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ALCHEMY

THE ALCHEMY of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries represents a fusion of many seemingly disparate 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 alchemical 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 experience 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 exercise 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.

ALCHEMY IN ANTIQUITY

The difficulty in dating alchemical texts has resulted in a long-standing controversy over its origins. Yet, if the priority of Near Eastern, Indian, and Chinese alchemists remains in dispute, there is general agreement among scholars that the student in search of the roots of alchemy must be concerned not only with early concepts of nature, but also with the practical craft traditions of antiquity. The oldest surviving works of metal craftsmen combine an emphasis on the change in the appearance of metals with the acceptance of a vitalistic view of nature-a view that included the belief that metals live and grow within the earth in a fashion analogous to the growth of a human fetus. It was to become fundamental to alchemical thought that the operator might hasten the natural process of metallic growth in his laboratory and thus bring about perfection in a period of time far less than that required by nature.

Several texts point to the existence of a practical proto-alchemical literature in the ancient Near East. The recent study of two Babylonian tablets (Oppenheim, 1966) dating from the thirteenth century B.C. 27 but copied from still earlier originals describes the production of "silver" from a copper/bronze mixture. These early recipes already contain elements of ritual and the processes themselves call for secrecy. Both were to become common themes in later alchemical literature. The Leiden and Stockholm papyri (ca. third century A.D.) would appear to be part of the same practical tradition. Here, among some three hundred recipes, will be found directions for the imitation of the noble metals. A method for the doubling of asem (the gold-silver alloy, electrum) indicates the future direction of alchemical literature. The similarity between the directions given in these papyri and passages in the Physica et Mystica of Bolos Democritos of Mendes (perhaps as early as 200 B.C.) indicates that the latter work also profited from an acquaintance with the metal craft tradition. However, mystical passages in his work were to become the subject of exegesis for Hellenistic alchemists of late antiquity. The pseudo-Democritos was revered by them as a sage of great authority and his work thus forms a connecting link between the practical metal craft tradition and the true Alexandrian alchemy of late antiquity.

Alexandrian alchemy was based on Greek philosophy as well as on the practical tradition of the craftsmen. The early comparisons of man and nature found in the pre-Socratics and in Plato's Timaeus fostered an interest in the relationship of the macrocosm and the microcosm, a doctrine which played a major role in alchemical thought well into the seventeenth century. Systems of intermediary beings and the pneuma were employed by the Stoics, the Neo-Platonists, and other philosophical sects in antiquity to provide connecting links between the two worlds.

Also important for the development of alchemical thought was the long tradition of speculation on the Creation. The philosopher interested in both the Creation and Nature was inevitably drawn to the question of the origin of the elements and the possibility of a prima materia. The views of the pre-Socratics on the prime matter formed a springboard from which later authors launched their own concepts. Thus Aristotle conveniently summarized the views of his predecessors prior to refuting them in his Metaphysics. However, the subject was one of no less importance to him than it had been to them. Aristotle accepted the four Empedoclean elements (earth, air, water, and fire) with their attendant qualities and he believed that they were mutually transmutable.

The genesis of the elements also forms an important section of Plato's Timaeus where the subject is developed mathematically, but to alchemical authors of late antiquity who were influenced by Neo-Platonic, Gnostic, and Christian sources, the accounts found in Genesis and the Pymander attributed to Hermes Trismegistus were no less significant. Surely the alchemical literature was stamped with a Creation-element theme throughout its existence. In the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries chemical authors still focused on the elements in their defense or attack of any given system. An important example may be found in Gerhard Dorn's defense of the Paracelsians which he based on an analysis of the "Physics of Genesis" and the "Physics of Hermes." Similarly Robert Boyle placed special emphasis on the problem of the elements in his criticism of the Aristotelians and the Paracelsian chemists in the Sceptical Chymist (1661).

