Alchemy - 27/sept/2023 (Patreon)

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ALCHEMY

What would it mean to un-bake a cake?

These days, that would mean something atomic. It would mean throwing baked goods into the beam of a particle accelerator, or leaving a tin of pastries in an unshielded atomic reactor. Theoretically, it could be done, but peeling a cake apart, proton-by-proton, would be a painstaking and ludicrously expensive process.

In the second century, it would mean something alchemical. It would mean distilling the cake down to its elemental essences, purging its impurities, and then slowly reintroducing new materials until it transmutes into what you want. However, you aren’t even sure if such a thing is possible. Transmuting a cake into something else is getting uncomfortably close to playing god, and he might be mad if you edge in on his turf. But then again, he might not.

It is because of the alchemists that we have things like particle accelerators and atomic reactors. The whole of modern physics and chemistry is built on the work of alchemists theorizing about the nature of the world, and finding ways to practically test those theories. Alchemy became modern science. Alchemy was the chrysalis from which the butterfly of chemistry emerged.

To understand alchemy, we have to see the world like the alchemists did. The tricky part about thinking like an alchemist is un-learning all the scientific innovations that are common-sense these days. For example: can two water molecules be different sizes? Anyone who has taken a basic chemistry class will say “Of course not! One oxygen, two hydrogen. That’s water!”  but remember, we weren’t actually able to check until around 1930 when people invented electron microscopes. For most of history, there was a fair bit of argument here, and rightfully so! Science is all about making a theory, testing the theory, and then refining that theory based on the test. To understand alchemists, we have to roll back the clock to a time when the most refined theory of the world was from a dead Greek guy named Aristotle.

Take a moment, and forget everything you know about modern physics and chemistry. To understand alchemy, we have to see the world like a 2nd century alchemist. Forget about atoms, and electrons, and energy, and gravity, all that stuff. For you, there is no such thing as chemistry, or physics, or biology. What you have is a big field called “Natural Philosophy” that deals with the study of the natural world.

For 2nd century you, the cutting edge of Natural Philosophy is a dead greek guy named Aristotle. He says the world is made of exactly two things: Matter, and Void. It’s all just clumps of matter drifting about in space and bumping into each other, and that’s how the universe happens.

Matter has four fundamental forms; Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Every object you see is made of a mixture of those elements. Additionally, different objects might have a harmonious relationship, a sympathy, or a discordant relationship, an antipathy.

So, if the whole world was just made from different amounts of eggs, sugar, butter, and flour, who is to say you can’t simply un-bake an object into its elements, change up the ratios, and then re-bake it into something else?

This idea, the theory that everything in the world can be un-baked, rearranged, and re-baked, is known as the Theory of Transmutation. It is the heart and soul of the alchemical worldview.

SOURCES

[1]: The Alchemical Choir: A History of Alchemy by P.G. Maxwell-Stuart

[2]: The Cambridge Core Alchemy Reader by Stanton J. Linden

C.T. KELLY’S SPEEDRUN GUIDE TO ALCHEMY V1.0 BETA

WHAT EVEN IS ALCHEMY?

Tat: “O pop-history esoterica blogger, what is Alchemy?”

C.T: “My student, alchemy can be neatly summed up as “proto-chemistry.” For most of history there have been people like yourself, those who wonder what the world is made of, how it fits together, and what are the rules that govern its transformations. These days, the people who study these questions are called chemists, but before there were chemists, there were alchemists.”

Tat: “So what’s the difference? What does a chemist have that an alchemist does not?”

C.T.: “The answer is roughly 1,700 years of accumulated knowledge and writing. Chemistry was built from the works of the alchemists.”

Tat: “Ah! So it is like how astronomy arose from astrology?”

C.T.: “Not quite. For astronomers and astrologers both still exist. Alchemy became chemistry. There are no more alchemists. Or, attempting to practice alchemy today, would simply be practicing chemistry.”

Tat: “But what about spiritual alchemy? Were alchemists not magicians?”

C.T.: “My student, there were thousands of alchemists throughout history, from dozens of time periods and cultures. Some were indeed mystics and magicians, but they were generally outliers. The vast majority of alchemists were more akin to glass-blowers and blacksmiths than oracles and magicians.”

Tat: “But alchemical writing speaks so much of gods and divinity!”

C.T.: “Many texts do! Many cartographers from history used elaborate biblical metaphors to describe their work, but you don’t see modern scholars claiming all medieval mapmakers were secretly mystics. The bible was something many were familiar with. Using biblical metaphors to explain complicated processes is simply good technical writing.”

Tat: “But, if most alchemists were not magicians or mystics, why discuss alchemy in this text? Isn’t this book about magic?”

C.T.: “Because few things have been more influential on western magical literature. Even entirely mundane, non-magical alchemical works are wondrously evocative. Even now, alchemical literature has a way of seizing the imagination. Many texts are literally occluded, written in code to protect the alchemists work. Even when alchemical literature is non-magical, it is deeply esoteric.”

Tat: “Why are they written that way?”

C.T. “To protect trade secrets! What if you discovered a new way to make stronger armor, or sharper swords? That information must be recorded, but it also cannot fall into enemy hands. Many alchemists protected their discoveries with intentionally complex metaphorical language that could only be understood by those with the required knowledge. This also makes them extremely difficult to translate into other languages!”

Tat: “I see! But how did it end? Chemistry is no longer discussed with esoteric metaphors, what changed?”

C.T. “It was a gradual change that took place over generations. But for the purposes of time, this text will consider the First Alchemist to be Maria Hebrea, and the Last Alchemist to be Sir Issac Newton.”

Tat: “But what about the alchemist-mystics? Will this text discuss them?”

C.T. “Indeed, my student. We will be discussing them at length.”

MARIA HEBREA, THE FIRST ALCHEMIST - 1 page

Alchemical history begins on the north shore of Egypt, in the city of Alexandria, with a Jewish woman named Maria.

It is around the 1st century A.D. Most alchemy in Egypt is heavily tied to the House of Life, the state temple system. Color was important to Egyptian religion. When one was building a statue of the gods, it was important to get the color just so. So, where later alchemists were concerned with the transformation of one metal into another, Egyptian alchemists were primarily concerned with the coloration of metal. The temple system was also effectively the government. This meant alchemical trade secrets were also state secrets.

The House of Life alchemists weren’t the only game in town. Alexandria also had a thriving Jewish quarter. Here, Maria likely would have worked with a guild associated with a local synagogue. Where the House of Life alchemists would have enjoyed state support, the Jewish alchemists likely needed to drive sales with entrepreneurship and innovation. Maria was one such innovator. She is credited with inventing several alchemical devices, as well as with laying out many of the foundational concepts of western alchemy itself.

The Tribikos: A type of alembic with three “arms” used to distill substances and collect their vapors.

The Kerotakis: When used properly, this device creates an airtight seal in which substances are continually distilled, congealed, and distilled again. This “circulation” process of purification is often depicted as an ouroboros, a serpent eating its own tail, which itself became a central image of alchemy. (for those familiar with chemistry, the kerotakis is essentially a Soxhlet extractor.)

The Bain Marie: If you’ve ever wondered who the “Marie” in “Bain Marie” was, here you go. What we now know of as the double boiler was used extensively by alchemists throughout the years when gentle heat was needed.

Let’s say you want to make a philosophers stone. Maria argued that the fundamental method was a process of distillation, sublimation, rectification.

The Inversion of Nature: To volatilize the fixed, and fix the volatile. Or, to make the solid into fluid, and to make the fluid into solids. This allows the alchemist to break apart substances into their constituent parts.

The Union of Opposites:

First and foremost, is the Axiom of Maria: “One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.” This describes the process of splitting a substance into its constituent parts so that it may be recombined into a new form.

THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE

Chrysopoeia! Is an ancient greek term that literally means “the production of gold.” It is the long term goal of every alchemist. Sure, some may have wished to produce acids capable of melting anything, or new and powerful furnaces, or divine mystical wisdom, but these were just side projects. The Holy Grail of alchemy was always chrysopoeia.

Its the second century. You’re an alchemist in the city of Alexandria. Let’s say a traveler from across the mediterranean has stopped by. They ask you “Can you really transmute metals into gold?” Your answer is of course! You’ve seen it happen! Transmutation happens by accident all the time! You’ve seen miners accidentally drop their steel tools into a vat of molten copper sulfide, and pull them out completely transmuted into copper! (Dropping steel into molten copper sulfide will give the appearance that the metal has actually transformed into copper.) So all alchemists had to do was find the right mixture of acids and metal baths to turn base metals into gold. Easy as pie.

That theoretical mixture of base metals came to be known as the Philosophers Stone. It assumed a number of mythological powers from curing disease to prolonging life, (but never immortality here in the west, eternal life is a sin.) While no alchemists ever figured out how to make a philosopher's stone, many of them tried. And we owe modern chemistry to their efforts!

CLEOPATRA THE ALCHEMIST

Not that Cleopatra. This is a different Cleopatra. Our cleopatra was probably writing some time around the 3rd to 4th centuries.

ZOSIMOS

THE EMERALD TABLET

The legend goes that someone, be it Apollonius of Tyanna, or Alexander the Great, or occasionally even the biblical figure Sarah, discovered a tomb. Sometimes the tomb is near the Palestinian city of Hebron, sometimes its not. Inside the tomb was the skeleton of legendary sage Hermes Trismegistus, and clutched in his arms was a mysterious tablet made of pure emerald. Inscribed in an ancient language, sometimes Aramaic, sometimes Phonecian, was a poem that contained all of his earthly and divine wisdom.

