Alchemy
Alchemy is a discipline that covers a set of practices and speculations related to the transmutation of metals Etymology The word "alchemy" comes from the Arabic : , al- Kimiya. The term appears in the French language in the fourteenth century , the Latin medieval Alchemia. The words alchemy and chemistry remained synonymous until the advent of chemistry in modern eighteenth century . Various hypotheses have been advanced for the origin of the word in Arabic . The Arabic word come from the word Greek khemeia , meaning also the chemistry in its modern sense. The philologist Hermann Diels in his Antike Technik (1920) saw the "fusion" (the ancient Greek chumeia / chmeia meaning "art of smelting metals and combine"). kimiya could also come from the Coptic word kth (or its equivalent dialect Bohairic, Khem), itself derived from demotic kmi, corresponding to the average Egyptian Km.t designating Egypt. The words alchemy and chemistry (in Latin and Chemia Alchemia or Alchymia and Chymia) are strictly synonyms to the early eighteenth century , particularly with the polemic of Etienne-Franois Geoffroy deceit concerning the Philosopher's Stone (1722) The Alchemy was born in the ancient Greco-Roman Egypt in Alexandria between the I centuryBC. BC and third century. "Regarding the substance of the Greco-Egyptian alchemy, AJ Festugiere showed she was born at the meeting of a fact and doctrine . The fact is the art of the jeweler dyer and fantasy, that is to say the art of reproducing cheaper gold, silver, precious stones and purple. The doctrine is a mystical speculation centered on the idea of universal sympathy. " Alchemy is linked to the hermetic philosophy , which can be defined as "a world view based on correspondences and 'sympathies' uniting macrocosm and microcosm" . But do not confuse the two, the philosophical texts of the Corpus Hermeticum do not speak of alchemy. Texts, both hermetic and alchemical, appear from the Second or first century BC. AD . Are Egyptian so far? According to Garth Fowden, "in the case of alchemy, the ancient Egyptians are known for being interested in the origin and nature of precious stones and metals, and the Greek alchemical texts of late antiquity contain various allusions to Egypt and its traditions, but we do not find anything analogous to evolution, seamless, magic pharaonic to Greco-Egyptian magic. The same argument applies to astrology. " The Egyptologist Franois Daumas is the opposite view: he sees a link between thought and Egyptian Greco-Egyptian alchemy, through the notion of stone, building stone or philosopher's stone . The Egyptians had a dynamic conception of the stone. In the Pyramid Texts (513 a), a lapis lazuli grows like a plant. In an inscription at Abu Simbel , built in the reign of Ramses II (1279-1213 BC.), the god Ptah , creator of the world, told how deserts are creating gems. Two primary sources of texts from this period have been preserved: two books on papyrus preserved at Leyden and Stockholm dated to 300 AD and a corpus in the Byzantine era . The oldest texts are works of Bolos of Mendes (-100), and short quotes or treaties made under names of famous people, mythological or divine ( Hermes , Isis , Moses ...) or real ( Iamblichus , Mary the Jewish ...). In these texts, written before 300, the speculative aspect of alchemy is not necessarily present and the recipes are more reminiscent of recipes techniques . The first alchemist this period might be Bolos of Mendes , said the Pseudo- Democritus. It lived about 100 BC. AD or 200 BC. AD were assigned in the Treaty Questions and natural mystic . These recipes workshop, based on the law of sympathies and antipathies, to manufacture the four objects of alchemy that time: gold, silver, purple ( porphyry ), precious stones. It seems that the book dates "in its current form" of the first century , but it may lift at Bolos. Seneca attributes to Democritus (so maybe Bolos of Mendes Pseudo-Democritus) alchemy of success or simply metallurgical, including the means of softening ivory or convert by cooking some stones in emerald . Mary the Prophetess (also known as Mary the Jewish) is probably the first woman alchemist in history. The legend says that she would have initiated the large Zozimus after an initial refusal, claiming that it can not initiate a non-Jew to see the divine art Bernard Husson, Berthelot). However, with Zosimus of Panopolis (also named Zosimus the Panopolitan), the technique is coupled with a mystique and symbolism. Zosimus is the founder of the canonical Greco-Egyptian alchemy. He lived, as no doubt Bolos, in Alexandria, but around the year 300 . His alchemical recipes and its principles shall be controlling. Two other writers of that period are famous for their comments or revenues; Olympiodorus the Alchemist , who is perhaps Olympiodorus the Younger (a rector of the Neoplatonic school in Alexandria, 541) and Synesius, which may be Synesius of Cyrene. Olympiodorus the Younger , in the sixth century, on the analogy of planets, metals, provides a system of correspondences, which will be classic Alchemy: Golden Sun, Silver Moon, lead-Saturn, Jupiter-electrum , iron-Mars-Venus copper, tin-Mercury . Alexandrian alchemists used four types of techniques for "production" of gold, technical recorded in revenue : A number of medieval Arabic treatises of magic, astrology or alchemy are attributed to Tuwani Balinas ( Apollonius of Tyana ). In the sixth century, in connection with the Pythagorean magus, the Book of the secret of creation. Kitab al-Khaliq sirr gives the Arabic text of the Emerald Table , which plays an essential role in the alchemical tradition-hermtico. History
Greco-Alexandrian Alchemy
Origins (Second or first century BC.)