The earliest true alchemical texts in Greek date from the end of the third century A.D. These are clearly connected with the earlier practical tradition as well as with current philosophical and religious thought. Two of the more important authors are Zosimos, author of the encyclopedic Cheirokmeta, whose work links these alchemical texts with the book of Bolos Democritos, and Maria the Jewess, whose text is significant for its detailed description of the laboratory equipment of the Alexandrian alchemist. The latter work indicates that the emphasis on distillation and sublimation processes-still so pronounced in the Renaissance-was already characteristic of alchemical recipes in late antiquity. These Alexandrian texts are openly concerned with transmutation. The processes given stress color change as a guide to progress-from black to white to yellow to violet. The sequence was clearly associated with the change from a chaotic and undefined primal matter to metallic perfection. And although the final stage was eventually to be changed from violet to red, the emphasis on color was to remain a basic theme in descriptions of the Great Work.

Although practical recipes form part of these third-and fourth-century texts there is also present in them a pronounced interest in secrecy and mysticism. Allegorical dream sequences form part of this literature, and the role of spirits is considered important in the transformation of matter. And while one may extract some scientific information from the Greek alchemical codices, he will find it difficult to separate this material from the ever-present religious aura that pervades these works. An example may be seen in the analogous treatment of metals and mankind. Because of the truth of this it was felt that the operator might follow the death and resurrection theme as he pursued his work. It was this aspect of alchemical thought that dominates the later Greek texts. The work of Stephanos (ca. 610-41) is replete with prayers, invocations, and allegorical descriptions. There is little indication here that the alchemist still had close personal contact with the laboratory. The text of Stephanos was highly influential and it was used by later alchemists both as a model and as a subject for commentaries. Alexandrian alchemy did not continue much longer as a living tradition. Before the tenth century the basic texts had been codified and few new texts were composed in Greek after that time.

Although Pliny and Dioscorides refer to mineral substances of medical value, Hellenistic alchemical texts do not indicate any real concern with pharmaceutical chemistry. This is in marked contrast with the development of alchemy in China and India. As early as the eighth century B.C. there was a belief in physical immortality in China, and this was later to become closely associated with Taoist thought. A text from the second century B.C. refers to the transmutation of cinnabar to gold and within a few hundred years the concept of longevity was to be clearly connected with chemically prepared drugs and elixirs. This is evident in the Nei P'ien of Ko Hung (ca. A.D. 320) which was to become a standard Chinese text on this subject. In it will be found sections on the transmutation of metals and on elixirs of life-and all this mixed with rules for the attainment of long life and immortality. Chinese alchemy paralleled Alexandrian alchemy in its frequent reference to the macrocosm-microcosm analogy as well as in the development of both esoteric and exoteric approaches to this subject. Thus, while the Chinese alchemist sought a potable gold and various chemically prepared drugs in his quest for longevity and immortality, the texts also indicate a real interest in alchemy as the search for the inner perfection of the soul.

From India the Sanskrit Atharva Veda (perhaps as early as the eighth century B.C.) refers to the use of gold as a means of preserving life, and there are other early texts relating gold to immortality. Buddhist texts of the second to the fifth centuries A.D. discuss the transmutation of base metals to gold by means of a juice concocted from vegetable and mineral sources. The still later tantric-Hatha yoga texts (post-eighth century) show the same trend toward increased mysticism already noted in the Greek and the Chinese sources. Here the operator undergoes the experience of an initiatory death and this is followed by a resurrection. In metals the result may be seen in the perfection of gold-in man, the alchemist induces in his own person a similar separation of spirit from gross matter. In this case the result is a perfected person with an infinitely prolonged youth.

ISLAMIC ALCHEMY

Similarities between Chinese and Indian alchemy have long led to speculations regarding the possible transmission of common concepts. To date, however, few facts have come to light to substantiate these speculations. The origins of Islamic alchemy are somewhat easier to discern. Here there is little question about the importance of Greek sources. Traditionally Prince Khalid ibn Yazid (d. 7114) was the first Muslim convert to alchemy and it is significant that his teacher was said to be one Morienos, a pupil of the legendary Stephanos of Alexandria. Although there is little likelihood of truth in this story, the strong Greek influence on Islamic alchemy may be further confirmed by frequent references to Alexandrian authors and the general use of Greek philosophical concepts. Translations were made into Arabic at learned centers throughout the Near East not only of the works of such major figures as Aristotle, Galen, and Ptolemy, but also of Zosimos, Bolos Democritos, and Stephanos. Among these centers the old Sassanian academy at Jundi-Shapur played a role. Similarly a group of Sabians at Harran were influential in transmitting Indian alchemical and astrological thought into the Islamic tradition.