Before we can discuss what we know about the Emerald Tablet, we must discuss its mangled and mysterious textual history. There is no emerald tablet. Or, more accurately, there is no singular emerald tablet. The likely earliest edition comes from the Kitab Sirr Al-Khaliqa, The Book of the Secrets of Creation, a 9th century text ascribed to Apolonius of Tyanna. The Arabic form of the tablet claims to be a translation from Syriac, which itself was a translation from classical Greek. This claim is considerably debated. Partially, because there are two more Arabic translations from the same period, which differ significantly. One from the Secretum Secretorum, and another from the Jabirian corpus, which is notably shorter and corrupt.

Generally, when you translate an alchemical text from Greek to Arabic, your translation will have words associated with the Greek terminology. What all these Arabic emerald tablets have in common, is a lack of Greek alchemical terms. So while they are likely based on an earlier text, their origins are firmly in the Arabic world, most likely the Isma’ili esoteric circles. This goes even further. Europe knows the tablet via the Latin translation of the Secretum Secretorum, the most corrupt Arabic original. This formed the basis for centuries of dead-end attempts at decoding by western esotericists.

So! We have no idea what the tablet means! Why are we talking about it?

What the tablet was interpreted to mean had a significant effect on occult history. Isma’ili Shia esotericists treated Trismegistus as a pseudo-prophetic figure who revealed knowledge in the form of scientific literacy. This also paralleled him with Idris, the Islamic parallel for Enoch, who ascended up to heaven to become an Angel. The Isma’ili helped to develop interpretations of Hermetic literature from a more mystical, gnostic transcendence angle.

THE EMERALD TABLET - NOTES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qa4woIz_Ag&list=PLZ__PGORcBKxjPgYQaK1DEi5TmPQVP9xC&index=5&ab_channel=ESOTERICA

• Barely a dozen lines
• Said to contain all the wisdom of hermetic philosophy
• We can talk about the overlap of hermeticism and alchemy here
• Hermes Trismegistus has kinda two categories:
  • Philosophical Hermetica: Late Antique texts of a salvific philosophy wherein the practitioner is united with the divine mind or Nous through a process of spiritual teachings and ritual practices
  • Technical Hermetica: Cover astrology, alchemy, magic. Poorly preserved and fragmentary.
• The emerald tablet is interesting because its right in the middle, with a religio-philosophical angle, and a cosmological angle.
• TEXTUAL HISTORY: Comes from the Kitab Sirr Al-Khaliqa, The Book of the Secret of Creation, early 9th CE, ascribed to 1st century Apolonius of Tyanna (Alinus to the arabics)
• Early mention of the Sulphur/Mercury theory
• Text claims to be a translation from Syriac from an original text in Greek. This is CONSIDERABLY debated.
• Its probably based off earlier material, but largely composed in Arabic.
• Probably from esoteric Isma’ili circles, for whom Trismegistus was a psuedo-prophetic figure, who revealed knowledge in the form of scientific literacy
• TWO OTHER ARABIC VERSIONS
  • Jabirian corpus, truncated and corrupt
  • Kitab Sirr Al-asrar, The Secretum Secretorum, Secret of Secrets
• So does the text predate the 9th century? Probably not.
• Theres that line about Lamilla / Telesma / Talisman, which could be a translation of the greek word Telesma, for talisman, which would imply a greek origin. But its more likely a contemporary arabic word.
• No surviving hermetic texts resemble the Emerald Tablet.
• We are gonna have to devote a page to the Secretum Secretorum
• The Secretorum’s popularity is probably why it was so popular
• However, the most popular translation was an anonymous translation called the Liber Hermetis De Alchemia, from an unknown arabic original. The arabic > latin translation didn’t know that the arabic was already corrupted. The arabic Talisman was mutilated into Telesmi, which is not a real word.
• This insanely confused translation history makes it EXTREMELY hard to comprehend. Even if you pick one of the three arabic originals, they different significantly.
• Many versions of the text, Sarah, Appollonius, Alexander, etc, discover the tomb of trismegistus, sometimes located near Hevron, Wherein they find a skeleton holding a tablet of green stone, inscribed with some ancient text like aramaic or phonecian.
• Okay, so if we don’t know what it means, how was it interpreted?
• The Isma’ili circles interpreted Trismegistus as the one doing the ascension, paralleling him as a sort of Idris (arabic Enoch) who would be transformed into an angel.
• It was also turned into a sort of Alchemical Genesis that bridges the gap between the Greeks and the Bible.
• 20:00

MARIA HEBREA / MIRRIAM OF ALEXANDRIA NOTES

SOURCES: Patai - The Jewish Alchemists

• No later than the 1st-3rd century
• Was probably real, contemporary with the copus hermeticum,valentenian gnosticism
• Most information coems from Zosimos, who calls her “Among the ancients”
• Alexandrian. Very diverse. Hero and his steam engine.
• Jews probably played a large role in the development of Alchemy, pseudo-democritus says so.
• Alexandrian Judaism maintained an identity for quite a long time, even maintaining a functioning temple in Alexandria without fully assimilating. Quite impressive.
• Zosimos praises jewish knowledge of alchemy several times.
• The leiden papyrus W also mentions the power of hebrew and hieroglpyhics several times. It even spells technical terms with hebrew letters, perhaps to encode them, perhaps for magical reasons.
• Where later alchemists were obsessed with transmutation, egyptian alchemists were obsessed with the coloring of metals, and the production of metallic polychromes. This was heavily associated with the House of Life, the egyptian state temple system. Given how intertwined egyptian political and religious life were, alchemical secrets were also state secrets.
• Jewish alchemists of the time would have worked in a guild laboratory associated with a synagogue, which were less connected to the state. So they might have had more room to experiment and sell shit. The jewish alchemists had to be more entrepanurial, which may have driven innovation.
• G
• This is the context that MAria was writing in.
• Hypatia, tortured and murdered by a christian mob in 415
• Union of Opposites: Join the male and the female, and you will find what is sought.
• The Axiom of Maria: One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.
• Seriously improved distillation
• Inventions: (maybe)
• Tribikos: was a kind of alembic with three arms that was used to obtain substances purified by distillation. It is not known whether Mary invented it, but Zosimos credits the first description of the instrument to her.
• The kerotakis (Greek: κηροτακίς or κυροτακίς), is a device used to heat substances used in alchemy and to collect vapors.[19] It is an airtight container with a sheet of copper upon its upper side. When working properly, all its joints form a tight vacuum. The use of such sealed containers in the hermetic arts led to the term "hermetically sealed". The kerotakis was said to be a replication of the process of the formation of gold that was occurring in the bowels of the earth. (The way metals are distilled and circulated through the kerotakes became represented by the Ouroboros. For those familiar, its a Soxhlet extractor)
• The Bain Marie: Mary's name survives in her invention of the bain-marie (Mary's bath), which limits the maximum temperature of a container and its contents to the boiling point of a separate liquid: essentially a double boiler. It is extensively used in chemical processes for which a gentle heat is necessary.[20] This term was introduced by Arnold of Villanova in the 14th century. The bain-marie is also used for cooking food.[21]
• Theres also one text on create the lute or the seal, to hermetically seal her various tools.
• Theres also a guide on the various divine waters for the Kerotakes
• Argued that transmutation occurs through a distillation, sublimation, rectification process.
• Weirdly argued that alchemy can only really be practiced in the egyptian month of farmuti, which is like, march-april, which kinda continues into europe
• The fundamental start was the TETROSOMIA, an alloy of copper, iron, lead, and zinc
• Maria seems to focus on a copper/lead called Maliptacalkos.Which is subjected to divine waters in the Kerotakes and similar devices.
• The waters seem to consist of Sulphur, the male force, and mercury, the female force. Along with other caustic acids.
• “Invert Nature” by volatilizing the solid sulphur, and by fixing the liquid mercury with the tetrasomia in the kerotakes
• By subjecting the tetrosomia to the various divine waters, this causes a transformation in color, from black, to white to yellow to red.
• That last phase uses cinnabar, which is red, and contains mercury.
• This will result in a sort of homologus tranmutation, in which the substance becomes golden.
• A lot of mass is lost, but you can perform a process called Diplosis or doubling, which is basically just adding more cinnabar.
• This is possible because creation is made of the same substance in different forms, mirroring one another. If that’s true, the human body is also subjected to this.
• Unity/Division/Unity as the dialectic of life itself, is the fundamental axiom of alchemy.
• Christians claim she converted to christianity
• Shows uop in the islamicate world as an expert on fixing the volatile, and vice versa. And on divine waters. Which would evcentually become the developmentof acids. This was a massive breakthrough. Modern chemistry is impossible without the invention of acids.
• Linked to everyone from Jesus to Ostanes to Mother Mary.
• At the beginning of On the Composition of Alchemy: 1144 “blessed are you maria, for the divine hidden and and always-splendid secret is with you forever. ”

Raphael Patai - The Jewish Alchemists

Haeffner, Mark. The Dictionary of Alchemy: From Maria Prophetissa to Isaac Newton. The Aquarian Press, London, 1991. ISBN 1-85538-085-4

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS - 1 page

THE EMERALD TABLET - 1 page

ANCIENT GREEK ALCHEMY - 1-2 pages

CLEOPATRA THE ALCHEMIST - 1 page

ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLI1S - 1-2 pages

NOTES:

HERMES TRISMEGISTUS

• Probably not an ancient egyptian priest
• Probably and early roman greco-egyptian person, or someone styling himself after that
• Not necessarily an alchemist himself, but hermetic doctrine forges the foundation
• The Emerald Tablet
• Contains Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish thought, Platonism, Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Stoicism.
• We should reprint the whole emerald tablet
• IMPORTANT IDEAS
  • The Microcosm/Macrocosm
  • Quintessence
  • Unity of Opposites

PLATO

• Not an alchemist, but extremely influential on alchemy
• IMPORTANT IDEAS
  • Prima Materia
  • Anima Mundi, the world as creature with body and soul
  • The Timeus Dialogue
  • Being/Becoming
  • The Four Elements
  • Inconvertability (The elements cannot become each other)
  • The Purity of Gold