Early alchemists: Bolos of Mendes, Zosimus of Panopolis
Early alchemical techniques
Arabic Alchemy
.
In VIII-X century appears Corpus Jabirianum attributed to Jabir ibn Hayyan Jabir ibn Hayyan, says Geber (c. 770), poses as the first triad of body, mind and spirit. It emphasizes the elixir as a remedy and panacea, the elixir is not only mineral. Geber also poses a number seven, one of seven metals : gold (Sun), silver (Moon), copper (Venus), tin (Jupiter), lead (Saturn), iron (Mars), Quicksilver (Mercury), another sevenfold, the operations: sublimation, distillation ascending or descending (filtration), cups, incineration, melting, water bath, sand bath. The argyrope is a step, not a fall: it fits into the work. The four elements and four qualities are autonomous. Any substance in the three kingdoms it is possible to increase, decrease the proportion, or even to remove heat, cold, etc.. and thus obtain a different substance.
Attributed to Geber the discovery of nitric acid , obtained by heating saltpeter KNO 3 in the presence of copper sulphate (CuSO 4 5H 2 O) and alum (KAl (SO 4) 2 12H 2 O) and the sulfuric acid (the vitriol ), and aqua regia. He also isolated the antimony and arsenic from their sulfides ( stibnite and orpiment / realgar ).
Razi (860-923), known as Rhazes in the West, has left a Book of Secrets. Kitab al-Asrar of great influence.
The Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity ( Ikhwan as-Safa , 963) contains a section on alchemy Alchemy in the Middle Ages Arabic Alchemy, which has its peak between the ninth century and the eleventh century , is widely and rapidly spread in the Christian West in the form of Latin translations from the middle of the twelfth century . One of the very first is the Morienus: Robert of Chester in 1144, translated into Latin an Arabic book of Morienus Romanus, the Liber de quem compositionism alchemiae edid Morienus Romanus which says: "Since your Latin world still unknown Alchymia what is and what its composition, I will explain in this book. Alchymia a bodily substance is composed of a single thing, or due to something unique, made more precious by the combination of proximity and the effect. " Around the same time Hugh Santalla translated the Book of the secret of creation assigned to Balinous (the Arabic name of Apollonius of Tyana , which consists of the first Latin version of the Emerald Table ). And the Franciscan Gerard of Cremona (~ 1114 - ~ 1187) translated the Septuagint divinitatis liber ("Book of seven) of Geber (most of the texts which will then be assigned are creations Latin) and texts falsely attributed to Rhazes . The portion of Kitab al-Shifa '(circa 1020), in which Avicenna (Ibn Sina) is opposed to alchemy, was translated into Latin under the title De congelatione and conglutinatione lapidum freezing and conglutination stone ) by Alfred de Sareshel 1190. Put in Annex IV of the book Weather , in which Aristotle discusses the nature and formation of metals, it will be attributed to the latter, and influence as the alchemists and their opponents . Gold is made of Mercury and Sulphur under the combined influence of the Sun. Famously holds the spirits: This wave of translations continues to XIII century , and many Arabic texts are put under the names of authorities ancient philosophers like Socrates , Plato , Aristotle, Galen , Zosimus of Panopolis (Latinized in Rosinus, and he actually alchemist), or figures as mythical Hermes Trismegistus , Apollonius of Tyana , Cleopatra ... With this corpus translated from Arabic, besides a number of technical terms such as still or athanor , Latin alchemy will inherit its main themes and issues: the idea that metals are formed under the Earth under the influence of planets from sulfur and mercury, and that alchemy is to reproduce, accelerate or improve this process, the analogy between alchemy and medicine in the form of the elixir - the religious, the creator god is seen as model of the alchemist - the question of disclosure or secrecy of alchemical knowledge . Several traditions are represented in these texts: clear and practical treatises, including those from the school of Geber and Rhazes , and the De anima in arte Alchemia attributed to Avicenna , which reflect a true experimental research, treaties revenue takes the shape of Secretum Secretorum (attributed to Rhazes and translated by Philip of Tripoli to 1243 , and allegorical texts whose Morienus the Turba Philosophorum and Tabula Chemica Senior Zadith ( Ibn Umail ) . The Pseudo-Geber ( Paul Taranto, author of The sum of perfection. perfectionis Summa, 1260) , the Pseudo-Arnaud de Villeneuve (Rosarius Ave. 1332), Gerard Dorn (Clavis totius philosophiae chymisticae, 1566) resume the idea of mixing practice and allegory. Around 1210, the scholar Michael Scot wrote several alchemical treatises: Ars alchemiae , Lumen luminum. It is the first to mention the medical virtues of gold