The ascription of alchemical works to earlier authors was as common to Islamic authors as it had been to their Greek predecessors. The short alchemical classic, the "Emerald Table," was said to have been written by Hermes Trismegistus, but the earliest surviving version is in an early ninth-century Arabic text ascribed to the first-century (A.D.) magician, Apollonios of Tyana. A similar problem exists in regard to the Turba philosophorum. This exists only in Latin, but it has been shown by E. J. Holmyard and J. Ruska to have been composed originally in Arabic early in the tenth century. The dialogue form is used in the Turba and the speakers are supposedly the Greek philosophers of antiquity. Islamic alchemy did not confine itself to Greek sages and gods alone in this regard. The eighth-century scholar, Jabir-ibn-Hayyan, probably authored only a few works on alchemy. However, some two thousand titles are ascribed to him. The great bulk of these seem to derive from members of the Isma'ilya sect, the Brotherhood of Purity, and they date from the ninth and the tenth centuries.

Islamic alchemy is characterized by both the practical and the mystical elements seen in the earlier Greek texts. There are frequent warnings that the information being revealed is for the initiated alone and there is a continued use of the allegorical approach which had become common in late Greek works. The religious nature of the art is emphasized and the predominant vitalism favored by alchemical authors may be seen in discussions of the generation of metals, and in the sexual interpretation of fundamental stages of the great work. As in the Alexandrian texts the progress of the operator may be followed through the now standard sequence of color changes. The concept of the philosopher's stone is also well developed in the Arabic literature. This stone allegedly provided a substance which brought about the rapid transmutation of base metals to gold. It derived from the earlier concept of special elixirs which might cure illnesses in man and which in an analogous fashion might perfect-or cure-imperfect metals in inanimate nature.

Aristotelian element theory is commonly employed in the Arabic texts, but in addition the Jabirian works employed the Sulphur-Mercury theory of the metals. This concept suggests that all metals are composed of different proportions of a sophic sulphur and a sophic mercury. While there was general agreement that these two substances have a resemblance to common sulphur and mercury, it was asserted that they were much purer than anything that could be produced in the laboratory. A quantitative relationship between the two was implied, but the mathematical relationship expressed in these texts may be most easily related to the number mysticism favored by the Neo-Pythagoreans and Eastern mystics. Although the Sulphur-Mercury theory appears first in this literature, it seems to be a modification of the concept of the two exhalations within the earth that lead to the formation of minerals and metals. This concept is discussed in the fourth book of Aristotle's Meteorologica.

In the Arabic literature the reader finds an emphasis on medical chemistry for the first time outside of the Far East and India. The work of the physician al-Razi (Rhazes, 860-925) is decidedly practical in nature. Although he accepted the truth of transmutation and discussed elixirs of varying powers, in the Book of the Secret of Secrets Razi spoke at length of chemical equipment and he described in detail the laboratory operations requisite for the chemist. In addition he described a large number of laboratory reagents and classified them into the categories of "animal," "mineral," "vegetable," and "derivative." Chemical texts continued to employ the first three of these as a basic scheme for arrangement until well into the eighteenth century. Razi's interest in medicine and practical chemistry influenced later Islamic work in medical chemistry. The work of ibn-Sina (Avicenna, 980-1037) and Abu Mansur Muwaffak (late tenth century) indicates a special interest in chemically prepared substances of pharmaceutical value.

THE EARLY LATIN ALCHEMY OF THE WEST

Western alchemy developed from Arabic sources. As Islamic scholars had sought alchemical texts in the eighth century, so their Latin counterparts sought similar works four centuries later. The earliest dated Latin translation of this genre is the story of Prince Khalid and Morienos. This was completed by Robert of Chester on the eleventh of February, 1144, a year after he had translated the Koran and a year prior to the completion of his translation of the Algebra of al-Khwarizmi. The De compositione alchemiae of Morienos proved to be only the first of many such translations made during the following century.

