 | Alchemy |  |
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.
| Alchemy | |