drinking Roger Bacon (Opus Majus, 1266, Opus tertium, 1270), Pseudo- Arnaud de Villeneuve (Tractatus parabolicus, 1330), the Paracelsus Gerard Dorn (From Thesauro thesaurorum omnium, 1584) continue in this direction. Around 1250, Albertus Magnus admits transmutation, he established the analogy between the formation of the fetus and the generation of stones and metals . It supports the theory of sulfur and mercury. It is without doubt the author of Alkimia or minor Alkimia , but not the other treaties, such as Semita recta, or the compound of the compounds. Compositum composites. Thomas Aquinas is not an alchemist, though he attributes the magnificent sunrise at Aurora (Aurora Consurgens) presents alchemy as a quest for spiritual regeneration, inner , which dates from 1320 . Roger Bacon became interested in alchemy in his Opus minus (1267) , in his Opus tertium , in his commentary on the Secret of Secrets (1275-1280) mistakenly believes that Aristotle but The mirror of alchemy (Speculum alchimiae) dated XV century : It is a pseudo-Roger Bacon. Roger Bacon (Opus Majus, 1266) supports that medicine prolongs life of metals and that alchemy, practical science, justifies the theoretical sciences (and not vice versa): the first, he sees the double-sided (speculative and operative) of alchemy. For the Pseudo- Roger Bacon : Both substances were the principles or Sulphur and Mercury, plus a third from the Sum of Perfection (Summa perfectionis) (1260): Arsenic. The book is attributed to the Arab Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan), but it is the pseudo-Geber , or Latin Geber, Paul Taranto. The authors are most characteristic Arnaud de Villeneuve (1245-1313), Denis Zachaire , the Pseudo-Lull (early fifteenth century) , Canon George Ripley , the alleged Bernard Trevisan . The year 1330 is the date of the new pearl (margarita novella Pretiosa) of Petrus Bonus , which is a theological discourse. The author distinguishes between scientific and divine illumination. It is the first to alchemical reading of the great myths of antiquity, like the Golden Fleece, Pan, the metamorphoses of Ovid , Virgil , etc.. And will be followed by Augurelli , Pico della Mirandola , G. + Bracesco 1555 Dom Pernty. Petrus Bonus supports the theory of mercury alone. The first, he compares the philosopher's stone to Christ: if the process of the Great Work is human life (conception, gestation, birth, growth, death), it also corresponds to the mysteries of the Christian religion (Incarnation and Passion of Christ Last Judgement, the mystery of the Holy Trinity.) . About 1350 Rupescissa ( John Roquetaillade ) (In consideratione quintae essentiae) equates elixir and alcohol, as a fifth element, a quintessence therefore, which can prolong life. He says that one can extract the quintessence of all things, blood, fruit, wood, flowers, plants, metals. Hence certain medicines. It is an alchemy distillation, since for him the quintessence is an extremely powerful distillate can be extracted with alcohol distilled a thousand times. This theory introduced the idea of the quintessential "active ingredient" having a hundredfold the same properties as the single, which Galen had detailed the effects on the human level. The Catholic Church has never condemned for heresy alchemy as such. The sentences are made only in limited settings: that of counterfeiters and magicians, the internal discipline to the mendicant orders (Franciscans and Dominicans ), and the seventeenth denunciation of libertines . The idea of this sentence appears only with the occultists of the nineteenth . In 1273, 1287, 1289, 1323, 1356 and 1372, the Dominican general chapters intimately brothers to hand over to their superiors or the writings of alchemy (in 1321) to destroy them . In 1295, the law prohibits them from holding Franciscans, reading, writing books on alchemy . a href = "% C3% 89lie_de_Cortone" alt = "Elias of Cortona"> Elias of Cortona, Gerard of Cremona , Roger Bacon . The Pseudo-Lull : "Like Jesus Christ took human nature for the issuance and redemption of mankind, a prisoner of sin by following the disobedience of Adam, so also in our art, which is criminally tainted by something is up, washed and redeemed from the stain differently, and the opposite thing. " At the same time (1350), Jean Roquetaillade establishes the link between the Great Work and Passion of Christ. The ordinary poem of alchemy (1477) of Thomas Norton. Denis Zachaire states have managed to transmute mercury into gold on Easter Day 1550: Translations and the influence of Arabic alchemy
Medieval Latin Alchemy
Alchemy and Christianity
Alchemy in the Renaissance
When Rudolf II is Emperor (1576-1612), the capital of alchemy is Prague. Proponents of time converge: Heinrich Khunrath (author of an admirable Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae, 1602) , Oswald Croll , Michael Maier (author of the fugitive Atalante, 1618) .