ARISTOTLE

• Not an alchemist, but extremely influential on alchemy
• Lots of false attributions, (Secretum Secretorum for one)
• METEOROLOGY
  • IMPORTANT IDEAS
  • The four principles (wet, dry, coldness, hotness)
  • The exhalation of metals beneath the earth (First real answer to where metals come from)

PSEUDO-DEMOCRITUS (First or second century AD)

• The Treatise of Democritus On Things Natural and Mystical
• Likely the first actual alchemical treatise. Features several recipes for making metal look like other metals
• “O! NATURES, Governors of natures! O! natures, how great, conquering natures with their changes! O! natures above Nature, delighting natures! Therefore these are great natures; no others are more excellent among tinctures than these natures; none are like, none are greater, all these take effect as solutions. You therefore, O! wise men, I plainly understand are not ignorant, but rather wonder,”

CLEOPATRA THE ALCHEMIST (First or second century AD)

• Not that Cleopatra
• We only have this because of Arabic translations via Zosimos of Panopolis
• Dialogue of Cleopatra is from the Book of Komarios
• IMPORTANT IDEAS
  • The Purification of the Spirit (“In thee is concealed a strange and terrible mystery. Enlighten us, casting your light upon the elements. Tell us how the highest descends to the lowest and how the lowest rises to the highest,) (Refers to liquids undergoing distillation and condensation!)
  • The Philosophers Stone as Child “For they are nourished in the fire and the embryo grows little by little nourished in its mother’s womb, and when the appointed month approaches is not restrained from issuing forth.”
  • Comparisons of alchemical purification to the cycle of life and death
• Chrysopoeia = Gold-making
• An incredibly innovative alchemist
• Laid the foundations of much of the imagery
• Invented the Ouroboros, and many of the symbology
• Attempted to set up a uniform system of weights and measurements
• Probably a hermeticist
• Was generally recognized as a genius by her peers
• Zosimos was trained as an egyptian priest?
• Hermeticism and alexandrian alchemy both hold that the whole of the world, from the largest to the smallest elements, are formed of a single divine, substance. All change was the result of the manipulation of this substance.
• This is the core of Cleopatra’s alchemical theory
• We know basically nothing but she was in alexandria in 3-4th century
• Probably followed in the school of Mirriam
• Held that the key to trans. Was using cinnabar (mercury sulfide) in a kerotakis
• Cinabar was subjected to circulated vapor baths of “divine waters” (probably primitive acids)
• Cleopatra’s work focuses a lot more on the distillation than the kerotakes
• Maybe learned under Komarius
• WORKS
• On Weights and Measures
• The Chrysopoeia
• Dialogue of Cleopatra Among the Philosophers
• -
• The Chrysopoeia’s meaning has largely been lost. The title implies that it is a recipe for gold. Let’s try to unpack it.
• THE WHEEL (upper left): A stylized ouroboros, with two conenentric rings.
• The Outer Ring: One of which reads “One is the all, and by it the all, and in it the all, and if it does not contain the all, it is nothing. ”
• The Inner Ring: “The serpent is one, he who has the venom with two compositions. ”
• Symbols in the center: Gold, silver, mercury.
• The tail curls off to the upper right, connecting to a coded sequence that probably refers to how the gold was produced.
• BELOW THE WHEEL: Depictions of vessels. An alembic, a kerotakis, and a double boiler. Might represent a series of procuedues.
• THE OUROBOROS: Hen toh pan. All Is one.
• THE DEVICE: So in the ancient world, mercury doesn’t occur in in a pure form. You have to get it from somewhere. The easiest way to get it would be from mercury sulfide, aka Cinnabar, which would have to be processed in some way. This image of a device is probably showing the process of the purification of mercury. We aren’t really sure.
• Center of the device contains a greek word meaning something like “Apparatus” along with a sigma and a delta, which likely refers to unprocessed cinnabar.
• Underneath it is the greek word Phota, or Flames.
• Rising from the device is a central tube, and an inlet hole for the vapor, along with the greek word fiale. Saucer or Bowl, which is the ambix. (The thing you can pour water in to aid in condensation.)
• Then two further tubes or Solem, and a warning not to touch them. They’re probably going to be insanely hot, along with an image of gas escaping from the tubes.
• The gas would be vaporized mercury and suphur dioxide.
• If you wanted stuff in the tubes, youd submerge the arms in cold water, which would cause the mercury to condense into a cold water bath where it would be collected later.
• -
• Dialogue is really garbled. Sections have been cut and replaced haphazardly.
• This is the Byzantine filter. Where texts were edited to be more chistian
• 
  
• 
  

UNKNOWN - THE LEYDEN PAPYRUS X AND THE STOCKHOLM PAPYRUS (Late 3rd century)

• More books of practical laboratory alchemy

ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLIS (300 ad)

• Definitely existed
• Probably wrote the dialogue of cleopatra
• OLDEST KNOWN BOOK ON ALCHEMY Cheirokmeta (Things Made By Hand)
• Greco-Egyptian alchemist and Gnostic mystic
• IMPORTANT IDEAS
  • The Mythologization of Alchemy. He was a gnostic, and believed that alchemical knowledge was given to us by the Nephilim
  • HE INVENTED THE IDEA OF THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE
  • Jung was obsessed with him
  • The Book of Pictures
  • The Book of Keys of the Work
  • Formula of the Crab
  • My sources are annoyingly Jungian so I’ll have to come back here
  • Codex Parisinus

STEPHANOS OF ALEXANDRIA (First half the of the 7th century)

• Probably wrote Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold but its alchemy so its contested
• Honestly not super interesting
• Cool Term: tetrasomia. Meaning an alloy of the four base metals
• Basically just experimented with Zosimos theories

ANONYMOUS - 8th or 9th century AD

• The Poem of the Philosopher Theophrastos Upon the Sacred Art
• Influenced by Stephano’s interesting rhetorical style. A compendium of alchemical poetry?
• Weirdly not very interesting
• These poems are fruity af can we get to the islamic polymaths now

KHALID IBN YAZID - 635–c. 704

• YEAHH THERE WE GO
• Secreta Alchymiæ
• A return to hardcore laboratory alchemy
• “Know then my Brother, that this Magistery of our Secret Stone, and this Valuable Art, is a secret of the Secrets of God, which he has hidden with his own People; not revealing it to any, but to such, who as Sons faithfully have deserved it, who have known his Goodness, and Almightiness.” EXHALT AND TRANSCEND
• Azot vive - The Principal of all metals
• A return to the exhalation of metals beneath the earth, and an exploration of what this means for the material world.
• “Beginning now to speak of the Great Work, which they call Alchymie, I shall open the matter without concealing ought, or keeping back any thing, save that which is not fit to be declared: We say then, that the great work contains four Operations, viz. To Dissolve, to Congeal, to make White, and to make Red.”
• There is so much here we are gonna have to come back to him

JABIR IBN HAYYAN / PESUDO-GEBER (8th century)

• GANG GANG GANG
• Like literally, they’re likely groups of thinkers writing under a single name
• Summa perfectionis magisterii,
• Liber de investigatione perfectionis,
• Liber de inventione veritatis,
• Liber fornacum,
• Testamentum Geberi
• We are gonna have to come back here
• SULPHUR MERCURY THEORY
  • He’s where we  get sophic sulphur and sophic mercury

AVICENNA (c. 980–1037)

• Revolutionized the Exhalation theory
• De Mineralibus
• Acivenna believed that alchemy was “by imitation only”
• Passage that used to be attributed to Aristotle but was actually from Kitˆab al-Shif
• The passage’s notoriety stems from its abrupt rejection of metallic transmutation and contention that alchemists perform only aurifiction, not aurifaction; Nature is decidedly superior to Art

ALBERTUS MAGNUS - 1193? or 1206?–1280

• Taught Thomas Aquinas
• Work is probably spurious
• Albertus follows the popular sulphur-mercury theory
• From Libellus de Alchimia, Ascribed to Albertus Magnus

When pure red sulphur comes into contact with quicksilver in the earth, gold is made in a short or long time, either through the persistence [of the contact] or through decoction of the nature subservient to them. When pure and white sulphur comes into contact with quicksilver in pure earth, then silver is made, which differs from gold in this, that sulphur in gold will be red, whereas in silver it will be white. When, on the other hand, red sulphur, corrupt and burning, comes into contact with quicksilver in the earth, then copper is made, and it does not differ from gold except in this, that in gold it was not corrupt, but here [in copper] it is corrupt. When white sulphur, corrupt and burning, comes into contact with quicksilver in the earth, tin is made, [as is indicated from the fact that] it crackles between the teeth 3 and quickly liquefies, which happens because the quicksilver was not well mixed with the sulphur. When white sulphur, corrupt and burning, comes into contact with quicksilver in foetid earth, iron is made. When sulphur, black and corrupt, comes into contact with quicksilver, lead is made. Aristotle says of this that lead is leprous gold.

• Aristotle [read: Avicenna] “I do not believe that metals can be transmuted unless they are reduced to prime matter, that is, purified of their own corruption by roasting in the fire.”
• MERCURY: An equal mixture of elemental earth and water
• SULPHUR Sulphur, the fatness of the earth, 9 is condensed in minerals of the earth through temperate decoction, (boiling) whereby it hardens and becomes thick; and when hardened it is called sulphur.
• Sublimation: Heating something to a vapor
• Calcination: Burning something to ash
• Coagulation: To heat a liquid in a dry environment until it is solid.
• Fixation: To “temper” a volatile substance in flame until it is non-reactive
• Solution: To dissolve a calcined substance in a liquid
• Distillation: Distillation. To heat something into its liquid form.
• Ceration: To heat a solid substance while gradually adding liquid, usually with the goal of achieving a waxlike substance.

Turba Philosophorum?? Where is that?

