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Primary sourceBook1787

Title page of Méthode de nomenclature chimique

Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau · 1787

The title page of a 1787 book co-written by Lavoisier that proposed a new system of chemical naming.

Lavoisier is named on this title page as one of the chemists who reformed chemical nomenclature.

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Title page of the 1787 French book Méthode de nomenclature chimique. Printed in black serif type, it names Morveau, Lavoisier, Bertholet and de Fourcroy as proposers, and lists Paris, Cuchet, and the year MDCCLXXXVII. A decorative urn with flowers appears in the center.
Title page, Méthode de nomenclature chimique, Paris: Cuchet, 1787. Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, Maryland.

About this source

What it is

This is the title page of the 1787 French book Méthode de nomenclature chimique, printed in Paris by Cuchet. It names Guyton de Morveau, Lavoisier, Bertholet, and de Fourcroy as the proposers of the new naming system. This copy is held at the Niels Bohr Library & Archives in Maryland.

Why it matters

Lavoisier worked with these other chemists to replace confusing, old-fashioned names for substances with a clearer, more logical system. This reform helped make chemistry into a modern science, since scientists could now describe compounds in a consistent way that reflected what they were actually made of.

Look closer

  • Why would four authors need to collaborate on naming chemicals?
  • What does the decorative urn on the page tell you about how books were made to look important?
  • Why might changing names matter as much as changing ideas?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Antoine Lavoisier on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Title page of a 1789 French book: 'Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, présenté dans un ordre nouveau et d'après les découvertes modernes, par M. Lavoisier', nouvelle édition, Tome Premier, à Paris chez Cuchet, Libraire, rue & hôtel Serpente, MDCCLXXXIX.Book

Primary source

Traité Élémentaire de Chimie

Antoine Lavoisier · 1789

Painting of a seated man in a black coat with white lace cuffs at a red draped table, with a standing woman in a white gown and powdered curled hair leaning beside him. Scientific apparatus, papers, and a quill are on the table, with a glass globe on the floor.Painting

Primary source

Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his wife

Jacques-Louis David · 1788

Title page of the book 'Méthode de nomenclature chimique', printed in Paris in 1787. It lists authors de Morveau, Lavoisier, Bertholet and de Fourcroy, with a vignette of alchemical-style scientific instruments and a red library stamp on the left.Book

Primary source

Méthode de nomenclature chimique

Antoine Lavoisier, Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Antoine François de Fourcroy · 1787

A black-painted ice calorimeter with brass and iron fittings, including a large metal wheel-shaped lever, a tall central column, a cylindrical basin, and a glass bell jar over a dark box, displayed in a museum with a wall sign reading 'ire de Lavoisier' and glass cabinets behind.Artifact

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Lavoisier's ice calorimeter

Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre-Simon Laplace · c. 1782-1783

Black and white engraved plate titled Planche IV showing numbered laboratory apparatus: distillation flasks, glass tubes, bell jars, pneumatic troughs, furnaces, and labeled vessels with letter markings. Signed Paulze Lavoisier sculpt at bottom right.Artifact

Primary source

Scientific Apparatus Used by Lavoisier in Studying Chemical Reactions

Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier

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