The famous book on Nicolas Flamel , the book of the hieroglyphic figures, which gives an alchemical interpretation of the Ark of the cemetery of the Innocents in Paris, was not written by Nicolas Flamel, who was never Alchemy . The book is dated 1399, but it was published in 1612, it has been written that in 1590, perhaps the writer Broalde Franois de Verville (1558-1612) . He developed the concept of ars magna, a mutual granting of matter and spirit by carrying out the work, both spiritual and physical , .
Paracelsus
Paracelsus , as demonstrated by one of his publishers, Johann Huser, wrote nothing of alchemy in the usual sense of the term (transmutation of metals, gold production) , since it focuses on the medical use and the philosophical. In his Opus Paragranum (1533), it replaces the four elements of the three substances (tria prima) that are Sulphur, and Mercury (which is Paracelsus adds) Salt and he likens the process of digestion the alchemy, the science of cooking and maturation.
- "Of all the substances, there are three things that give each their bodies, that is to say that every body consists of three things. The names of these are: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt. If these three things are met, then they form a body (...). The inner vision, which is the secret, belongs to doctors. (...) Take the example of wood. This is a body by itself. Burn it. This burn is Sulphur; which breathes in smoke, the Mercury the remaining ash is salt. (...) This burning is Sulphur; that there
Alchemy in the seventeenth century
With Gerard Dorn (Clavis totius philosophiae chymisticae, 1566), Jacques Gohory (Compendium, 1568), Cesare Della Riviera (The magical world of heroes, 1603) was born a speculative alchemy without surgical practice , the Cosmopolitan ( Alexander Seton ? Michel Sendivogius ?) , English Eyrne Philalethes (George Starkey) .
1616: The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz, John Valentin Andreae. The chemistry here is spiritual, allegorical, and above is the Rose-Croix.
Appeared in 1677 in La Rochelle a singular book, due to Jacob Saulat: Mutus phloem. Dumb book : "all the hermetic philosophy is represented in hieroglyphic figures", in fact fifteen plates, without text, edit and comment on Eugene Canseliet . The book seems to be an elixir for the dew.
Alchemy in the eighteenth century : from alchemy to chemistry
Robert Boyle, who believes in the possibility of the transmutation of metals, casts doubt, in The Sceptical Chymist (1661), the theory of four elements as well as the three principles of Paracelsus (sulfur, mercury and salt), and introduced the idea of chemical element as part indecomposable and not converted into another element.
From 1668 to 1675 Isaac Newton practiced alchemy.
In 1722, French physician and naturalist tienne-Franois Geoffroy , inventor of the concept of chemical affinity do not believe in transmutation, but did not think possible to demonstrate its impossibility:
"Art "
In 1783, Lavoisier decomposed water into oxygen and hydrogen.
The Comte de Saint-Germain , famous in France between 1750 and 1760, claimed to be immortal and able to produce or purify gemstones.
Alchemy in the nineteenth century and twentieth century
In the nineteenth century , the few residual alchemists are regarded as curiosities, relics of a bygone era
Some Masons , (Jean-Marie Ragon 1781 to 1862, Oswald Wirth 1860-1943), tightly link the mystical alchemy and esoteric masonry.
In 1926 appeared a book entitled The Mystery of the Cathedrals , by an unknown person making use of a pseudonym, a Fulcanelli. The same author published some years later another book, The Dwellings of the Philosophers. Fulcanelli become in the twentieth century a legend . Canseliet , who was his pupil, will come to blow hot and cold on this character, which according to legend, would have received the "gift of God," the immortality (he was reportedly seen in Spain 113 years old): "Well, when I saw him, he had 113 years, that is to say in 1952. I had at that time 53 years. I saw a man approximately my age. Please note that I said, Fulcanelli in 1922 and before, it was a nice old man, but it was an old man. " Fulcanelli Canseliet and published some works of a scholarly look at the titanic on the chemistry, synthesis of any real knowledge of alchemy and sufficient by themselves according to the most loyal supporters. Authors are also contemporary, Roger Caro, founder of the Universal Church of the new covenant, Kamala Jnana and Jean Clairefontaine, which moreover do are perhaps one and the same person . Richard Caron reported a renewed interest from the notorious early twentieth century. "We see interest in alchemy not only occultists of all backgrounds, but also writers, some part of the bourgeoisie who frequented the literary salons, and especially the medical community that since the end of the previous century has support in its faculty, many of theses in medicine. "
For Fulcanelli , the chemistry is esoteric, the exoteric Archim and spagyrie. Alchemy is "hermetic science", a "spiritual chemistry" that "attempts to enter the mysterious dynamism chairs" for the "transformation" of the "natural body". The Archim continues about one of the goals of alchemy ("the transmutation of metals into each other") but it uses "only the materials and chemical means," it is confined to the "mineral kingdom". The spagyrie is "the grandmother of our real chemistry." "Blowers, they were pure empirical, trying to make gold by combining what they could hear the alchemy (very little!) Spagyric and secrets."
