Ole Borch

Ole Borch

Ole Borch , also Oluf Borch , Olaf Borch , Latinized Olaus Borrichius (born April 7, 1626 in Ribe Abbey at Ringkøbing Fjord , Nørre Bork ; † October 13, 1690 in Copenhagen ) was a Danish doctor , chemist and polymath . He was a fan of iatrochemistry and a royal personal physician .

Life

Borch, the son of a priest (Oluf Clusen, who lost his job in 1647 after messing with an influential figure), studied medicine, botany, chemistry, literature and philosophy at the school of scholars in Ribe and from 1644 to 1650 at the University of Copenhagen ). His teachers included Ole Worm , Simon Pauli and Thomas Bartholin (with whom he remained close friends until his death). In 1649 he wrote his first dissertation in which he countered superstitious ideas from the Kabbalah. He then taught at a Latin school in Copenhagen and devoted himself to further studies that led to his treatise Parnassus in nuce (1654) (a guide to Latin poetry). During the plague epidemic in 1654 he made a name for himself as a doctor. In 1655 he became the private tutor to the sons of Reichshofmeister Joachim Gersdorff and, as a member of the vigilante group, took part in the defense of Copenhagen during the siege in the Second Northern War , as well as during the great assault by the Swedes in 1659. In 1660 he became a professor at Copenhagen University (for Philology, but also botany and chemistry).

He is also going on a multi-year trip abroad to continue his studies. After all, it lasted six years. A diary of the trip and the correspondence with Bartholin exist. His journey first took him to Leiden , where his compatriot Nicolaus was studying steno at the time . Gersdorff's sons (whom he met in Hamburg) followed there in 1661 and came under his supervision again after his patron Gersdorff had died. In 1663 the permit for his stay abroad was renewed and he went to England and France (Paris). In 1664 he received his doctorate in medicine in Angers. He also visited southern France and Italy (Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice) and returned to Copenhagen via Germany and the Netherlands at the end of 1666, after being warned to return. On his trip he met u. a. the scholars Jan Swammerdam , Franciscus Sylvius , Robert Boyle , Guy Patin , Francesco Redi and Pierre Petit . He also collected information about alchemy and was influenced by the Italian alchemist Giuseppe Francesco Borri (1627–1695).

In 1667 he became royal personal physician and his private practice also flourished, alongside his professorship at the university. He was twice rector magnificus of the university.

In 1681 he became head of the university library and in 1686 assessor at the Supreme Court. In 1689 he becomes a chancellery. As a philologist he was in contact with Johann Gerhard Vossius and Caspar Schoppe (Scioppius) and published, among other things, a Dissertatio de lexicis Latinis (et Graecis) in 1660 , and in 1675 the Cogitationes de variis lingvæ Lat. ætatibus and in 1679 the Conspectus præstantiorum Scriptorum Latinae lingvæ . From 1683 to 1687 he published a topography of ancient Rome (Antiqva Urbis Romae facie) and he developed a theory about the origin of language (Dissertatio die causis diversitatis lingvarum, 1675).

In chemistry he recognized in 1678 when burning saltpeter that parts of the air had a part in it (which was independently recognized by John Mayow in England (1672) at the same time ). He found that sulfur burns with saltpetre in a closed vessel, and he found that antimony increases in mass when it is oxidized ( calcined ). He ignited turpentine with nitric acid and discovered the flammability of alcohol. In 1660 he published a book on mining and metallurgy (De docimastice metallica) and he also published on alchemy and chemistry history (De ortu et progressu chemiae dissertatio 1668, Hermetis, Ægyptiorum et chemicorum sapientia 1674). In 1670 he published a pharmaceutical dictionary (Lingua pharmacopoeorum). Most recently he published a book on medicinal plants and their use (De usu plantarum indigenarum in medicina 1688).

Although he carried out experiments that gave him a place in the history of chemistry, he was, on the other hand, stuck in his belief in the philosopher's stone and alchemical teachings (Hermetic Scriptures) of his time. He defended the genuity of hermetic writings such as the Tabula Smaragdina against Athanasius Kircher (printed in the Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa ) and Hermann Conring .

He was unmarried and at the end of his life used his fortune to set up a college for poor students at the university, which still exists today.

Works

• Olai Borrichii Lingua Pharmacopoeorum sive de accurata Vocabulorum in Pharmacopoliis usitatorum Pronunciatione . Haubold / Godicchenius, Hafniae 1670 ( digitized version )

literature

• PM Rattansi, Borrichius in Dictionary of Scientific Biography
• Børge Riis Larsen: Ole Borch (1626-1690): en dansk renæssancekemiker, Nyt Teknisk Forlag, 2006
• Ernst Jonas Bencard, Martin Corfix, Charlotte Hansen, Jesper Fritz Schou-Knudsen, Louise Sihm, Jens Erik Skydsgaard, Helene Wonsbek (eds.): Festskrift i anledning af Borchs Kollegiums 300-års jubilæum, Borchs Kollegium, 1991.
• Vilhelm Maar: Mindeskrift for Oluf Borch på 300-Aarsdaagen for hans Fødsel, Nyt Nordisk Forlag, 1926.
• EF Koch: Oluf Borch - en literærhistorisk - biografisk Skildring, Copenhagen 1866 (dissertation)
• HD Schepelern: Olai Borrichii itinerarium 1660-1665: the journal of the Danish polyhistor Ole Borch, 4 volumes, The Danish Society of Language and Literature, 1983
• Morten Fink-Jensen: Ole Borch - en dansk kemiker i 1600-tallet, Dansk Kemi, Volume 4, 2001
• Morten Fink-Jensen: Ole Borch mellem naturlig magi og modern naturvidenskab, Historisk Tidsskrift, Volume 100, 2000, No. 1, pp 35-67.
• Entry in Winfried Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, Wolfgang Müller: Lexicon of important chemists, Harri Deutsch 1989

Web links

• Dansk Biografisk Leksikon
• Borch College

Individual evidence

1. ^ A pamphlet against Conring