There are frequent references to alchemy in the work of Thomas Aquinas and from the commentaries on Aristotle written by Albertus Magnus it is clear that the subject was of great interest to thirteenth-century scholars. Albertus knew the work of Avicenna and he commented on the fact that this Islamic scholar had both accepted and denied the possibility of transmutation in different works ascribed to him. Although Albertus believed in the truth of transmutation himself, he remained skeptical of the "transmuted" metals he had seen, since the artificial product had not been able to withstand the heat of the fire. With Albertus we also have early evidence of the application of the sulphur-mercury theory in the West. In his De mineralibus he referred to the ancient concept of the exhalations, but he went on to discuss a new theory that attributed the origin of metals to sulphur and mercury.

Some of the most interesting medieval alchemical treatises date from the late thirteenth and the early fourteenth centuries. The Pretiosa Margarita Novella of Petrus Bonus of Ferrara (ca. 1330) reflects the influence of scholasticism in its tripartite structure. Arguments in favor of transmutation follow the initial refutations, and these in turn are followed by positive answers to the objections. Peter accepted transmutation himself, and he further stated that the true process might easily be learned in an hour. At the same time he was honest enough to admit that he did not know how to produce gold himself. No less influential was the Summa perfectionis which was ascribed to Jabir (Latinized as Geber, late thirteenth century). As in the Precious Pearl the sulphur-mercury theory forms the theoretical basis for an understanding of the metals, and the alchemist is informed that he must arrange these substances (understood as ideal substances resembling most in nature common sulphur and mercury) in perfect proportions for the consummation of the Great Work. Geber described in considerable detail the laboratory processes and equipment of the alchemist. This text reflects an important change in distillation techniques that seems to have originated among twelfth-and thirteenth-century chemists. The introduction of condensation at this time made possible the collection of low boiling fractions for the first time. As a result we find in the literature of the mid-twelfth century the first reference to alcohol. Geber confirms this change in equipment and procedure. He described condensation apparatus in detail, and in addition he was the first to give a method for the preparation of a mineral acid-our nitric acid. These substances plus the mixtures of other mineral acids placed powerful new, reagents in the hands of alchemists who were to use them regularly after this period.

The alchemy of the late fourteenth and the fifteenth centuries indicates an increasing interest in allegorical and mystical themes. Thomas Norton's Ordinall of A1chimy (1477) is little concerned with clear-cut descriptions of chemical processes or laboratory equipment. Rather, we meet here with a lengthy poetical account of the difficult nature of the work, the need of virtue for its successful conclusion, and veiled descriptions of the true process. These and similar texts were accompanied by a widespread reaction against alchemy. The unsavory characterization of the alchemist in medieval literature knows no better example than Chaucer's "Canon's Yeoman's Tale" (ca. 1390) while on an official level there were the decrees and statutes of Pope John XXII (1317) and Henry IV of England (1404) directed against those who attempted to multiply gold.

Closely connected with the widespread medieval interest in transmutation was a parallel trend toward medical chemistry. By the fourteenth century distillation and other chemical processes were in use among Italian physicians as a means of identifying the dissolved substances in the much frequented mineral water spas. A century later Michael Savonarola ordered these tests into a procedural form that became the basis of the later methods of aqueous analyses composed by Gabriel Fallopius and Robert Boyle in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

No less important was the medieval physicians' dependence on alchemy as a source for new medicines. The Eastern interest in the prolongation of life is evident here. This may be seen as early as the mid-thirteenth century in the work of Roger Bacon. Bacon fully accepted the truth of metallic transmutation and he suggested that this might be utilized to alleviate the poverty of mankind. For Bacon alchemy was a major field of experimental science and he explicitly stated that one of its goals was the search for a lengthened life span. In the Opus tertium (1267) he commented that although many physicians used chemical processes to prepare their medicines, very few of them knew how to make metals and fewer still knew how to perform those works which led to the prolongation of life.

The same throne occurs in the work of Bacon's younger contemporary, Arnold of Villanova, who argued that alchemy must play an important role in the much needed reform of medicine. In this way new remedies and the elixir of life might be found. The alchemist John of Rupescissa (mid-fourteenth century) insisted that the only real purpose of alchemy was to benefit mankind. His works abound with medicinal preparations drived from metals and minerals and he emphasized distillation processes which seemingly separated pure quintessences from the gross matter of the natural substances. It was this medieval tradition of medical chemistry that bore fruit in the Renaissance "distillation books" of Hieronymus Brunschwig, Conrad Gesner, and others who looked on alchemy and chemical operations as a basic tool for the preparation of medicines rather than the search for gold.