In 1953 Rene Alleau published by Editions de Minuit a seminal work: Aspects of traditional alchemy with a preface by Eugene Canseliet. It also Alleau who in 1948 delivered a lecture on alchemy which attended Andr Breton , who had a profound impact on the leader of the Surrealists. We must at the same author's collection Bibliothica Hermetica.
According to Serge Hutin :
"Alchemists (...) were 'philosophers' of a particular kind who called themselves custodians of the Science par excellence, containing the principles of all the others, explaining the nature, origin and purpose of everything exists, relating the origin and destiny of the entire universe. "
by Rene Alleau (1953)
"It is especially important to consider alchemy as a religion, experimental, concrete, and the end was the illumination of consciousness, the issuance of the mind and body (...). Thus alchemy she belongs rather to the history of religions and the history of science. "
Alchemy in the other Eastern civilizations
China
The search for remedies to immortality is part of ancient Chinese culture since the period of Warring States. The sovereign trust the way magicians and immortal , and these "magicians" have often practices akin to alchemy. On a strictly historical knowledge of alchemical type is established, for China, from the second century BCE . Can be traced in the Historical Memoirs of Se-ma Ch'ien , a story talking about Transmutation gold and elongation of life through alchemical practices during the reign of Wu Di of the Han Dynasty in 133 BC AD . Others suggest an earlier origin, Serge Hutin argues that alchemy was practiced in China from 4500 BC. AD and, as part of the legendary China, Rene Alleau considering the analogy between Hermes Trismegistus and the Yellow Emperor , the third millennium BC. AD .
A seminal text, although it is more a treatise on cosmology that alchemy is the Cantongqi (Chau-yi san-t'ung-ki. concordance Triple mutations in the book of Chou), attributed to Wei Boyang ( Wei Po-yang), an immortal legend located at 142. The first treaty is known Chinese alchemical Baopuzi neipian written by Ge Hong (283-343 AD.) . Chinese alchemists make a distinction between "external alchemy" (waidan, wai tan) and " inner alchemy "(Neidan, nei tan). The outer alchemy as practiced by Ge Hong example , gives way to inner alchemy which dominates in the late Tang Dynasty in 907. The first written records of the inner alchemy that is part of Taoism date from the eighth century .
India
The equivalent of alchemy is called Rasayana (literally "way of mercury", one of the eight branches of Ayurveda ), and leads to an elixir of life appointed Ausadhi .
Of reconciliation between alchemy and practices shivaques and tantric were made by several authors: Shiva , which would resemble the active ingredient of sulfur , fruitful Shakti , which would resemble passive principle of mercury. In the Tantric tradition, the body becomes a Siddha-rupa, literally lightning-diamond body approaching the concept of glorious body of the Ars Magna in the West .
The origins of alchemy in India are highly debated.
- According to some authors, including Ananda Coomaraswamy , we should go back to the Vedas, speak of Soma as a drink of immortality .
- According to Mircea Eliade alchemy is attested in India as the second century AD and perhaps the third century BC. AD. It is based on the presence of Tantrism in areas not affected by Islam, the existence of "Mercury" in Indian literature and the presence of numerous texts on alchemy in Buddhist literature from century II AD. J.-C
- According to Robert Halleux "An alchemy itself, focusing on mercury as an elixir of life, develops from the seventh century AD and has a peak between 700 and 1300, in close liaison with the tantric speculation"
- According Ketith AB, Lders, J. Ruska, Stapleton, R. Mller, E. Von Lippman , based on the late arrival of alchemy in the Indian literature, it was the Arabs who have brought alchemy in India towards the X century.
Mesopotamia, Babylon
The subject has been studied by A. Leo Oppenheim and Mircea Eliade . "R. Eisler suggested the hypothesis of a Mesopotamian alchemy. In fact, the tablets which are either Eisler reported revenues of glass or rituals accompanying metallurgy operations " . The Mesopotamians used in their recipes for making pulp of colored glass, a secret language , but this is more a secret art that the discipline of the arcane.
From the fourteenth century BC. BC in Babylonia and the seventh century BC. BC in Assyria ago manufacturing gems oven (artificial). These are roughly the same revenue that can be found in Alexandria in the third century: imitations of precious metals, colored stones, production of the purple.
The Mesopotamian step is a crucial moment in the history of alchemy, because metals are matched with the planets. Thus stands the foundation of esoteric alchemy, namely the establishment of correlations between different levels of reality in a world designed on the basis of analogies (a is to B as C is to D).
- "Money is Gal
The Moon is associated with silver, metal silver, gods Sn (Moon god) and Anum, the sun is linked to the gold color, metal gold, the gods Shamash (Sun god) and Ellil; Jupiter blue lapis , tin, Marduk and Nin-ani; Venus: white, copper, Ishtar, goddess of fertility and fighting) and Ea; yellow-green Mercury, quicksilver (?), Nabu (god of writing); Saturn black lead (?) Nirurta; Mars: brown-red, iron (?), Erra (Nergal) .