ROGER BACON (c. 1219–c. 1292)

• Radix Mundi
• Pushes back on Avicenna “Excellent Discourse of the Admirable Force and Efficacie o Art and Nature by asserting that “Art using Nature for an instrument, is more powerfull then naturall vertue” (from The Mirror of Alchimy, ed. Stanton J. Linden, 49)”
• Red Man and White Wife are common designations for the opposing “principles” of sulphur and mercury that are conjoined in the chemical wedding to produce the philosopher’s stone.

NICHOLAS FLAMEL 1330 - 1417

• His Exposition of the Hieroglyphical Figures
• He name drops Cabala, but I think hes referring to the jewish teaching, as he predates Reuchlin
• Writes about alchemy in flowery biblical metaphor
• Lots of talk about dragons and monsters and journeys, the sort of thing that Jordan Peterson would cum his pants over

BERNARD, ERL OF TREVISAN - late 14th century

• Collectanea Chymica: A Collection of Ten Several Treatises in Chymistry
• Ugh im gonna have to cross reference this with the brill text idk what the fuck this dude is talking about

PARACELSUS (1493–1541)

• Theres our boy
• Pagel’s Paracelsus: An Introduction to Philosophical Medicine in the Era of the Renaissance.
• Oh shit I didn’t know Pagel had a book on Paracelsus
• Oh, different Pagels

FRANCIS ANTHONY (1550–1603)

• Who?
• Oh he was a paracelcian who invented drinkable gold
• Never heard of this guy why is he in this anthology

MICHAEL SEDIVOGIUS - 1566–1636 or 1646

• Dialogue between Mercury, the Alchymist and Nature
• A New Light of Alchymie: Taken out of the fountaine of Nature, and Manuall Experience . . .Written by Micheel Sandivogius
• he was tortured and imprisoned for refusing to give Christian the secret of his transmuting powder
• eventually arriving in Prague at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, the “German Hermes.”
• From Wikipedia:  He discovered that air is not a single substance and contains a life-giving substance—later called oxygen—170 years before Scheele's discovery of the element. He correctly identified this 'food of life' with the gas (also oxygen) given off by heating nitre (saltpetre).[1] This substance, the 'central nitre', had a central position in Sendivogius' schema of the universe
• “is acquaintances included John Dee and Edward Kelley. It was thanks to him that King Stephen Báthory agreed to finance their experiments” OH HEY CAMEO

NOTES: DR. SLEDGE FIA LECTURE ON ALCHEMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgP983eCRfM&ab_channel=ESOTERICA

Two big misconceptions about alchemy:

• Alchemy was a blundering pseudoscience (humanists rejecting alchemy as gothic and backwards, even fraudulent)(The loss of alchemical knowledge, the reintroduction of the alchemist by romantics as the occult genius)
• Alchemy was entirely psychological (The average alchemist REALLY wanted to make gold. This comes primarily from Mary Anne Atwood (1817-1910), and again from Jung (1907-1986) idea still holds influence in new-age circles.)

Alchemy was proto-experimental-science. Its also not JUST about physical transformation. The idea that something could be studied in isolation would have been unthinkable to Alchemists. They weren’t just looking at a single transformation, but the whole of nature, the mind, god, etc. Thoughts, symbols, plants, animals, the stars, are all connected. It is a holistic theory of everything. The transformation was the most important part.

What was Alchemy?

• Word is a bit of a mystery.
• Al- probably comes from arabic.
• The Egyptian word for egypt was Khem. But also the greek word for chemical was Chymie. Alchemy is the word is like itself, its a bit greek, a bit egyptian, a bit arabic. Probably. Can be humorously translated as “The Egyptian Thing.”

Alchemy is SEVERAL theories of nature around the Creation and Transformation of substances.

Medieval people were worried about alchemists in the same way that we are worried about modern scientists “playing god”.

The production of a universal solvent, a substance that dissolves everything. This was called the Alkahest.

The idea that you can take a chemical to suppress a cold, to take something from the outside to balance the inside, comes directly from the alchemical tradition.

For many alchemists, you had to be morally righteous to transform the world. Can does not mean Should.

PRACTICAL + THEORETICAL

• There were lots of things that overlapped with alchemy. Brewers, cooks, smiths, jewelers, miners, dyers, fullers, assayers, potters, glassmakers, cosmeticians, paintmakers, apothecaries.
• The greeks are gonna ask a question: What is Nature? What is nature most fundamentally? People are gonna argue, publish, and disseminate these debates.

PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE, COMBINED WITH THEORY, DEFINES A SYSTEMATIC PROGRAM FOR EXPLORING REALITY ITSELF

• Once you’ve got a theory of how the world works, and a way to test those theories, you have a system.

THE ALEXANDRIANS

• Invented distillation, the water bath, and the steam engine. (whiskey and brandy use a bain marie)
• MIRRIAM THE JEWESS, and Cleopatra the Alchemist.
• FORMULA OF THE CRAB: probably the earliest formula for the production of Gold.

THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Its really the islamicate world where Alchemy really hits stride. Many alchemy words are arabic

• Alcohol (al-kohl, the black) elixer (al-iksir), alembic (al-inbiq), Athanor (al-tannour, literally the word for furnace), Azoth (al-zauq, means mercury)
• This is where we get the Sulphur-Mercury theory. (all metals are fundamentally made of sulphur and mercury, and if you seal them up in the right mixture, you get gold. )
• Acids are invented
• Alcohol is distilled
• Jabir Ibn-Hayyan, al-razi, Ibn Sina, probably the authors of the Turba Philosophorum, and the Emerald Tablet.
• As Above, So Below, came from here

THE MEDIEVAL ERA

• Alchemy re-enters europe on Febuary 11th, 1144, with the translation of The Composition of Alchemy. Rapidly spreadys through Europe, forming one of the sparks for the Renaissance.
• BY ART OR BY ARTIFICE: Can you make things by yourself, or are you playing god?
• KEY ALCHEMISTS: Adelard of Bath, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Villanova, Raymond Lull, Pseudo-Gerber, Bonus John Dastin.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF ALCHEMY

• 16th-17th century
• This was the rise of the Entrepanurial Alchemist. And the infamy of fraud.
• PARACELCUSSSSSS
• Make a crucible with a false bottom.
• THE GOLD PLATED GIBBET
• By the late 17th century, attacks on the old science of aristotle were on all sides, even alchemy was not spared. This is where we get the weird transitional period people call Chymistry.
• Robert Boyle practiced alchemy to the day he died.
• The atom wasnt completely proven until the early 20th century.

THE THEORY OF ALCHEMY

• Its Aristotle. Empedocles stole his theory.
• For fundamental elements
• Two principals: The Masculine and Feminine.
• If everything is made of the same four things in different ratios, you can change the ratios and change the substance.

The Islamic world expands upon this

• The Cold/Moist and the Hot/Dry becomes Mercury and Sulphur.
• The combination of the two, beneath the earth, in some ratio, become metals.

So what the alchemist is trying to do, is recreate these circumstances.

• You get your Egg of Hermes (your hermetically sealed flask)

Simple 12 step program:

• Calcination
• Solution/Dissolution
• Separation
• Conjunction
• Putrefaction
• Congelation
• Cibation
• Sublimation
• Fementation
• Exaltation
• Multiplication
• Projection

The idea being that you can transform one metal into another metal. There was good experimental evidence for this theory. If you take a bath of molten copper sulfate, and drop steel iron into it, it looks like it transforms into copper. Miners noticed this for a long time.

This 12 step theory could be verified with color changes. It would go from Black, to Whtie, to Yellow, and finally to Red.

Immortality was HUGE in chinese alchemy, but NEVER in western alchemy. Thats a sin.

The exact starting substance is extremely varied. As are the symbolic representations.

FROM ALCHEMY TO CHEMISTRY

• Transmutation is impossible, at least in the way that that the alchemists thought of it
• They never gave up!
• All the 12 steps take a MASSIVE amount of chemical knowledge to perform
• Fermentation is hard, developing acids is hard!
• So while they never figured out transmutation, they developed a treasure trove of chemical knowledge.

ENTREPRENEURIAL ALCHEMY

• Late medieval period
• You can tell the prince you can make gold, fail, and get the Gold-Plated-Gibbet.
• So you tell him you can make Glass, Paint, Cosmetics, Alcohol, and crucially, Potassium Nitrate: Gunpowder.
• You can track interest in alchemy by Precious Metal Famines. When the mines dry up, alchemy gets inventive.
• If you have gold and silver, you don’t really need alchemists, do you.
• NEWTONNNNNNNN
• He wrote TEN TIMES as much on alchemy than he did on Science.
• Descartes introduced the idea of radical doubt. You don’t look for evidence. You look for contrary information.
• Folks at the LBNL managed tot ransmute lead into gold

CULTURAL HISTORY OF ALCHEMY

According to the Embalming Ritual (Papyrus Boulaq 3 and Papyrus Louvre,

inv. no. 5158), the ceremonialist calls out the names, as if they were fully-fledged

beings, of oils, substances of mineral origin (metals, precious minerals, and

bitumen), and even chemicals (natron, orpiment, earths, and dyes), which came

from Egypt or foreign countries, all attested to in the liturgical preparations,

to regenerate and exalt dead bodies with the example of divine personalities

through a mimesis (Goyon 1972: 17–84).

In the Greco-Roman period, the funerary use of the First and Second Books

of Breathings spread (Goyon 1972: 183–317). The first book announces

characteristics of hermeticism (Quaegebeur 1995). The second, more traditional

book reminds one of a characteristic of the Embalming Ritual (cf. supra): the

ceremonialist in charge gathers the necessary products to ensure the deification

of the body.

Expressions like “chemical element” or “chemical reaction,” at least in their

modern meanings and formalizations, are alien to ancient classical philosophy

and science. However, Greek and Latin authors certainly made various attempts

to describe, conceptualize, and explain the material transformations that they

experienced in the natural world.

