The four elements in Robert Grosseteste's De Impressionibus Elementorum

Abstract

In De Impressionibus Elementorum, a treatise written by Grosseteste shortly after 1220, we can find a discussion of some phenomena involving the four classical elements (air, water, fire and earth), in the framework of an Aristotelian physics of the atmosphere. However this treatise strongly differentiates from similar works of the twelfth century for its referring to experiments. In fact, it contains some descriptions of phase transitions which are rather interesting, in particular when Grosseteste is discussing of bubbles.