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In 1668, Frederik III of Denmark allocated funds for mining Iceland spar. Excavated from veins in basalt, the crystals of calcite were preserved in the king?fs ?ecabinet of curiosities?f, where they attracted the attention of Erasmus Bartholin (1625-1698), professor of mathematics and medicine at Copenhagen University. In 1669, Bartholin published his Experimenta crystalli Islandici disdiaclastici, to give an account of the curious phenomenon that things could be seen double through the crystal. Historians have usually viewed his study as describing birefringent crystals for the first time--which stimulated Huygens to construct an important theory of light in the history of optics and crystallography. However, it?fs also possible to interpret the work from the viewpoint of the history of the natural history of minerals and of geology, through comparison with the works of the anatomist Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686), a pupil of Bartholin--especially Steno?fs Prodromus published in Florence in 1669. This prompts a comparative study of the socio-cultural context of royal mineral collections. We note the accounts of crystals with terms such as 'solid angle,' ?eunfolded?f diagrams and cross sections, which appeared in both Bartholin?fs and Steno?fs work. However, Bartholin determined the refractive index of the Iceland spar and explained its double reflection by Cartesian optical theory whereas Steno concentrated his attention on the surfaces of crystals such as quartz, pyrite and hematite and ingeniously explained the variety of crystal forms and the constancy of interfacial angles. Steno explicitly made a link between Earth history and solids within solids, which included minerals. Bartholin's monograph was about a particular mineral crystal, though there was originality in the way he described it. Considering the differences between the absolutist Danish monarchy and the Medici state in Tuscany, one can perceive a relationship between the application of the ?enew?f science to reform ?eold?f natural history, the two distinctive representations of nature, and the different social systems in which Steno and Bartholin were situated.
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