Ingeborg Hammer-Jensen

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Ingeborg Hammer-Jensen
Born
Ingeborg Ellen Hammer

20 January 1880
Copenhagen
Died6 April 1955
Copenhagen
Occupation(s)Classical scholar; Philologist
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Copenhagen
ThesisDen ældste Atomlære - The Oldest Atomic Theory (1908)
Academic work
Notable worksThe Oldest Alchemy

Ingeborg Hammer-Jensen (Copenhagen, 20 January 1880 - Copenhagen, 6 April 1955) was a historian of science and classical philologist from Denmark. She was the third woman to be awarded a PhD in Denmark and was an expert on Greek scientific writing.

Early life[edit]

Ingeborg Ellen Hammer was born on 20 January 1880 in Copenhagen.[1] Her parents were choir director and herbalist Axel Evald Hammer, and her mother was Thora Christine Svendsen.[1] She attended N. Zahle's School, where she learnt Mathematics and Greek, amongst other subjects, where she got excellent marks.[1]

Education[edit]

In 1898 she began to study classical philology at the University of Copenhagen, where she was inspired by the work of Professor J L Heiberg and H G Zeuthen to research the scientific writings of classical writers.[1] Her first article was published in 1902 in the Nordic Journal of Classical Philology.[1] In 1905 she graduated with an MA in Classical Philology.[1]

Hammer-Jensen continued her research and in 1908 graduated with a D.Phil. in Classical Philology from the University of Copenhagen.[2] Her thesis was entitled The Oldest Atomic Theory and argued that Plato was influenced by Democritus' natural theory.[2] Whilst this idea was not entirely original, Hammer-Jensen's work became influential because she promoted her ideas with energy.[2] She was the first female recipient of a doctorate in Classics in Denmark, and the country's third female PhD overall (preceded by Anna Hude in 1893 and Kirstine Thaning in 1904).[1]

Research[edit]

Hammer-Jensen's research focused on science in the classical world, particularly the works of Aristotle, Democritus and Heron. Her critique of Aristotle's Metereology IV argued against it being Aristotelian in origin and is one that has been cited repeatedly.[3][4] She wrote about potential relationships between the work of Democritus and Plato.[5] She worked on dating the works of Heron to after the time of Ptolemy, basing this assertion on Heron's apparently superior scientific instruments and a potential criticism of Ptolemy's views on weight and volume relating to water.[6] Her doctoral thesis advanced the idea that Democritus influenced Plato, and gained a substantial amount of attention after its publication.[7]

In her later work The Oldest Alchemy, Hammer-Jensen examined the works of writes Zosimos, Olympiodor and Stephanos to explore ideas around the transition of materials from one form to another.[8] However, one reviewer described her work as "fanciful".[9] In it she emphasised a close relationship between medicine and alchemy, based on their experimental processes.[10] However this idea was criticised by others who believed the awareness of medicine shown by these authors was what would be expected by an educated person at the time.[11]

Selected publications[edit]

  • 'Ad Solonem', Nordic Journal of Classical Philology (1903)
  • Demokrit und Platon: I-II (1909)[12]
  • 'Ptolemaios und Heron', Hermes (1913)[13]
  • 'Das sogenannte IV. Buch der Meteorologie des Aristoteles', Hermes (1915)[14]
  • Deux papyrus à contenu d'ordre chimique - Ingeborg Hammer Jensen (Reitzel, 1916)[15]
  • Die alteste Alchemie, Meddelelser fra den K. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Hist-fil. Meddel., IV, no. 2 (Copenhagen, 1921)[16]
  • Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs: Volume 2: Les manuscrits italiens (1927) with Carlo Oreste Zuretti, Otto Lagercrantz, Johan Ludvig Heiberg, Domenico Bassi and Emidio Martini[17]
  • 'Die Heronische Frage', Hermes (1928)[18]

Later life[edit]

On 11 October 1905 she married teacher Jens Christian Jensen; he wrote a widely used school textbook on natural science.[1]

Hammer-Jensen died on 6 April 1955 at Bispebjerg Hospital in Copenhagen.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Bostrup, Ole. "Ingeborg Hammer Jensen (1880 - 1955)".
  2. ^ a b c d "Ingeborg Hammer Jensen | lex.dk". Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (in Danish). Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  3. ^ Newman, William R., 1955- (2006). Atoms and alchemy : chymistry and the experimental origins of the scientific revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 67. ISBN 978-0-226-57703-6. OCLC 688293048.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Late medieval and early modern corpuscular matter theories. Lüthy, Christoph Herbert., Murdoch, John Emery, 1927-2010., Newman, William R., 1955-. Leiden: Brill. 2001. p. 307. ISBN 978-90-04-11516-3. OCLC 48519743.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. ^ Interpretations of Plato : a Swarthmore Symposium. North, Helen F. (Helen Florence), 1921-2012. Lugduni Batavorum: E.J. Brill. 1977. p. 70. ISBN 90-04-05262-3. OCLC 3675532.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ^ Heath, Thomas Little, Sir, 1861-1940. (2003). A manual of Greek mathematics. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. p. 416. ISBN 0-486-43231-9. OCLC 52846642.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Theories of weight in the ancient world : four essays on Democritus, Plato, and Aristotle : a study in the development of ideas. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1981. p. 289. ISBN 90-04-06132-0. OCLC 9084060.
  8. ^ Hopkins, A. J. (1922). "Review of Die alteste Alchemie". Isis. 4 (3): 523–530. doi:10.1086/358092. ISSN 0021-1753. JSTOR 223843.
  9. ^ Holmyard, E. J. (1928). "The History Op Chemistry". Science Progress in the Twentieth Century (1919-1933). 23 (89): 39. ISSN 2059-4941. JSTOR 43429945.
  10. ^ TEMKIN, OWSEI (1955). "Medicine and Graeco-Arabic Alchemy". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 29 (2): 140. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44446708. PMID 14363984.
  11. ^ TEMKIN, OWSEI (1955). "Medicine and Graeco-Arabic Alchemy". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 29 (2): 147. ISSN 0007-5140. JSTOR 44446708. PMID 14363984.
  12. ^ Jensen, Ingeborg Hammer (1910-01-01). "Demokrit und Platon". Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie (in German). 23 (1–4): 92–105. doi:10.1515/agph.1910.23.1.92. ISSN 1613-0650. S2CID 202160372.
  13. ^ Hammer-Jensen, Ingeborg (1913). Ptolemaios und Heron. OCLC 473974408.
  14. ^ Hammer-Jensen, Ingeborg (1915). "Das sogenannte IV. Buch der Meteorologie des Aristoteles". Hermes. 50 (1): 113–136. ISSN 0018-0777. JSTOR 4473501.
  15. ^ "Deux papyrus a contenu d'ordre chimique | Oversigt". 84.19.174.124. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  16. ^ "Olympiodorus | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  17. ^ Severyns, Albert (1928). "Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs . II. Les manuscrits italiens, décrits par C. O. Zuretti, avec la collaboration de O. Lagercrantz, J. L. Heiberg, I. Hammer- Jensen, D. Bassi et Ae. Martini". Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire. 7 (1): 279–280.
  18. ^ Hammer-Jensen, Ingeborg (1928). "Die Heronische Frage". Hermes. 63 (4): 34–47. ISSN 0018-0777. JSTOR 4474073.
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