- Middle Eastern influences: According Gorceix Bernard , traces of ancient Iran are clearly visible in the preparation of alchemical texts. He noted in particular the influence of Zervanism or Zoroastrianism , especially regarding the design of a second hermetic Gnostic god briber and especially the corruption of the matter not one.
Goals of Alchemy
Alchemy has set separate goals, which sometimes coexist. The goal most emblematic alchemy is the production of the philosopher's stone , or " great work ", supposedly able to transmute base metals into gold , or silver. Other objects of alchemy are essentially therapeutic research of the elixir of immortality and Panacea (medicine Universal), and explain the importance of Arab medicine in the development of alchemy. Behind the hermetic texts consist of meaningless symbols concealing the layman, some alchemists were more interested in the transmutation of the soul , that is to say, the spiritual awakening. This is called "alchemy mysticism. " More radical still, the Ars Magna , another branch of alchemy, aims the transmutation of the alchemist himself into a kind of superman in power almost without limit. Another aim of alchemy is the creation of a small artificial man, the homunculus Purpose Metal: The Great Work and transmutation The Great Work was to get the philosopher's stone. Alchemy was supposed to operate on a materia prima, First Matter, in order to get the philosopher's stone capable of achieving the "projection", that is to say, the transformation of base metals into gold. The alchemists have developed two methods to try to get the philosopher's stone: the dry and wet . Conventionally seeking the philosopher's stone was done through so-called wet method, it is by example Zosimus of Panopolis at 300. The dry process is much more recent and may have been invented by Basil Valentine , circa 1600. In 1718, Jean-Conrad Barchusen, professor of chemistry at Leyden, in his Elementa chemicae develops this way. According to Jacques Sadoul the dry is the way of high temperature, difficult, while the wet track is long (three years), but it is less dangerous. Fulcanelli says about this "In contrast to the wet including utensils glass allows easy control and fair comment, the dry process can inform the operator " . The classical phases of alchemical work are threefold. They are distinguished by the color that takes the field as and when. They also correspond to the types of chemical manipulation: The Abyss calcination, leaching out to white and reduction in work for the red glow. You can find these phases from Zosimus of Panopolis. The white phase is sometimes divided into white phase leaching and yellow phase reduction by some authors alchemists, who admit and four phases (black, white, yellow, red) for all instead of three (black, white, red). The Arabs were the first to give the philosopher's stone medicinal properties and it is through them that the concept of ' Elixir arrived in the West . Roger Bacon wants to "extend human life" . The quest of alchemy, the origins of metal, becomes medical mid-fourteenth century, with the Pseudo- Arnaud de Villeneuve and Petrus Bonus. The concept of "universal medicine" for the stones as health comes from the Pseudo-Lull Testamentum (1332). Rupescissa Johannes (John Roquetaillade) added, about 1352, the concept of quintessence, prepared from the aqua ardens (alcohol), distilled thousands of times , describes the extraction of essence from Wine and explains that joint to gold, it preserves the life and restore health . Paracelsus in 1533, in Liber Paragranum, goes further, rejecting the goal of transmutation alchemy , keeping only the therapeutic aspects. He summarized his thinking: "Many have said that the goal of alchemy was the production of gold and silver. To me, the goal is different, it is to seek virtue and power which may lie in medicines. " Paracelsus in a sense therefore the iatrochemistry (hermetic medicine), rather than alchemy itself. Therefore appears a conflict between two uses of the philosopher's stone, production of gold (Chrysope) or cure disease (cure). The iatrochemistry (hermetic or Medicine) was "the main representative Francois Le Boe (Sylvius) and was to explain all acts vital, healthy or ill, by chemical operations: fermentation, distillation, volatilization, alkalinity, effervescence. " The alchemy of medicine has been studied by Alexander von Bernus . Legend has it that the alchemist Nicolas Flamel has discovered the elixir of youth and had used on himself and his wife Pernelle. Similarly, the legend of Count Saint-Germain scored alchemy, he would have been the memory of his past lives and wisdom relevant or would have had a long-life elixir that gave him a long life of two to four thousand years according to him. Today, several pharmaceutical companies (Pekan, Phylace Weleda ...), claiming remedies spagyric of Paracelsus , of Rudolf Steiner , of Alexander von Bernus , the Carl-Friedrich Zimpel , continue this tradition alchemical medicine. The Alchemist is as a philosopher. He claims to know not only metals but also the principles of matter, the link between matter and spirit, the transformation laws ... His ontology is based on the notion of energy, an energy contradictory, dynamic, unique, in metamorphosis. It also draws a morality of its work, praised the work and prayer: "Pray and work (Ora et labora)" ( Khunrath ) . He argues a great method: the analogy ("All that is below is like what is above"). Its key concept is the original, return, or - in the words of Peter A. Riffard - for "surviving" . The alchemist wants to return to the raw material, restoring the primitive virtues of things, make it neat and clean every