Since the mid-1600s, an important way in which the public learned about chemistry was through textbooks written explicitly for women and girls. Often presented in the manner of a conversation, these books were only partly intended to educate women; an important additional motivation was to enable women to explain scientific knowledge to their children. Two relatively well-known books in this tradition were Marie Meurdrac's La Chymie Charitable et Facile, en Faveur des Dames (first edition, 1666) and Jane Marcet's Conversations on Chemistry (first edition, 1806). Far less known, however, but the first in this genre to present the new chemistry of Lavoisier, was La Chimica per le Donne (first edition, 1796) written by the Italian author and statesman Giuseppe Compagnoni (1754-1833). Based on a series of 101 letters written by Compagnoni to the Countess Marianna Rossi of Ferrara (née Gnudi; ca. 1755-1801), and closely modeled on a recently published book by the chemist Vincenzo Dandolo, Compagnoni's book covers the history of chemistry, elements and compounds, attraction, affinity, caloric, fire and light, the phlogistic versus the new chemistry, gases, combustion, acids and alkalis, salts, the old and new nomenclature, minerals, etc. Expressing skepticism over a woman’s desire to learn a subject as dry and difficult as chemistry, Compagnoni is reassured by the countess that she indeed wishes to be initiated into the mysteries of Lavoisier’s new ideas because chemistry ‘has become the fashionable science.’ The first Venetian edition of 1796 was followed by a second in 1797 and a third in 1805, as well as by an edition published in Naples in 1804 and a translation into Spanish (Barcelona, 1802).

Eighteenth century textbook of chemistry for women: Compagnoni's La Chimica per le Donne

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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