Byzantine alchemical collections do include the names of Plato and Aristotle in

the lists of the fathers of alchemy, which are handed down in Greek manuscripts

(CAAG II 25–6). In his commentary on Zosimos’ (lost) work On the Action,

Olympiodorus – perhaps to be identified with the writer of that name who was

a Neoplatonic commentator of Aristotelian works (Viano 2006: 199–206) –

draws a close comparison between early Greek philosophers and the fathers

of alchemy, namely Hermes, Chymes, Agathodaimon, and Zosimos

In Olympiodorus’ doxographical section (see above), the name of

Democritus is missing. On the other hand, Democritus is mentioned throughout

Olympiodorus’ commentary (as well as in almost every Greek and Byzantine

alchemical work), not as the founder of atomism, but as the author of four

pseudo-epigraphical books on alchemical dyeing that date back to the first

century ce (Martelli 2013). [huh, weird?]

Democritus’ name seems to have been used by this writer

because of the atomist’s expertise across several arts or technai (Martelli 2013:

34–6), as emerges, for instance, from the portrait given by Petronius (Sat. 88):

“Democritus extracted the juice of every plant on earth, and spent his whole

life in experiments to discover the virtues of stones and twigs” (Democritus, fr.

B300,6 DK; transl. by Heseltine 1913: 173).

According to Democritus,

infinite and eternal atoms, which differ in shape and size and move and combine

in an empty space (the void), are the ultimate constituents of the natural world.

Atoms of the same kind tend to congregate, thus forming various materials,

from the sea to earthy substances, such as salt, soda, alum, and bitumen (fr.

A99a DK). Moreover, the philosopher speculates on the atomic composition

of metals. Iron is lighter than lead because it contains more void, while its

atoms are densely packed in specific areas; lead, on the contrary, is formed of

atoms more regularly arranged (Theophr. Sens. 62 = fr. A135 DK; see Halleux

1974: 74–6).

*****A complete system of four elements – earth, water, air, and fire – recognized

as the fundamental constituents of the natural world was fully developed by

Empedocles (fifth century Bce), who used the term “roots” (or, sometimes,

the names of Olympian gods) to refer to these elements.

If early Ionian

philosophers identified a single dynamic substance with the cosmic principle

(archē) undergoing cyclic transformations, Empedocles “posits a plurality of

substances of fixed natures that interact in different proportions to produce

mixed substances” (Graham 1999: 165). These substances (i.e. the elements),

eternal and unalterable, are mixed together and separated by two opposite

cosmic forces, LOVE and STRIFE, whose work is often assimilated by Empedocles

to the work of craftsmen (Wright 1981: 39).

In Empedocles’ opinion, the soft

seeds of both parents, when mixed together, become hard, because the hollows

in each fit into the densities of the other. The hardness of tin-copper alloys was

explained in the same way: while the two metals are soft, their “mixture” is

hard, presumably because the structures of copper and tin allow them to fit one

into the other in tight juxtaposition (Halleux 1974: 69–70).

While Empedocles referred to the four elements as “roots,” one of the

earliest occurrences of the term stoicheion (στοιχεῖον, lit. “letter”) as “element”

appears in Plato’s Timaeus. In this cosmological account – a “likely account”

(eikos mythos/logos), as the philosopher defines his argument in the dialogue

(29d; 30b) – each of the four elements has the shape of a geometric figure

(or solid) whose main components are right-angled triangles: fire-tetrahedron;

air-octahedron; water-icosahedron; earth-cube.

Even though the elements of a mixis react to give rise to a new homogeneous

substance, they remain present in potentia; that is, they can be still detected

if the substance is properly analyzed. This analysis is the central object of the

fourth book of Metereology, in which Aristotle discusses the composition of

homogeneous bodies by describing eighteen pairs of opposite transformations

(or affections) that they can or cannot undergo.

As Düring

(1944: 10) points out, “one of the chemical principles laid down by Aristotle

was undisputed until some twenty years ago, namely the theory formulated

in the words corpora non agunt nisi liquida. Only in 1925 did Arvid Hedvall

succeed in proving that solid bodies also were capable of chemical reactions.”

The reactivity of liquids was also stressed by various Greco-Egyptian alchemists:

natural substances, when dissolved, produce wonderful transformations,

as Pseudo-Democritus claims (Martelli 2013: 94–5)

Huh, they literally didn’t think that solids could chemically react

Aristotle deals with metals and minerals at the end of his third book

of Meteorology (III 6, 378a–b), where he provides a sketchy account on

metallogenesis. Here, in order to explain the blending of the elemental

constituents of minerals, Aristotle refers to the mixture of two kinds of

exhalations: (a) smoky–dry exhalations and (b) vaporous–moist exhalations

(Eichholz 1949; Halleux 1974: 98–105; Wilson 2013: 271–7). Vaporous–

moist exhalations are trapped inside dry rocks and solidify (probably because of

the cold), thus condensing into substances called ta metalleuta, that is, “metals”

in this context (Aristotle lists iron, gold, and copper as examples of metalleuta;

see Halleux 1974: 35–44)

CONCLUSION TO THE SECTION

n the Egyptian civilization, precious

stones and minerals were not just valuable commodities, but were believed to be

material manifestations of the presence of gods. For this reason, their treatment

was included in religious rites that were carried out under strict control of the

clergy. The Egyptian classification of stones and metals depended on the nature of

the gods from which they stemmed. The mythological origins of these materials

exalted their value well beyond the world of the living. The funerary adornment

of the pharaohs, the rite of embalming, and other complex religious rites endowed

these precious materials with the properties of regenerating the dead.

The natural philosophies conceived by the Greek and Roman authors

created a theoretical framework that was partially independent of the

mythological and metaphysical assumptions of previous civilizations. Some of

the most successful concepts, however, embodied earlier ideas. Empedocles’

theory of the four elements and Pseudo-Democritus’ view on the sympathies

existing among substances echoed ideas and concepts that had been circulating

in Egypt for a long time. On the other hand, by exploring the ideas that

matter could be constituted of atoms (Democritus), of solid geometric forms

(Plato), or of ever-changing combinations (Aristotle), the Greek philosophers

presented new chemical theories that were at the basis of a classification of

metals and stones destined to be absorbed, discussed, and developed by the

Byzantine alchemists.

HANEGRAAFF ON ALCHEMY: (Starts 12)

Things that are wrong about most alchemical scholarship according to Hanegraaf:

• Alchemy is not a monolithic tradition
• Alchemy is not primarily concerned with the psychic, spiritual, or self-transformative
• Alchemy was not opposed to science
• Alchemy was not distinguishable from chemistry prior to 1800

“Many alchemists, for example, were interested predominantly in bringing about metallic transmutation, generally by means of the Philosophers’ Stone. Others, like → Paracelsus or Alexander von Suchten, downplayed this aspect of alchemy in favor of medicinal applications. Some emphasized productive processes of all sorts – distillation, refining, salt or pigment manufacture, etc. – along the lines of an early chemical industry. Some emphasized the theological implications of alchemical work, while others ignored this dimension entirely.” (13)

Many writers and practitioners pursued several or even all of these goals, and this brief catalogue does not even mention the important intersections of alchemy over its long history with fine art, theatre, literature, religion, political and social movements, and many other areas of culture and society.

“The idea of a monolithic, constant, and ancient “tradition” within alchemy received a boost from the development of the spiritual interpretation of alchemy in the 19th century. A key event here was the publication of Mary Anne Atwood’s Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1850). Atwood reduced all “true” alchemy to a quest for spiritual elevation operating through Mesmeric trances, the knowledge of which, along with → animal magnetism, she believed to be a secret tradition dating back at least to the ancient Greeks.” (13)

“There is no evidence that a majority, or even a significant fraction of pre-18th century European alchemical writers and practitioners saw their work as anything other than natural philosophical in character,” (13)

”It is important to clarify the distinction between 19th century occultist views of a self-transformative “spiritual” alchemy and the actual religious dimensions of pre-18th century alchemy.” (14) THANK YOU

“In the first place, there is now no question that the vast majority of early modern alchemists were deeply involved in practical pursuits, which they carried out and interpreted with clear-headed, conscious thought.” (14) JUNG WAS A BITCH

Basically, because alchemy was seen as spiritual or psychological mumbojumbo, it was denied a place in real scholarship except maybe as a counterexample. Alchemy was portrayed as the backward counterpart to the enlightenment of science, despite the fact that before 1800, there was no difference between chemistry and alchemy.

“Second, a closer, more contextualized study of individual alchemists has shown not only the inadequate – indeed, sometimes caricatured – portrayals of them current in the secondary literature, but also the significant contributions which alchemy has brought to the development of early modern science” (14) OH THATS A GOOD POINT. (even contemporary secondary literature about alchemists paints them as fantastical, nigh-mystical figures, the mad scientists of their day. This makes properly contextualizing them even more difficult, as many were mythologized during their own lives.)

“For example, alchemy brought forth such principles as an emphasis on the determination and conservation of weight in chemical processes, well-developed and explanatory particulate matter theories, analysis and synthesis as tools for understanding nature, the power of human artifice to create new or improved products over natural ones, and perhaps even the notions of force key to Newton’s physics.”

“Yet until about the end of the 17th century, the terms alchemy and chemistry were used largely interchangeably, and did not carry their modern definitions and distinctions.” (15)

Alchemy possesses both a practice and a theory (16) (This is important. Once you have a practice and a theory, you can TEST things. You can try something, theorize about it, and go back to the drawing board.)