creature: to nature, one might say. The interpretation of the goals of alchemy is made more difficult by the cryptic texts deliberately left by the alchemists. This difficulty of interpretation has led to many theories about the meaning to be given here to alchemy. The alchemists are based on a conception of nature and the raw material. Theories oppose or combine. Since the nineteenth century, the atomic theory was relegated to the status of alchemy pseudo-science. Paradoxically, nuclear physics has shown that the transmutation of metals are possible, besides containing the term, even if the alchemical theories were refuted. The chemical laboratory alchemy owes much to the point that some have described the chemistry of proto-chemistry. This is particularly true for some positivists (including Marcelin Berthelot) who consider the chemistry in this light. This interpretation of alchemy as proto-chemistry based inter alia on techniques and utensils of alchemy, used by scientists (Newton, etc. ..) before the scientific method is still used today. Yet the subject of alchemy (the philosopher's stone and the transmutation of metals) and chemistry (the study of the composition, reactions and chemical and physical properties of matter.) Are really distinct. On the other hand, the relationship between alchemy and local myths, and constants archetypal universal present in the philosophy underlying the chemistry also distinguish it from that . Plusieurs auteurs du XX e qui ont tudi l'alchimie de manire approfondie la prsente comme une thologie, ou comme une philosophie de la Nature plutt qu'une chimie naissante / Sup>, as such, some ancient alchemists gave themselves the title of 'only true philosophers'. The interpretation of alchemy as solely a proto-chemistry is mainly driven by a misinterpretation of Marcelin Berthelot in the nineteenth. A precursor Silberer Herbert , a disciple of Freud . The demonstration of a symbolism of alchemy, like in Civilization remote in time and space, has led Carl Gustav Jung , very early, value alchemy, as psychological processes. He particularly stressed the value or even psychological or spiritual initiation of alchemy. It would function "individuation", in other words the development of the individual in his profound dimension, but through the unconscious. Gaston Bachelard alchemy takes a Reverie single, poetic, but unscientific, based on masculine desires ulterior (Psychoanalysis of Fire, 1937) . Mircea Eliade , religious historian, defends in Blacksmiths and Alchemists (1956) the idea that alchemy, far from being the forerunner of chemistry in its infancy, represents a very complex system of knowledge, whose origin is lost in the dawn of time, and common to all cultures. He developed the idea, according to the analogy of macrocosm and microcosm, the physical transformations of matter are representations of the terms of ancestral rites in their universal frame: Torture - Death initiation - Resurrection . In "a truly anthropological field" is also the work of Gilbert Durand , which upgrades the imagination. As knowledge esoteric alchemical texts have the distinction of being encoded. It is a knowledge which is transmitted only under certain conditions. The codes used by the ancient alchemists were designed to prevent outsiders from accessing their knowledge. Using a deliberately obscure poetic language, charged allegories, rhetorical figures, symbols and polyphony (see language of birds) was designed to restrict access to knowledge to those who have the intellectual capacity to decipher riddles posed by the authors and the wisdom not to be deceived by the many traps that these texts contain. The same name can qualify two objects' or 'subjects' totally different but we can have several names for the same purpose. This is particularly true for Mercury but also for other terms. Almost all treaties alchemy begin work early in the second and "fail" to specify what material to use and the enigma of the raw material is knowingly covered by the enigma of Mercury by Rene Alleau . Fulcanelli , for example , seeks to multiply while remaining cryptic indications . Synesius seems rather describe the material in its advanced state . The material of a thousand names, a term used by Frances Bonardel , remains an enigma to double bottom. This author summarizes the problem thus: "For if the power of alchemy is the sole property of the philosophers mercury, as proclaimed early Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) is that the mercurial substance par excellence protean , is then considered as either a prima materia in which all potentialities are latent (including that of sulfur) or, after preparation, such as mercury double (or hermaphrodite) in which was consummated and the union of two fixed principles " . The allegorical symbol does not overlap with the chemical symbol and, for example, is not alchemical mercury mercury chemical. In alchemy the four elements do not represent components of matter, because the uniqueness of the matter is one of the philosophical principles of alchemy, but rather states that single material is more like the physical concept of state of matter . These elements are associated with their symbols: Fire In alchemy the seven metals were related to the planets: 
Medical Purpose: the universal medicine and elixir of life
Purpose metaphysical ontology of energy and work ethic
Differing interpretations of alchemy
Physical theories of alchemy
Positivism: alchemy as protochimie
Psychoanalysis and alchemy
Mircea Eliade
Terminology and modes of expression
The material of a thousand names
Alchemy symbols and signs
, Water 
, Earth 
, Air 
. 
) 
) 
) 
) 
) 
) 
) 
The language of alchemy
.