RENAISSANCE ALCHEMY AND THE
"NEW SCIENCE"

The work of Marsilio Ficino and his followers associated with the Platonic Academy in Florence resulted in a heightened interest in the mystical texts of late antiquity. Ficino himself translated the Hermetic corpus (1463) and this text was of great influence the revival of Natural Magic, Astrology, and Alchemy. Interest in these subjects is closely intertwined with the course of the Scientific Revolution. Indeed, the sixteenth and the early seventeenth centuries witness o an ever-quickening concern with alchemy. This new interest reached a peak in the middle years of the latter century before declining. It was just at this time that the major collected editions of alchemical classics were being prepared by Zetzner (1602, 1622, 1659-61), Ashmole (1652), and Manget (1702).

The fresh flavor of Renaissance alchemy is perhaps best seen in the work of Paracelsus (1493-1541) and his followers. The iatrochemists of the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries follow directly in the steps of their medieval predecessors. Like them, they expressed an interest in transmutation, but they were primarily concerned with the medical applications of alchemy. For some this meant the preparation of chemical drugs, but for others it meant a mystical alchemical approach to medicine that might apply to macrocosmic as well as to microcosmic phenomena.

Paracelsus may be characterized as one of the many nature philosophers of his time, but he differs from others in his emphasis on the importance of medicine and alchemy as bases for a new understanding of the universe. Characteristic of the Paracelsians was their firm opposition to the dominant Aristotelian-Galenic tradition of the universities. They were unyielding in their opposition to Scholasticism which they sought to replace with a philosophy influenced by the recently translated Neo-Platonic and Hermetic texts. The religious nature of their quest is ever present. Man was to seek an understanding of his Creator through the two books of divine revelation; the Holy Scripturcs and the Book of Creation-Nature. The Paracelsians constantly called for a new observational approach to nature, and for them chemistry or alchemy seemed to be the best example of what this new science should be. The Paracelsians were quick to offer an alchemical interpretation of Genesis. Here they pictured the Creation as the work of a divine alchemist separating the beings and objects of the earth and the heavens from the unformed prima materia much as the alchemist may distill pure quintessence from a grosser form of matter.

The search for physical truth in the biblical account of the Creation focused special attention on the formation of the elements. Paracelsus regularly used the Aristotelian elements, but he also introduced the tria prima-the principles of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. The latter were a modification of the old sulphur-mercury theory of the metals, but they differed from the older concept in that they were to apply to all things rather than being limited to the metals alone. The introduction of these principles had the effect of calling into question the whole framework of ancient medicine and natural philosophy since these had been grounded upon the Aristotelian elements. Furthermore, the fact that Paracelsus had not clearly defined his principles tended to make the whole question of elementary substances an ill-defined one.

The Paracelsians sought to interpret their world in terms of alchemy or chemistry. On the macrocosmic level they spoke of meteorological events in terms of chemical analogies. On the geocosmic level they argued over differing chemical interpretations of the growth of minerals and the origin of mountain springs. And in their search for agricultural improvements they postulated the importance of dissolved salts as the reason for the beneficial result of fertilizing with manure. For them this was the familiar universal salt of the alchemists.

The Paracelsians approached medicine in a similar fashion. They felt assured that their knowledge of the macrocosm might be properly applied to the microcosm. Thus, if an aerial sulphur and niter were the cause of thunder and lightning in the heavens, the same aerial effluvia might be inhaled and generate burning diseases in the body. Similarly, chemical deposits were formed when the internal archei governing the various organs failed to properly eliminate impurities from the system.

The Renaissance was a period of new and violent diseases and the chemical physicians stated that their new stronger remedies were essential for the proper cures. The work of Paracelsus is reminiscent of medieval distillation chemistry, but by the end of the century iatrochemists were turning less to distilled quintessences and more to precipitates and residues in their search for new remedies. In all cases it was argued that alchemical procedures resulted in the separation of pure substances from inactive impurities.