First complete alchemical text is “3rd century A.D., the Physika kai Mystika of Pseudo-Democritos, which derives from Bolos of Mendes in the 3rd century B.C. (16)

A further variety of the concept “alchemy” concerns the alchemists’ quest for the panacea, which heals both men and metals like a medicine. This medicinal aspect has its origin in Arab alchemy and becomes very significant in Western alchemy, where it influences → Jean de Rocquetaillade (Rupescissa) and then → Paracelsus and the Paracelsians [→ Paracelsianism]. (16)

“he etymological root of “chimia” is controversial. Its attribution to a mythical hero or prophet cannot be taken seriously.” (16) LMAO I love when academics get catty.

The whole thing about “The Black Art of Egypt” is dubious and not widely accepted

“ Nowadays it is usually traced back to the Greek work cheo (to pour). Accordingly, chymeia or chemeia would mean the craft of pouring molten metal.” (16) Fulcanelli says it might be something to do with the greek “Als” and “Chymie” Meaning salt and sap respectively, drawing parallels to glassblowing. But I haven’t seen any scholarly evidence on the matter.

“Alchemy endeavours to produce noble metals, precious stones, the panacea, and above all the Philosopher’s Stone. On the one hand, it seeks to do this by finding the right mixture (Eukrasia) of natural substances according to the ancient doctrine of elements and qualities. Alternatively, it adds the Philosopher’s Stone, usually a powder or elixir prepared from an unknown substance, to the base metal. But first of all this unknown substance must be reduced to the prima materia (first matter). This occurs in the alchemical process, the “Great Work” (opus magnum) which passes through various stages.” (17) GOD THIS IS THE MOST SOBER, SUCCINCT DESCRIPTION IVE FOUND SO FAR. IM GOING TO KISS THESE EDITORS ON THE MOUTH

“According to the colours that appear, these are called nigredo (black), albedo (white), citrinitas (yellow), rubedo (red) among others. This change of coloration may be observed when an amalgam of copper and mercury is heated. According to the amount of evaporating mercury, white, yellow, red, and with further heat, grey and black colours are seen, described by alchemists as the cauda pavonis (“Peacock’s Tail”). These stages are described in various numbers and orders, but most often appear as follows: (17) IF I HAVE TO QUOTE THIS WHOLE SUBSECTION SO BE IT. ITS QUALITY SHIT.

1. Calcination, i.e. oxidation by heating. Metal oxides are thus known as “metal calcinates”.
2. Solution, i.e. dissolution in sharp (“mercurial”) liquids.
3. Putrefaction, i.e. decomposition. The solution in the closed vessel is gently heated in warm compost or a warm water bath to induce fermentation and thus stimulate digestion. The resulting black colour (nigredo) is seen as death, depicted as the “black raven”, which is shortly resurrected as the “white dove” (albedo).
4. Reduction, i.e. the recovery of the fugitive “spirits” during the calcination process by means of a fluid (“philosophical milk”), whereupon a yellow coloration (citrinitas) appears.
5. Sublimation, i.e. by adding the “spiritual” substance the matter in the glass vessel attains a higher level than the prima materia. This violent reaction is seen as the raging of the “red dragon”. A red coloration (rubedo) occurs.
6. Coagulation or Fixation, i.e. the solidification of the elevated and purified matter according to the principle “solve et coagula”.
7. Fermentation is only rarely mentioned, it means the addition of a small amount of gold (“yeast of gold”) to accelerate the process.
8. Lapis philosophorum, i.e. the Philosopher’s Stone, the prima materia elevated and purified into ultima materia (supreme matter). It is usually described as a heavy, dark red, shining powder. When heated, it acquires a waxy consistency (ceratio), but it solidifies again on cooling. (PROBABLY CINNABAR)
9. Multiplication, i.e. a greater amount of Stone can be made from a little of its residue.
10. Projection, i.e. the throwing or strewing of the Stone powder onto a base metal, which is thereupon allegedly transmuted into gold (silver in the Lesser Work). This process is also called Tinctura or “tingeing” (colouring) and is analogous to the application of the panacea or elixir in medicine.

This only really makes sense in the context of Aristotelianism. Which posits that everything is made of two forces: Hyle and Eidos, Matter and Form.Hyle can be thought of as pure potential, while Eidos is the expression of that potential.

The Aristotelian idea that all things are striving teleologically towards more complete forms exercised a fundamental influence in all alchemical theory. (18)

Alchemy destroys a base metal by eliminating its specific nature, and then infusing the remaining matter with a new, nobler essence. The oldest Hellenistic literature describes the base metal as being cured of its “sickness” and restored to prima materia.(18)

Magical interpretations of metallurgical observations underlie these early attempts at transmutation, which went no further than coloration. The early metallurgists making alloys established that the alloy exhibited other properties than the molten metals. Copper and tin have a different colour and are softer than bronze, and likewise golden brass is produced from red copper and earthy zinc oxide. (18) [Lets say you’re a byzantine alchemist. What is the difference between copper and tin? You know that tin is softer, and a different color, and that’s really it. If you’ve changed what color and softness a metal is, you’ve changed the metal.]

The idea of prima materia, summoned into being by the formative spirit and constituting all material existence implies that everything is one, as is expressed in the famous 11th-century Greek copy of a Hellenistic alchemical manuscript (No. 299, fol. 188 verso, Biblioteca Marciana, Venice). Here one sees the Ouroboros symbol, the snake or dragon consuming its own tail, signifying eternity, endless change and renewal, with the caption hen to pan (everything is one). If everything has arisen from the One and is one, then all things must be transmutable into anything. (18)

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ELEMENTS

“The Ionic nature-philosophers regarded each one of the elements as the primary substance. In his didactic poem On Nature, Empedocles of Agrigent (c. 500-430 B.C.) created the classical doctrine of the elements. Adopted by Aristotle, this doctrine dominated the natural sciences and medicine until the late Middle Ages.” (18) THIS WAS HOW THE WORLD WORKED FOR QUITE A WHILE

There’s four elements; earth air fire and water, and two primary forces, conflict and love. (emnity and amity if you want to be more specific)

Its less that they’re the primary states of matter, and more primary QUALITIES of matter. I.e. Solidity, fluidity, vaporosity, and combustibility.

Empedocles set out all this in a basic pre-atomic theory of matter. He called these particles Corpuscles. They can be theoretically divided, but are immutable. Corpuscles can be different sizes and shapes, and scattered through empty space. Aristotle didn’t like Corpuscular theory, so it never really gained as much traction as atomic theory. But as time wore on, Atomic theory prevailed. Copuscular theory plays a huge role in the Summa Perfectionis. It does not think of physical reactions as mechanical, they are instead described as interactions of Principals and Qualities.

“The physics of qualities dominates the theory of alchemy and medicine until the advent of modern science.” (19)

Aristotle adds a fifth substance: Aether, or Quintessence, which makes up the heavens and stars. Called Spiritus or Pnumena by the Neo-platonists. It is the thing that regulates the mixture of the prima materia when forming terrestrial elements.

This idea of Correct Mixture, or Eukrasia, dominates Galenic medicine, and extends to humor theory.

Aristote put the earth at the center of creation. It is a perfect sphere, and the mother of all things.

Aristotle described the origin of the metals in his Meteorology, as being formed in the earth’s interior from dry earthy and moist watery evaporations. With the exception of gold, all are imperfect due to an earthy mixture and their solidification without sufficient watery constituents. He attributes the fusibility of metals to the element of water, their solidity to the element of earth.

“In Arab alchemy, indeed already in the Liber misericordiae within the Corpus Jabirianum (8th- 10th century), the composition of all materials, even metals, is traced back to the two principles of Sulphur and Mercury, which are in turn composed of the four elements.” (19)

Sulphur, the principle of combustibility, consists of Fire and Air; Mercury, the principle of fusibility, of Water and Earth. (19)

In the 14th century you get Mercury alone theory. But even this is a variant of the sulphur-mercury theory because it assumes that some aspect of sulphur is already contained in mercury. It says Mercury purifies metals, while sulfur corrupts them.

Animistic tradition regards everything as alive, as moved by demons and spirits and their energies (dynameis). In this view, Sulphur is represented as the Sun, masculine, and linked to the element Fire (hot and dry). Mercury is seen as the Moon, feminine, and assigned to the element Water. Their mixture is conceived as sexual intercourse. The Arab Turba philosophorum (9th-10th century) describes the elixir for producing gold as the union of masculine and feminine. (20)

In the 16th century the triad appears as Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, denoting the principles of matter, in the work of Paracelsus (1493-1541).

Salt, Sulphur, Mercury can be equated with the Body, Soul, and Spirit/Mind respectively.

Alchemists seek the inner machinations of matter. Where mystics seek things outside of the material world.

ALCHEMICAL PRACTICE

“Laboratories in the West, where equipment developed by Arab alchemy was in use, were first established alongside the pharmacy in monasteries, as an extension of university pharmacies in the late Middle Ages, and at princely courts.”

Lotsa different instruments were used

• Mortars
• Crucibles
• Scales
• Scissors
• Tongs
• The Vessel of the Work: The Aludel, ar. Al-utal, gk. Aithalion. This was a convex vessel with openings at either end so they could be arranged in a series. It could be hermetically sealed with clay to form a still-head or an Alembic.

The materials used by alchemists remained largely unchanged from the time of Rhazes (865- 925) onwards. They were joined in Western alchemy by salpeter, alcohol, nitric acid and sulphuric acid. Rhazes lists the following materials in his major work Kitab al-Asrar (“The Book of Secrets”)

a) Four “Spirits”, i.e. volatile substances:

i. Mercury, recognised as a metal by the 14th century,

ii. Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride),

iii. Auripigment, Arsenic (arsenic sulphide),

iv. Sulphur,

b) Seven Bodies, i.e. the seven metals recognised by Rhazes,

c) Thirteen Stones,

d) Six Atraments, see Schneider (1962), 66,

e) Six kinds of borax (Arab. Bauraq, sodium triborate),

f) Eleven Salts,

g) Nascentia, i.e. ingredients from plants,

h) Viventia, i.e. ingredients from animals.