The interpretation of the texts by alchemists
- The Promethean myth: in particular in Zosimus
Alchemical Reading the Bible
From the fourteenth will develop an alchemical reading of the Bible Alchemical Reading literary texts Alchemical reading of the ancient fable will grow at the Renaissance According to R. Halleux , "the idea that monuments and works of art contain an alchemical symbolism is not very old. In 1612 appeared the book of the hieroglyphic figures of Nicolas Flamel , which presents itself as an explanation of the alchemical figures engraved by the famous follower into an arch in the cemetery of the Innocents in Paris. In 1636, a de Laborde interpreter tightly the statue of Saint Marcel to the porch of Notre-Dame de Paris , and in 1640, Spirit of Gobineau Montluisant Explanation wrote a very curious riddles and physical hieroglyphic figures are large porch of the cathedral and metropolitan church of Notre-Dame de Paris . This tradition inspires the work of Hermetic as Cambriel , Fulcanelli , Canseliet who claim to recognize the imprint of alchemy in a number of monuments of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance: Notre-Dame de Paris, Chapelle Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Chapelle, Amiens Cathedral, palace Heart of Jacques Bourges, Bourges hotel Lalemant, Cross of Hendaye, Saint Trophime in Arles, Chateau de Dampierre-sur-Boutonne Palombara villa on the Esquiline in Rome, Chateau du Plessis-Bourre, etc.. This leads to implausible results. " Historical works have appeared solid, with Jacques van Lennep , Art and Alchemy. Study of Hermetic iconography and its influences (1966) and Alexander Roob, Alchemy and Mysticism (Taschen, 2005). As Jacques Bergier, "alchemy is the only para-religious practice that truly enriched our knowledge of reality." Mary the Jewess (early Third century? Alexandria) coined the famous " bath "means a device in which the substance to be heated is contained in a container itself placed a container filled with water, which provides a constant temperature and moderate . In Alexandria, there is a large corporation perfumers, with stills (ambikos) to distill elixirs, flower essences, Zosimus of Panopolis , c. 300, presents an illustration of a still to metals, refined . Geber (Jabir ibn Hayyan), who died about 800, discovers various body chemicals: citric acid (at the base of the acidity of lemon), acetic acid (from vinegar) and tartaric acid (from residue of winemaking). Albertus Magnus managed to prepare the caustic potash, it is the first to describe the chemical composition of cinnabar, white lead and minium. Pseudo- Arnaud de Villeneuve , circa 1330, or Arnaud himself, discovered the three sulfuric acid, muriatic and nitric he composed the first of alcohol, and even realizes that alcohol may retain some of the principles fragrant and palatable plant macerated therein, which came from various areas spirits used in medicine and cosmetics. Pseudo-Ramon Llull (c. 1330) prepares the potassium bicarbonate. In 1352, John Roquetaillade (John Rupescissa) introduced the notion of essence , obtained by successive distillations of the aqua ardens (alcohol), this idea of an active ingredient will be critical in the history of medicine, because it introduces a large number of chemical drugs, such as tincture of antimony, calomel, corrosive sublimate . Paracelsus pioneered the medical use of chemicals and minerals, including mercury against syphilis , arsenic against cholera. It creates occupational medicine, toxicology, balneotherapy , he announced homeopathy. Around 1526 he created the word "zinc" to describe the chemical element zinc, referring to the appearance in a sharp point of the crystals obtained by melting and from the Old German word meaning Zinke "peak". Basil Valentine described in 1600 sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid. Jan Baptist Van Helmont , "precursor of pneumatic chemistry" (Ferdinand Hoefer), revealed in 1610, in a scientific way, the existence of "gas," as he calls , and recognizes many. He identifies one of them, the "gas sylvestre" (carbon dioxide), which results from burning coal, or the action of vinegar on certain stones, or the fermentation of grape juice. For Van Helmont, the gas is all the "exhalations" where the air is the receptacle. Hamburg alchemist, Hennig Brandt discovers phosphorus in 1669 by seeking alkahest in urine .. Isaac Newton is interested in practical alchemy. In his "Optics" (1704), in Question 31, it characterizes the chemical as the place of attractive forces and repulsive forces that can occur over short distances. This allows him to explain the movement of a metal in a salt of another metal, and suggests the scale is the first redox metals. It explains the elasticity of gases, the cohesion of liquids and solids ... The creation of porcelain in the West back in 1708 to an alchemist, Johann Friedrich Bttger , who claimed he could make gold from base metals. Bttger manages to uncover the secret of the porcelain paste. The concept of transmutation seemed absurd to positivists. Yet Ernest Rutherford in 1919 performed the first artificial transmutation: by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, it gets oxygen. (Chronologically) Alchemy in the visual arts
Scientific Discoveries by alchemists
Bibliography
Compilations
Historical studies
Hermetic Studies
In literature
Study on the origin of alchemy
References
Related articles
External Links
Loading ...