In the century between 1550 and 1650 conflicts between Paracelsian iatrochemists and more traditional Galenists were common. The detailed critique of the Paracelsian position by Thomas Erastus became a fundamental text for those who opposed the chemical medicine, and a sharp confrontation between chemists and Galenists followed in Paris in the first decade of the seventeenth century. Here the debate centered largely around the possible dangers of the new medicines. Both Andreas Libavius and Daniel Sennert reviewed this controversy and concluded that the best course for physicians would be to accept the useful remedies of both the old and the new systems. This was the compromise position taken by the compilers of the Pharmacopoeia of the Royal College of Physicians of London (1618) and after this time there were few who denied the value of chemistry for medicine.

Yet, if the chemists debated with more traditional philosophers and physicians, they disagreed no less among themselves. At the opening of the seventeenth century Robert Fludd defended the chemically oriented views of the Rosicrucians and he described his mystical alchemical interpretation of nature and supernature in a series of folio volumes on the macrocosm and the microcosm. Here he placed considerable emphasis on an alchemical interpretation of the Creation and he utilized mechanical examples to support his views. His work gave support to the alchemical plea for a new science and it was viewed with alarm by Johannes Kepler, Marin Mersenne, and Pierre Gassendi.

Jean Baptiste van Helmont was no less a chemical philosopher than Fludd, and he described in detail his transmutation of mercury to gold by means of a small sample of the philosopher's stone. Van Helmont sought a chemical understanding of man through medicine, but, in contrast to Fludd and most Paracelsians, he rejected the macrocosm-microcosm analogy. Van Helmont thus was less interested in macrocosmic and geocosmic phenomena than Fludd and he concentrated more on practical and theoretical medical questions. The influence of both authors was considerable in an age when great uncertainty existed about the future course of the new science. As late as 1650 John French could still suggest that only chemistry should properly be considered the basis for a reform of the universities. Similarly John Webster (1654) stated that the new learning must be grounded principally upon the works of Francis Bacon and Robert Fludd.

EPILOGUE

If the chemical philosophy seemed a plausible alternative to the work of the mechanical philosophers in the middle decades of the seventeenth century, this alternative did not remain a viable one for long. The impressive results of the mechanists-culminating in the Principia mathematica of Isaac Newton (1687)-stamped on "respectable" natural philosophy the mathematical abstraction of the new physics. And yet, this is not to say that alchemical thought died after a final flowering in the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. The collection of manuscripts at King's College, Cambridge leaves little doubt that Isaac Newton was passionately concerned with the traditional problems of transmutation. Furthermore, recent research indicates that Newton's alchemical speculations may have been instrumental in the crystallization of some of his more acceptable concepts of physics. Similarly, Robert Boyle was influenced by alchemical thought. He published on the degradation of silver and his theoretical views were strongly influenced by his early reading of van Helmont. However, it is possible to go beyond these examples. Alchemical works were written by the important practical chemist, Johann Rudolf Glauber and the medical chemistry of the Renaissance alchemists found a new proponent in the revision of Franciscus Sylvius de la Böe whose work went through numerous seventeenth-and eighteenth-century editions. In like manner many elements of Paracelsian chemistry were retained in somewhat altered form in the texts of the eighteenth-century phlogiston chemists. At the same time the German revival of alchemy and Rosicrucianism stimulated a new interest in earlier interpretations of a vitalistic and mystically oriented universe. The impact of this on the growth of the nineteenth-century Naturphilosophie has yet to be assessed.

Many characteristic themes of alchemical thought and style are present in the earliest texts that have survived. Both the secrecy and the practical recipes of the metallic craft tradition are evident in the works of the late Hellenistic authors dating from the late third and the fourth centuries A.D. The allegorical and symbolical style of later alchemical works is also present here, and this is a reflection of the mystical tenor of the current philosophies and religions of the late Empire. The medical theme is absent in the Greek tradition and this seems to have been derived from Eastern sources. First found in Chinese alchemical works emphasizing the lengthening of life and the search for immortality, medical alchemy was integrated first into Islamic and then into Western alchemy and medicine.