(21)

Not only single terms were veiled in concealed language, but there was also a prolific use of metaphor and allegory. From the 3rd to the 8th century, alchemy made use of many genres, including recipe, revelatory vision, allegory, riddle, didactic poems and letters, dialogue, commentary, and later debate (e.g. Turba philosophorum). (21)

In addition, there were images based on Christian beliefs (e.g. Christ’s Passion and Resurrection in Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit) and, in the Renaissance, images from ancient mythology (e.g. → Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens (1618), plates 23-24, 44-46). (21) Huh thats interesting, but I guess its true that imagery from greek mythology wasnt really used in the contemporary alchemical literature.

Secrecy has always been important. It goes back to Zosimos, who warns against the greed of kings etc.

Trying to classify alchemy will inevitably run you into the problem of classification. The earliest person to attempt this was probably Daniel of Morley, who considered Alchemy a subset of astronomy under the quadrividium.

“Dominicus Gundisalinus (12th century), using the Arabic classification of sciences, regards alchemy as scientia naturalis in his work De divisione Philosophiae.” (21)

Alchemy wasn’t really accepted as a natural science until 1190-ish until Vincent of Beauvais wrote about it as such. Even then, it didn’t really see proper study at the university level until 1300. It was generally considered a philosophy due to its use of theory. The medieval scholastics did not consider it a mechanical art. AND WAS NOT CONSIDERED A MAGICAL ART, OR BANNED BY THE CHURCH. (22) (Im paraphrasing)

ALCHEMY UP TO 1200

Hellenistic Egypt:

• Characterized by the imitation of noble metals and perls.
• Largely facilitated by the state temple system
• Leiden Papyrus
• Stockholm Papyrus
• These papyri are largely concerned with counterfeiting and the dying of metals lol. There really isn’t any concern for mystical endeavors.
• Bolos of Mendes, who passed his knowledge to Pseudo-Democritus, Bolos describes the process in the terms of natural magic
• Uses the language of Sympathy, Antipathy, and the fundamental unity of the cosmos.
• I.e. Transmutation is possible because all matter is one

Alexandrian Alchemy:

• Greek + Middle Eastern + Egyptian big messy syncretism
• Blended with Gnosticism, Mythology, Neoplatonism 100-300
• Hermes Trismegistus, The Corpus Hermeticum
• Fragmentary works from Isis, Agathodaimon, Cleopatra, Mary the Jewess, Ostanes, Pammenes, Iamblichus, and Moses.
• Pseudo-Democritos: Physika kai Mystica, transmits Bolos ideas. First hints of mysticism.
• Zosimos in the 4th century is the first evidence of an alchemist being widely read

Byzantine Alchemy:

• Olympiodorus, (412)
• Stephanos of Alexandria (7th century)
• Heliodoros (8th century),
• Psellus (11th century)
• Nikephoros (13th century)
• Characterized by specialist imagery and rich symbolism
• Greek Codex 299 (11th century) in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice.
• At this point, Alchemy has reached the full range of its literary forms, and elaborate metaphorical codes

Arab Alchemy

• “Arab alchemy derives directly from Alexandrian alchemy through translations from the Greek or Syrian.”
• Turba Philosophorum: Greek Nature-Philosophy, Mythology, Magic
• Jabirian Corpus: SULPHUR-MERCURY THEORY, also incorporates plant and animal matter for alchemy “The Jabirian corpus is the first to contain the idea that the elixir can cure human diseases as a panacea as well as transforming base metals into noble ones.” (22)
• Jabirian Corpus doesn’t have a coherent iatrochemistry, but it has the beginnings
• Earliest Reference to the Emerald Tablet show up around now
• Brethren of Purity from Basra” (10th century), which demonstrate a Gnostic influence;
• the Epistola solis ad lunam crescentem (“Tabula chemica”) of Senior Zadith, i.e. Mohammed ibn Umail (c. 900-960) and others
• Secretum secretorum (10th century), Pseudo-Aristotelian
• RHAZES, Liber Secretorum (Not the secretum secretorum) very esoteric
• Al-Farabi (c. 873-950)
• Avicenna (c. 980-1037), who denied the possibility of transmutation in his Book of the Remedy, and anticipated iatrochemistry, the alchemical preparation of medicines, long before Paracelsus.

WESTERN ALCHEMY UP TO 1200

• Normal crafts combine with alchemical literature in many ways. An ennoblement of matter is not intended, but alchemy regularly produces useful insights for mundane crafts.
• Metallurgy, glass-making, bell-casting, mosaic work, and producing colours,
• Compositiones ad tingenda musiva (9th century),
• Mappae clavicula (9th-10th century),
• Schedula diversarum artium (or De diversibus artibus) of Theophilus Presbyter (c. 1100),
• De coloribus et artibus Romanorum of Heraclius (11th century)
• In the 12th century, Umayyad prince Khalid (Halid ibn Yazid ibn Mu±awiya) († 704) ordered the translation of the works of Morenius Romanus.
• 1144, Robert of Chester orders the translation of the Book of the Composition of Alchemy

Other important translations:

• De aluminibus et salibus of Pseudo-Rhazes, both exoteric and esoteric in its symbolism of the Ouroboros
• De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum (c. 1200),
• the geological section on the origin of metals in Avicenna’s Book of the Remedy, by Alfred of Sarashel.
• A Latin edition of Rhazes’ Liber secretorum is available from the 13th century onwards
• Liber lumen luminum (also known as Liber claritatis), pseudepigraphically attributed to Avicenna or Rhazes.
• The Tabula smaragdina is then also translated.
• Arab alchemy, the ars nova, was also available through translations and compilations made in Sicily
• Ars alchemiae of → Michael Scot (c. 1180-1235).
• Pseudepigrapha was circulated in the named Rhazes, Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Arnau de Vilanova, and Ramon Lull
• Which is funny because most of those guys were vocal opponents of alchemy

ALCHEMICAL LITERATURE

• Alexandria was kinda the birthplace
• Judaism + Christianity + Neoplatonism + Gnosticism
• Recipes for gold and silver show up with the first named Alchemist, Bolos of Mendes
• The One and the Many, applied to the physical world
• All is one, so things can be converted into each other
• Around the 1st-3rd century, Alexandrian alchemy gains something critical: A Theory
• Cleopatra, Mirriam of Alexandria
• Pseudo-Democritus, Physica Kai Mystica
• Agathodaimon
• Trismegistus
• Big big syncretic thread here. The allusions to mysticism are palpable, even if the texts aren’t mystical
• Hermetica says you get a sort of spirit-liberation through knowledge
• Theosophical Hermetica vs. Alchemical Hermetica
• Anepigraphos, attributes the preparation of silver to Hermes and Agathodaimon
• Hermetica + Emerald Tablet were what hit the muslim world in the 8th-9th century
• The sun = Sophic Sulfur, The Moon = Sophic Mercury, The wind (alchemical vapors) carry the stone aloft from where it was nurtured in the earth (ltierally the earth, but also the aludel)
• This mirrors the keroutakis (?) in how it circulates the matter within it. Literally distilling and condensing like respiration, a circular process represented by the Ouroboros.
• OH HUH, AUGUSTINE ((354-430) HAD TO EXPRESS DISACCORD FOR TRISMEGISTUS AND THATS WHY THERE WAS A WEIRD GAP IN WESTERN ALCHEMICAL HISTORY

ZOSIMOS

• Practical Alchemist
• On Apparatus and Furnaces
• First guy to use coded language, pleads that the secrets of the art be kept secret
• “Commentary on the Letter Omega” says a sage with self knowledge has no need of magic
• “On the Treatment of Magnesia” has obvious hermetic influences
• Applies alchemical ideas as a sort of redemption of the world and spirit
• “Dream” or “Vision”: Written as allegorical dream in literary form. Metanoia is linked to spiritual progression through grades of enlightenment

ALEXANDRIAN AND BYZANTINE ALCHEMICAL LITERATURE

• Honestly kinda boring and repetitive after Zosimos.
• Codex Marcianus 299 (11th century), as well as the Greek Codices 2325 (13th century) and 2327 (15th century) of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris
• Greek alchemy exhibits the following literary genres: recipe, allegory, riddle, revelatory vision, didactic poem or letter, a tract in dialogue, and commentary.
• Lots of fake names. Only real one is probably Synesius
• 5th century: Alexandrian > Byzantine alchemy
• “The philosopher Olympiodoros on Zosimos, Hermes and the Philosophers”: Gnosti influence, practical alchemy, new descriptions of equipment, but nothing really new.
• Repeatedly quotes zosimos as “The Crown of the Philosophers”
• Culmination of the byzantine thread is Stephanos of Alexandria, who combines pythagoreanism, platonism, and mystical christianity, presenting alchemy not as lab work, but as a spiritual process.
• Makes heavy use of Cleopatras sexual symbology
• The thread of “Allegorizing” continues into the 9th century with Heliodoros, Theophrastos, Hierotheos and Archelaos

ARAB ALCHEMICAL LITERATURE

• Over in the east, you’ve got greek manuscripts filtering into the arab world through centers of learning
• Rulers like Harun al-Rashid (c. 764-809) and Al-Ma’mun (787-833) establish big schools that serve as a centerpoint for alchemical knowledge
• Also Academy of Gondishapur (founded during the Sassanid dynasty (224-651))
• And a LOT through Alexandria
• By the end of the 8th century you’ve got a thriving industry of Arab translators fluent in greek
• Zosimos, as well as pseudepigraphic works, which were not recognised as such. These
• included, for example, Thales, Pythagoras, Leukippos, Empedocles, Democritos, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, but also “Agathodaimon”, “Chimes”, “Hermes” and Hermetic writings, Cleopatra, Mirriam of Alexandria, Ostanes, etc
• The pseudoepigraphia here has not been adequately researched
• 8th century onwards, he muslim alchemists kick it into high gear. There are too many to give adequate examples.
• Arab historiography is problematic, as legend is not always distinguishable from historical truth
• The most important historical source is the “Fihrist” (kitab-al-Fihrist) of Ibn [-Abi-Yakub]-an-Nadim (second half 10th century)
• Ibn an-Nadim introduces the Umayyad prince Khalid (Halid b. Yazid b. Mu’awiya) at the turn of the 7th to the 8th century as the first Arab alchemist
• Whether Kahlid was actually the first arab alchemist is still a matter of debate. BUT
• The Dialogue of Khalid with his alchemy teacher Morenius Romanus, is the framing device for the Liber De Compositione, which was explosively popular in the west come 1144
• Khalid is credited with several works, among them “The paradise of wisdom” Which is extensively quoted

