Beretta Marco
Museo Galileo, Florence, Italy.
Ambix. 2011 Nov;58(3):257-76. doi: 10.1179/174582311X13129418299027.
Throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, many distinguished chemists attributed an important, at times crucial, role to the historical narrative. When the first professional histories were published during the nineteenth century, their role was intimately interwoven with the identity of chemistry, a science that in spite (or because) of its rapidly growing importance in the industrialisation of Europe, did not have the same reputation as either the exact sciences or the medical-biological disciplines. With the works by Berthelot, Lippmann, and Mieli, the history of chemistry focused on its rich and varied documentary sources. The histories of chemistry produced during this period set the ground for a variety of approaches that reflect, to a large degree, the main currents of old and recent history of science. Moreover, historians of chemistry, both continental and Anglo-American, had a prominent role in establishing the history of science as an independent discipline.
在整个19世纪和20世纪上半叶，许多杰出的化学家都认为历史叙事具有重要的、有时甚至是至关重要的作用。当第一批专业化学史在19世纪出版时，它们的作用与化学的身份紧密交织在一起。化学这门科学尽管（或由于）在欧洲工业化进程中迅速变得重要，但它的声誉与精确科学或医学生物学科并不相同。随着贝托莱、李普曼和米耶利的著作问世，化学史聚焦于其丰富多样的文献资料。这一时期产生的化学史为各种方法奠定了基础，这些方法在很大程度上反映了古代和近代科学史的主要潮流。此外，欧洲大陆和英美的化学史家在将科学史确立为一门独立学科方面发挥了突出作用。
