The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (1608 - 1679)
Physiologist, physicist, volcanist, and mathematician. In answer to Henry Oldenburg's request for a report on Mt. Etna's recent eruptions, Borelli climbed to the rim of the volcano and published his observations in Historia et meteorologia incendii Aetnaei anni 1669 (1670) (Cocco, 156-7). Other biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Alfonso_Borelli Authority - early modernRelevant locations: Birth place in Naples, Campania
Visited Mount Etna, Sicily
Relationships: Giovanni Alfonso Borelli was a associate or acquaintance (general) of Christina of Sweden (1626-19 Apr 1689)
Linked print sources: as Mentions or references - Watching Vesuvius: A History of Science and Culture in Early Modern Italy.
References in Documents:
Eruptions
of this Mountain we have a copious History given
us by
4. Sal Armoniac
where it had been gather'd in the late fiery Eruption of
after that the fire was extinguisht, upon the surface of that
ferrunginous matter which was left of the burnt minerals. This
Salt, he saith, was some of it as yellow as saffron, some like ci
tron-colour, some white, and some greenish; which colours
though they may seem to come from the several sorts of Mines
of Iron, Brass, &c. whence the Salt issues; yet considering the Ex
periment made with it by
Borelli
late Burning of Ætna (of which an Account was given in
Numb. 75.
sold in shops, being a concrete of Niter, Sulphur and Vitriol
burnt and sublimed. For, it seems, when he found so great
a plenty of this Salt, and had heard, that the force of Gun-
powder was highly increased by the mixture of Sal Armoniac,
and thence conceived, that this Salt might have much con
tributed to the conflagration of this Mountain,and to the
fusion of the fabulous, and the fluxing of the vitreous matter;
he, for a tryal, added some of this Sal Armoniac to pulveri
sed sulphur and niter; but found, to his amazement, that it
was so far from being kindled by fire, that it manifestly hin
dred the accension of the Brimstone and Salt-peter, which
were even extinguish't by it as if water had been powr'd on
them: And the same happn'd, upon the addition of pow
der'd coals, wont to be mix'd in common gun-powder.
Which Experiment, he adds, made him suspect, that this Sal
Armoniac, found about Ætna, had not been existent in those
caverns from the beginning, but that 'tis factitious, as was
hinted above.