Ambix

Ambix is a peer-reviewed academic journal on the history of alchemy and chemistry that was established in 1937. It was not published from 1939 to 1945. Ambix was one of the first journals of the history of science in the English-speaking world, preceded by Isis (1912) and Annals of Science (1936).[1]

Ambix
DisciplineHistory of science
LanguageEnglish
Publication details
History1937–present
Publisher
FrequencyQuarterly
0.600 (2018)
Standard abbreviations
ISO 4Ambix
Indexing
ISSN0002-6980 (print)
1745-8234 (web)
Links

Ambix is published four times a year, in February, May, August and November. It is currently published for the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry by Taylor & Francis, which in 2015 purchased Maney Publishing, the previous publisher of Ambix.[2] The name of the journal comes from the Greek word for a still-head (ἄμβιξ), which later gave rise to the word alembic.[3][4]

The papers published in Ambix are refereed by an international editorial board. The journal covers a wide variety of topics from any historical period and geographical area, including but not limited to chrysopoeia, alchemy and religion, alchemy/chemistry and experiments, alchemy/chemistry and society, alchemical medicine, recent chemistry, and chemistry courses. Recently, more attention has been given to the history of alchemy, while Ambix continues to provide important reading for historians of chemistry.[5] The presentation of scientific ideas, methods and discoveries is made as non-technical as possible, consistent with academic rigour and scientific accuracy. Extensive book reviews are published in each issue of Ambix.

The Journal has published several special issues on a variety of topics. The most recent issue was devoted to new studies on Sir Humphry Davy. The November 2017 issue of Ambix celebrates 80 years of the journal, and includes articles by former Ambix Editor Jennifer Rampling, Hasok Chang, and the 2017 Partington Prize winning paper written by Steve Irish. Earlier special issues include The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: Willem Silvius and John Dee (2017) and Chemical Knowledge in Transit (2015). In May 2013, 2014, and 2015 three special issues were published on Sites of Chemistry devoted to the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively, while the November 2014 special issue concerned Analysis and Synthesis in Medieval and Early Modern Europe.

References
  1. pp. viii-ix, Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry: Papers From Ambix, ed. Allen G. Debus, 2004, ISBN 0-9546484-1-2.
  2. Maney Publishing - Ambix, accessed online January 10, 2011.
  3. p. 25, The chemical tree: a history of chemistry, William Hodson Brock, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, ISBN 0-393-32068-5.
  4. Forbes, Robert James, p. 23, A Short History of the Art of Distillation: from the beginnings up to the death of Cellier Blumenthal, Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1970, ISBN 978-90-04-00617-1.
  5. Sturchio, ISIS, 302.
  • Sturchio, Jeffrey L., "Ambix. Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry." ISIS 81, no. 2, (1990): 300-302.


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