JABIR IBN HAYYAN AND THE , siJABIRIAN CORPUS

• 8th-10th century
• Who knows if he actually existed
• If he did, it would have been in Medina around the 8th-9th century, where he claims to be pupil of Ja’far as-Sadiq (700-765)(A shia jurist and thelogian, sixth Imam of the Twelver and Isma Ili)
• A TON of pseudepigrapha is attributed to him
• “The Open Letter of Ja’far as-Sadiq regarding the Science of the Art and of the Noble Stone” HAS THE FIRST TRIAD DIVISION OF THINGS INTO THE BODY, MIND, SPIRIT
• The Jabirian Corpus is MASSIVE, over THREE THOUSAND titles are known, covering damn near all of the natural sciences
  • “The Compassion”, also known as “The Foundation”, appears to be the oldest work in view of its archaic terminology. Ja’far is not named in this work.
  • “The Hundred and Twelve Books” (Of which only 30 survive), a commentary on The Compassion which introduces organic materials to the construction of the Philosophers Stone, a significant leap forward for alchemy.
  • “The Seventy Books” The most uniform and systemic look at Jabirian alchemy. Greek alchemists are frequently quoted. This is also where you get the Sulphur-Mercury theory (which he probably got from Balinas (Pseudo-Apolloniosof Tyana)). Big chunks of this were translated and popular in the Christian West as the Liber de Septuaginta. 70 BOOKS IS WHERE CUM GETS INTRODUCED TO ALCHEMY
  • “The Ten Books of Rectifications” which contain improvements to alchemy. Each book is written as a different greek philosopher like Pythagoras, Plato, etc
  • “The Books of the Balances” of which only 44/144 survive. Not only deals with alchemy, but astrology, medicine, music, arithmatic, etc, all in favor of a greater theory of “Balance”
  • “The Seven Metals”, whose contents continue the discussion of the theory of “balance”
  • “The Development of the Potential into the Actual” tough to describe. Basically a book about the underlying theory behind natural sciences
  • “The Great Book of Properties” introduces iatrochemistry, that is the alchemical preparation of medicines. Obviously very important for Paracelsus.
• As for sources, Jabir was clearly working from Greek translations that he assumed were authentic.
• Jabir’s alchemical theory may be sketched as follows:
  • The foundation of all knowledge is experimentation
  • Aristotelian physics, with Galen’s doctrine of qualities (i.e. Matter, Void, Qualities)
  • The Alchemist seeks a state of equilibrium
  • Chrysopoeia can be achieved by replicateing the same elementary qualities in gold.
  • This can be achieved through the application of elixirs
  • This is accomplished by breaking raw material down into its elemental essences, which can then be applied to the elixir like a man repairing a house.
  • Jabir considers it in the language of “healing” a “sick” metal, gold being “healthy” metal
  • The elementary qualities are carried by the two philosophical principles Mercury and Sulphur, from which the metals arise under the influence of the planets.

(This mercury-sulphur theory of matter gets printed and spread in “The Book of the Secret of Creation”)

• Natural events are ordered according to measure and purpose. Therefore: The alchemist can perform the work of the Demiurge. Even the creation of life, the Homunculus, is within the Alchemist’s power.
• Jabir also claimed he created a panacea, and cured over 1000 patients in one day
• The Corpus Jabirianum is based on empirical results, but it does not achieve the level of Rhazes. It divides Minerals into several Classes:
  • Spirits: Volatile substances like arsenic, sulphur, mercury, camphor, salmiac
  • Metals: gold, silver, lead, tin, copper, iron and “khar sini” (“Chinese iron”, still unidentified)
• The empirical aspect of the Corpus Jabirianum also demonstrates highly practical techniques, e.g. the production of steel and refinement, dyeing, protection from corrosion, and the making of “gold” ink from marcasite for the illumination of manuscripts.
• Apart from the corpuscular theory, Jabirian alchemy contains the principal ideas of all ensuing alchemy. The Corpus Jabirianum knows of the esoteric, metaphorical, occult as well as the exoteric aspect of alchemy. It offers both theory and empirical practice.

RHAZES (865-925)

• Rhazes is basically the sober, practical, normal alchemist
• Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, that is “the man of Ray”
• Based on Jabir, but without the theory of Balance
• Collected works is called Pinax lol
• Published the Book of Secrets and the Secret of Secrets
• A collection of twelve further books belongs to the alchemical corpus of Rhazes, including “The Book of Propaedeutic Introduction” (written c. 900-910), which presents contemporary alchemy in a clear and systematic fashion like a modern introduction to chemistry. (29)
• Aristotelian doctrine, Mercury-Sulphur theory
• Also talks about adding salt to the mercury sulphur theory but it seems like hes mainly MS

A corpuscular theory is manifest in Rhazes’ “Book of Secrets”, more sharply defined than its vague beginnings in the Corpus Jabirianum: bodies consist of the smallest indivisible parts, that is atoms. These are eternal and have a definite size. The qualities of the perceived elements, lightness, heaviness, colour, softness, hardness, depend on the density of the atoms, that is on the amount of the empty space between them. (29)

• Influenced the latin Geber
• Outlines his Magnum Opus thus: distillation, calcination, solution, evaporation, crystallisation, sublimation, filtration, amalgamation, ceration,
• Materials are purified by distillation and calcination, then they are amalgamated
• Prepared in a waxen state, no fumes
• Then comes the “sharp waters” not acids but alkaline substances
• Finally, a coagulation and solidification to produce the “healing elixr”

AVICENNA 980-1037

• Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina
• The Doctor among islamic intellectuals
• Wasn’t an alchemist, but many alchemical works were written under his name
• Was of the opinion that Art can never measure up to Nature
• He thinks transmutation is impossible, BUT he thinks alchemical techniques could have medical applications

TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM

• Literally “convention of the philosophers”
• Extremely popular, even today.
• Showed up around the 12 century in other manuscuipts
• Latin edition first printed in 1572
• German edition printed later in 1597
• Basically its framed as a bunch of alchemists getting together to talk about shit. It does not mention any of the arab alchemists, or the mercury-sulphur theory. Its definitely just an arabic translation of a greek original.
• “The Latin edition presents the Turba in a fictional narrative framework as the report of Archelaos, called “Arisleus”, on the “Third Pythagorean Synod”, to which Pythagoras allegedly invited his pupils across the world.” (30)
• Anaximandros, Anaximenes, Anaxogoras, Empedocles, Archelaos, Leukippos, Ekphantos, Pythagoras and Xenophanes, besides Socrates and Plato all appear but with hilariously distorted names
• Theres actually fairly little alchemy in the Turba. Its fairly basic “you gotta mix the elements together right”
• “The author of the Turba has clearly not practised alchemy himself, as indicated by his recommendation of alchemical literature instead of experiment – a statement he puts in the mouth of Parmenides in the eleventh chapter. There is a wide gap here with the thought of Jabir and Rhazes, and the scholars of Salerno and Chartres in the 11th and 12th centuries.” (30)

IBN UMAIL

• Abu ≠Abdullah Muhammad ibn Umail at-Tamimi (c. 900-c. 960
• Most prominent example of the alegorical alchemy
• The Book of Silvery Water and Starry Earth, while its Latin translation is known as Tabula chemica or Senioris antiquissimi philosophi libellus.
• Book is about a vision he received while at the temple in Sidr Busir
• Writes a lot about pre-islamic alchemists, only really mentions Jabir, and has several polemics against him. Loves the hermetics.
• Doesn’t mention Rhazes, probably because he just doesn’t want to acknowledge him as an authority
• Epistle of the Sun to the Crescent Moon”, in which he gives poetic expression to his alchemical insights at the temple in Sidr Busir.
• “Its contents revolve around the relationship dictated by nature between Sol and Luna, seen in sexual terms as the love-play of cock and hen.” (30)
• From the 12th century onwards, Arab alchemy produces only commentators and compilers.

ALCHEMICAL LITERATURE IN THE LATIN MIDDLE AGES UNTIL THE 12TH CENTURY

• “The natural philosophers of the School of Chartres, “physici” as they called themselves, sought to understand God’s corporeal world in a rational manner.” (30)
• William of Conches and Adelard of Bath rebuked the ancient scientists, basically saying there was a need for additional study beyond Plato’s Timeus
• William of Conches (1090 - 1155ish) publishes “Philosophia mundi” where he supplements platonic matter theory with corpuscular theory
• He got the info from the translation works of Constantinus Africanus, who was already translating greek and arabic works back into latin
• Alphanus of Salerno (c. 1015-1085) translated the tract Peri physeos anthropou of Nemesios of Emesa (5th century) from Greek into Latin under the title Premnon physicon.
• “Much was introduced from other fields, including the Hermetica, superstitious material, and not least alchemy, presented as the ars nova by Robert of Chester. Alchemy therefore owes its existence in the West to this 12th-century wave of reception and assimilation.” (31)
• The epoch was defined by Arab-Latin translations of Aristotle
• “Arab science was introduced into the West by the enormous translating activity of Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187) and his circle in Toledo.” (31)
•