ProtogaeaProtogaea, an ambitious account of terrestrial history, was central to the development of the earth sciences in the eighteenth century and provides key philosophical insights into the unity of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz’s thought and writings. In the book, Leibniz offers observations about the formation of the earth, the actions of fire and water, the genesis of rocks and minerals, the origins of salts and springs, the formation of fossils, and their identification as the remains of living organisms. Protogaea also includes a series of engraved plates depicting the remains of animals—in particular the famous reconstruction of a “fossil unicorn”—together with a cross section of the cave in which some fossil objects were discovered. Though the works of Leibniz have been widely translated, Protogaea has languished in its original Latin for centuries. Now Claudine Cohen and Andre Wakefield offer the first English translation of this central text in natural philosophy and natural history. Written between 1691 and 1693, and first published after Leibniz’s death in 1749, Protogaea reemerges in this bilingual edition with an introduction that carefully situates the work within its historical context. |
Contents
i Preamble | 2 |
iii Different opinions concerning the creation of the globe | 4 |
iv Sea salt fires and cycles of precipitation | 8 |
v The many changes in our globe after its initial creation | 10 |
vi What was the source of the water that covered the earth? And where did it go? | 14 |
vii Bructerus and the origin of springs | 18 |
viii Deposits of metal in the earth and a description of veins | 20 |
ix The generation of minerals explained through chemistry | 26 |
xxix In which a certain lazy ingenuity which invents things alien to truth is rejected | 72 |
xxx Where can the Lüneburg glossopetrae be found? | 76 |
xxxi Glossopetrae are sharks teeth | 78 |
xxxii The medical use of glossopetrae | 84 |
xxxiii Belemnites osteocolla shellfilled stones and fossil ivory | 86 |
xxxiv Bones jaws skulls and teeth found in our region | 96 |
xxxv The unicorns horn and an enormous animal unearthed in Quedlinburg | 100 |
xxxvi Sharzfeld Cave and the bones that have been found in it | 104 |
x Products common to laboratories and mines | 30 |
xi The generation of precious stones natural and artifi cial | 32 |
xii Natural sublimations and the preparation of sal ammoniac | 34 |
xiii It is through fire that metals appear in their proper forms | 36 |
xv Some bodies coalesce in the waters | 38 |
xvii Some things arise from the combined action of heat and water | 40 |
xviii Where do the shapes of various fi sh imprinted on slates come from? | 42 |
xix Earthquakes volcanoes and other things show that there is fire inside our globe | 48 |
xx The forms of fish imprinted on slate come from real fish and are not games of nature | 50 |
xxi The different layers of the earth their locations and the origin of salts and salt waters | 54 |
xxii The origin of mountains and hills explained through waters winds and earthquakes | 56 |
xxiii Marine shells are found throughout our region and elsewhere | 58 |
xxiv The various kinds of shells were not created inside the stone as is evident from their forms and positions | 60 |
xxv The excavated shells and bones of marine animals can be identified as the parts of real animals | 64 |
xxvii Glossopetrae asterias trochites etc are the remains of marine animals and not games of nature | 68 |
xxviii But it is wrong to include the polygonal shapes that can be found in crystals among these | 70 |
xxxvii The Baumann Cave and its contents | 108 |
xxxviii On the nature of amber especially the kind found in our region | 114 |
xxxix Changes wrought by rivers and the vestiges of upheavals in our region | 116 |
xl The struggle between sea and land | 118 |
xli Sea and marsh once covered Venice and Este | 120 |
xlii The marvelous fountains of Modena | 122 |
xliii How Modenas fountains are produced | 126 |
xliv The layers of earth in Rosdorf near Göttingen | 128 |
xlv On buried trees and petrified wood | 130 |
xlvi Peat and its origin | 134 |
xlvii On trees buried underground | 138 |
Text from Friedrich Lachmunds Oryktographia Hildesheimensis 1669 | 143 |
Glossary | 151 |
Bibliography | 155 |
| 165 | |
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Common terms and phrases
adhuc Agricola aliquando animalia animalis animals appeared apud aqua aquarum argilla atque autem Baumann Cave belemnites bones called clay conchite constat crust deinde dentes Descartes earth Eisleben engraving enim etiam fire fish floods formation fossil fossil objects fuisse genus globe glossopetrae Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz haec Hannover Harz Hildesheim horn igne ipsa Itaque kind Lachmund lapide lapidem layers Leibniz liquid loco Louis Bourguet Lower Saxony Lüneburg magis material metal metallica mineral mines modum mountains nature Neque nihil nunc olim origin Oryktographia passim peat petrification petrified plate postremo prope Protogaea quae quaedam quam quas Quedlinburg quibus quod quoque region rerum rock saepe sal ammoniac salt saxo Scharzfeld Scheidt Scheidt’s 1749 edition schist shapes sharks shells sibi sive species Steno stone sunt tamen tantum teeth telluris terrae things Torfa tractu trochites Valerius Cordus veins velut vestigia vocant