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Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
  
  
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The alchemy of the sixteenth and the seventeenth
centuries represents a fusion of many seemingly dis-
parate themes derived from ancient and medieval Near
and Far Eastern sources. A simple definition is difficult
if not impossible. The alchemists always maintained
a special interest in the changes of matter and surely
most of them accepted the concept of transmutation,
but there were other significant strains evident in al-
chemical thought as well. Important among these was
the early and persistent belief that the study of alchemy
had a special role in medicine through the preparation
of remedies and the search for the prolongation of life.
In addition to this was the belief that alchemy was
the fundamental science for the investigation of nature.
And yet, if the alchemists spoke repeatedly of experi-
ence and observation as the true keys to nature, they
also maintained a fervent belief in a universe unified
through the relationship of the macrocosm and the
microcosm—a relationship that of necessity tied this
science to astrology. The alchemists were convinced
further that their search for the truths of nature might
be conceived in terms of a religious quest which would
result in a greater knowledge of the Creator. It is not
surprising then to find a late sixteenth-century author
defining medicine as “the searching out of the secretes
of nature,” a goal that was to be accomplished by resort
to “mathematicall and supernaturall precepts, the ex-
ercise whereof is Mechanicall, and to be accomplished
with labor.” Having thus defined medicine, he went
on to state that the real name of this art was simply
chemistry or alchemy (Bostocke, 1585).

In short, while few would deny that there were
elements of modern science in alchemy, it is also true
that this was a study permeated with a mysticism
foreign to the post-Newtonian world.