There is little doubt that alchemy, understood in its broadest sense as a chemical key to nature, played a significant role in the development of the Scientific Revolution. The claim that this mystical science should replace the Aristotelianism and Galenism of the schools was looked on with dismay by early seventeenth-century mechanists who were forced to clarify their own views in their attacks on authors such as Paracelsus and Robert Fludd. At the same time, however, the chemical and alchemical call for a new science based on new observations in nature was important in a period that witnessed an ever-lessening adherence to scholastic authority. Finally, the Paracelsian and iatrochemical adoption of the primary goal of the medical alchemy of the Middle Ages resulted in the permanent acceptance of chemistry as a legitimate tool of the physician and the pharmacist.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The standard source for Greek alchemy is the Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques Grecs edited by J. Bidez, F. Cumont, J. L. Heiberg, O. Lagercrantz, et al., 8 vols. (Brussels, 1924-32). Earlier, but still useful is the Collection des anciens alchimistes Grecs by M. P. Berthelot and C. E. Rouelle, 3 vols. (Paris, 1887-88). Recent editions of Chinese alchemical texts include Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of A.D. 320. The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung, trans. and edited by James R. Ware (Cambridge, Mass., 1966), and Nathan Sivin, Chinese Alchemy: Preliminary Studies (Cambridge, Mass., 1968). A collection of Arabic and Syriac texts will be found in M. P. Berthelot, La chimie au moyen âge, 3 vols. (Paris, 1893). The latter work should be supplemented with the numerous studies of Julius Ruska on all aspects of Islamic alchemy and the intensive study of Paul Kraus, Jabir ibn Hayyan, 2 vols. (Cairo, 1942-43). Basic collected editions of the Latin alchemical texts include the six-volume Theatrum chemicum published by Lazarus Zetzner (Strassburg 1659-61) and the two-volume Bibliotheca chemica curiosa edited by Jean Jacques Manget (Geneva, 7702). The most extensive German collection is the Deutsches Theatrum Chemicum prepared by Friedrich Roth-Scholtz, 3 vols. (Nuremberg, 1728-32). The standard French collection is the Bibliothèque des philosophes chimiques prepared by jean Mangin de Richebourg, 4 vols. (Paris, 1741-54). The most extensive collection of alchemical poetry in English is that of Elias Ashmole, Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (London, 1652), reprinted with an intro. by A. G. Debus (New York, 1967). The standard edition of the works of Paracelsus is that of Karl Sudhoff and Willlelm Matthiessen, Sämtliche Werke, 15 vols. (Munich and Berlin, 1922-33), and the collected works of van Helmont went through numerous editions in several languages from 1648 to 1707.

Bibliographies of alchemical texts date from an early period, but the two standard lists are J. Ferguson, Bibliotheca Chemica, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1906), and Denis I. Duveen, Bibliotheca Alchemica et Chemica (London, 1949). A survey of recent scholarship in the field will be found in Allen G. Debus, "The Significance of the History of Early Chemistry," Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, 9 (1965), 39-58, and extensive bibliographies including recent research will be found in R. P. Multhauf's The Origins of Chemistry (London, 1966), pp. 355-89, and Mircea Eliade's The Forge and the Crucible (New York, 1962), pp. 186-204. Eliade updated the latter bibliography in his "The Forge and the Crucible: A Postscript," History of Religions, 8 (1968), 74-88. For a bibliography of Paracelsus and the later Paracelsians see Karl Sudhoff, Bibliogrophia Paracelsian (Berlin, 1894; reprint Graz, 1958), and "Ein Beitrag zur Bibliographie der Paracelsisten im 16. Jahrhundert," Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, 10 (1893), 316-26, 385-407. Recent research in this field is covered by the Paracelsus-Bibliographie 1932-1960 mit einem Verzeichnis neu entdeckter Paracelsus-Handschriften (1900-1960), compiled by Karl-Heinz Weimann (Wiesbaden, 1963). In these bibliographies the reader is directed particularly to the works of Ernst Darmstaedter, Allen G. Debus, Mircea Eliade, Wilhelm Ganzenmuller, Gerald J. Gruman, E. J. Holmyard, C. G. Jung, Hermann Kopp, Edmund O. von Lippmann, R. P. Multhauf, A. Leo Oppenheim, Walter Pagel, J. R. Partington, P. Ray, John Read, Julius Ruska, H. J. Sheppard, John Maxson Stillman, Frank Sherwood Taylor, and R. Campbell Thompson.