The experiment of heating mercury in the Rutbat al-ḥakīm by Maslama al-Qurṭubī Authors Esteve Solà Sugrañes Keywords: alchemy, Al-Andalus, Maslama al-Qurṭubī, Rutbat al-ḥakīm, mercury heating, Lavoisier, modern chemistry Abstract In this paper an excerpt of the Rutbat al-ḥakīm by Maslama al-Qurṭubī, a 10th century Andalusian alchemist, describing an experiment of heating mercury is analysed. As a result of the research carried out the above mentioned excerpt is edited and translated from Beşirağa 505 manuscript of the fourteenth century, and its interpretation of the results as well as the causes for the transformation produced are reviewed on the basis of the cultural and scientific context of that epoch, and a comparison is made with theory proposed by Lavoisier in the 18th century. Thus a description of some basic concepts and experimentation of Arabic medieval alchemy and the corresponding reference in the chemistry of late 18th century, considered as the basis of modern chemistry, is provided. This paper also includes an appendix with the codicological study of the above mentioned manuscript and another one with the description of a lab experiment of heating mercury at 110 °C.Key words: alchemy, Al-Andalus, Maslama al-Qurṭubī, Rutbat al-ḥakīm, mercury heating, Lavoisier, modern chemistry Downloads PDF (Català) Issue Vol. 9 (2016) Section Articles License The intellectual property of articles belongs to the respective authors.On submitting articles for publication to the journal Actes d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica, authors accept the following terms:Authors assign to Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica (a subsidiary of Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to Actes d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica.Authors answer to Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica (SCHCT) for the authorship and originality of submitted articles.Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles.SCHCT declines all liability for the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors.The contents published in the journal, unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) 3.0 Spain licence, the complete text of which may be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Consequently, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate the work, provided that its authorship and the body publishing it are acknowledged, and that no commercial use and no derivative works are made of it.Actes d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of the published articles.
