortunate enough to be able to present much of this work to a wider audience of peers in the history of science. Early versions of the introduction and conclusion were presented at the “Religious Ideas and Scientific Thought Conference” at McGill University and the “Religion and Conflict Conference” at Florida State University. Early versions of chapters 1 and 2 were presented at the Midwest Junto for the History of Science at Indiana University. A very early version of chapter 3 was presented at the Renaissance Studies Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at the Newberry Library in Chicago. Finally, abbreviated and combined versions of chapters 4 and 5 were presented at the History of Science Society Annual Meeting in Toronto and the “(Al)chemical Laboratories Conference” at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia. For their feedback, and for discussions over coffee or cocktails outside of these conferences, I’d like to thank Meagan Allen, Domenico Bertoloni-Meli, Monique Colberg, Laura Foster, George Elliott, Hadi Fakhoury, Abraham Gibson, Sander Gliboff, Benjamin Gross, Ashley Inglehart, Erin Johnson, John Kelsay, Will Livingston, Magdalena vii Luszczynska, Vera Keller, Nathan Moats, William R. Newman, Naznin Patel, Megan Piorko, Lawrence Principe, Jennifer Rampling, Umberto Veronesi, and Wenrui Zhao, all of whom made valuable suggestions at both the conceptual and fine-grained levels. The research and writing of this dissertation would not have been possible without the generous support of a number grants and fellowships. The History Department, the Social Sciences Division, and the Morris Fishbein Center for the History of Science and Medicine at the University of Chicago all ensured that my fellowship and stipend support was sufficient enough that I wouldn’t have to take on an exorbitant amount of teaching just to make ends meet. I would like to thank the University of Chicago Social Sciences Division for their long-term dissertation research travel grant, the Humanities Division for their Arnoldo Momilgiano dissertation research travel grant, the Nicholson Center for British Studies for their short-term dissertation research travel grant, and the History Department for their T. Bentley Duncan dissertation writing fellowship. For their financial support in traveling to and from conferences and research locations, I would also like to sincerely thank the History of Science Society, the National Science Foundation, the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, the Morris Fishbein Center, and the Dibner Library for the History of Science at the Smithsonian Institute as well. Historians are only as good as their research, and research cannot be conducted without excellent archivists aiding us in much of the legwork. Though they labored on my behalf mostly anonymously, I would like to extend thanks to the librarians and archivists at the Newberry Library, the British Library and especially those in the Western Manuscripts and Rare Books and Music reading rooms, The National Archives at Kew, the Wellcome Museum and Collection, the Bodleian Library at Oxford and especially the Rare Books and viii Manuscripts reading room in the Weston Library, the Royal Society archives, the University of Glasgow Special Collections, the Cambridge University Main Library and the archives of Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge, and the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center. At the University of Chicago, I’d especially like to thank Catherine Uecker for her work. I would like to extend sincere and heartfelt thanks to my fellow graduate students, particularly those with whom I’ve discussed the history and philosophy of science, early modern history, the mountain of books and articles we read together, and academic life in general. After course work is over, graduate school can be quite the lonely experience if you let it. The camaraderie and collegiality of the following people made the last seven years a great deal of fun (in spite of the University of Chicago’s unofficial motto) and far more satisfying than it would have been without them. All, in some way, have left a mark on the conception, research, and writing of this work: Jamal Abed-Rabbo, Míša Appeltová, Adam Baim, Blair Bainbridge, Zach Barr, Maura Capps, Ashley Clark, Arthur Clement, Amy Coombs, John Cropper, Ollie Cussen, Ryan Dahn, Chris Dunlap, Jillian Foley, Kyle Gardner, Carmine Grimaldi, Philip Henry, Lily Huang, Nazlī Ipek Hüner-Cora, Jaewoong Jeon, Elisa Jones, Agatha Kim, Kaliee Kissoon, Emma Kitchen, Jared Kreiner, Tyson Leuchter, Biying Ling, Alex Moffett, Parysa Mostajir, Kristine Palmieri, Colin Rydell, Basil Salem, Sam Schulte, Steven Server, Lisa Scott, Matt Slayton, Beckett Sterner, Bill Sterner, Robert Suits, Zeynep Tezer, Jennifer Timmons, Joshua Vera, Joy Wattawa, Dan Webb, Emily Webster, Sheila Wille, and Andy Yamazaki. I extend special thanks to Zach Barr, Chris Dunlap, Colin Rydell, Lisa Scott, and Andy Yamazaki for their friendship during our time in the program. ix At some universities, teaching is treated as an obligation rather than the lifeblood of the profession as it is at the University of Chicago. I have been especially fortunate to have a number of fantastic students across three teaching assistantships and four courses of my own design both at the University of Chicago and at Indiana University, Southeast. All