Textual Alchemy: The Transformation of Pseudo-Albertus Magnus's Semita Recta into the Mirror of Lights

Abstract

This article explores the strategies of and the reasons behind the reworking of pseudo-Albertus Magnus's Semita recta into the Mirror of Lights. I argue that the redactor sought to provide a more comprehensive defence of the legitimacy of alchemy than found in the Semita recta. In the process of doing so, he reshaped the original text so as to present three units that addressed different parts of the alchemical opus: first, theory and justification of alchemy; second, basic information on substances and procedures; and, third, practice. The redactor employed sophisticated textual tools identical to those seen in scholastic texts. These strategies, I argue, constitute part of the redactor's attempt to bring authority and credibility to his project and to alchemy in general. Certainly, much more attention needs to be paid to these experiments of textual alchemy in order to understand the practice of alchemy in the late medieval period.     

Interpretation and the Hieroglyphic Monad: John Dee's Reading of Pantheus's Voarchadumia

Abstract

John Dee's marginalia in his copy of Johannes Pantheus's Voarchadumia (now in the British Library) are an interesting source of information about the development of Dee's scientific ideas in the period between the Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1558) and the Monas Hieroglyphica (1564). In reading the book, Dee has systematically compared the text with Pantheus's earlier work, the Ars Metallicae, and noted any differences between the two largely identical works. Therefore, most of Dee's comments are not indications of his own interests, as has previously been assumed. Only the marginalia that are not concerned with comparing the two texts can be taken to express Dee's own views. These marginalia, probably written in 1559, provide evidence that Dee had already at this time a strong interest in cabbalistic methods as a means of gaining knowledge about natural substances. Cabbalistic speculation was to be central to Dee's thought in the Monas Hieroglyphica, and has previously been taken to indicate a dramatic change in Dee's scientific outlook, towards a spiritual quest. In his marginalia in the Voarchadumia, however, Dee appears to be using cabbalistic methods to gain information on wholly material, non-spiritual matters. The abundant use of the symbol of the hieroglyphic monad in the marginalia provides a further source of insight into the alchemical import of the symbol, five years before the publication of the Monas Hieroglyphica.     

Reviews

Abstract

Recent scholarship on Boyle's Sceptical Chymist has emphasised the alchemical context of Boyle's work. In this paper we will draw attention to its specifically sceptical context. Based on Cicero's works on Academic scepticism, the Academica and De Natura Deorum, we give some grounds for Boyle's choice of the literary style of the work and, in particular, for his choice of Carneades as its main character. Based on Sextus Empiricus's Outlines of Pyrrhonism, we show the sceptical nature of the arguments presented by Carneades against the alchemists. Finally, we set Boyle's Sceptical Chymist in the context of Seventeenth-Century skepticism (Gassendi, Mersenne, Descartes, and Glanvill) in order to shed light on the relation exhibited by Boyle's work between scepticism and the new science, in particular the corpuscular theory.     

The Early Alchemical Reception of John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica

Abstract

Brian Vickers once described John Dee's Monas Hieroglyphica as "possibly the most obscure work ever written by an Englishman," asking whether there were even ten references to it in the seventeenth century. This article considers Dee's reputation as an alchemist, in particular the reception of his Monas Hieroglyphica, in Latin, French, and German texts published in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and examines two themes: first, discussion of the Monas Hieroglyphica in the context of cabbalistic calculations and Pythagorean symbolic numbers; and second, references to, and appropriations of, the hieroglyphic monad in the context of chemical notation. It shows how Dee's work was read by alchemists influenced by Trithemius's exposition of the Emerald Tablet, including major promulgators of Paracelsian thought such as Gerard Dorn, Oswald Croll, Joseph Duchesne, and Heinrich Khunrath. The article also notes how the Monas Hieroglyphica appealed to purveyors of both physical and more theosophical forms of alchemy, such as the Rosicrucian Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz. It concludes with a discussion of the somewhat surprising approval of Dee's enigmatic work from one who was utterly antagonistic to Paracelsian and Rosicrucian philosophy, the chemist Andreas Libavius, who openly admitted to using the hieroglyphic monad as the basis for the ground plan for his ideal laboratory.     

Distilling Reliable Remedies: Hieronymus Brunschwig's Liber de arte distillandi (1500) Between Alchemical Learning and Craft Practice

Abstract

Hieronymus Brunschwig's Liber de arte distillandi, written in German and first published in Strasbourg in 1500, was the first printed manual on the distillation of medicinal waters. Although influential among early modern audiences and well known to modern scholars, its intriguing blend of intellectual and practical traditions has thus far received little attention. This paper identifies these strands in Brunschwig's technical instructions and shows how they intertwine in the production of reliable remedies. Exploring the intellectual dimension of Brunschwig's work, I argue that his concept of distillation is shaped by an alchemical understanding of matter, especially by the writings on ‘quintessence’ of the fourteenth-century alchemist John of Rupescissa. To realise this concept in the workshop, Brunschwig emphasises the central importance of the body and its senses to ensure true craftsmanship. Brunschwig's printed manual was as much a product of skilled artisanal practices as the distilled waters it describes, and I argue that it was shaped by the same concerns about technical precision and reliability.     

Alchemical Patronage and the Making of an Adept: Letters of Michael Sendivogius to Emperor Rudolf II and His Chamberlain Hans Popp

Based on four extant letters the famous Polish alchemist Michael Sendivogius wrote to Emperor Rudolf II and his first chamberlain Hans Popp between 1597 and 1602, this paper adds to a growing body of revisionist scholarship on alchemy in Rudolfine Prague. Unlike most of his many rivals – including luminaries such as John Dee and Michael Maier – who hoped for the Emperor's patronage in vain, Sendivogius officially became a courtier at the imperial court in 1594. As such he was in the privileged position of having access to the Emperor and his close advisors. The surviving correspondence shows how the Pole successfully balanced his alchemical promises against Rudolf's expectations for a number of years. The fact that even Sendivogius found it difficult to translate imperial patronage into ready money suggests that Emperor Rudolf II was considerably more circumspect and less gullible than the widespread cliché suggests. Fully contextualised by all available sources on Sendivogius' early career, the four letters emerge as important documents regarding the Polish adept and alchemical patronage in Rudolfine Prague. They also shed new light on the circumstances which led to the writing and publication of Sendivogius' famous treatise De lapide philosophorum (Novum lumen chymicum).     

A Matter of Philosophers and Spheres: Medieval Glosses on Artephius’s Key of Wisdom

The article examines the two Latin versions of Artephius's Clavis sapientiae (Key of Wisdom) that have been preserved in early modern collections of alchemical texts. A comparative analysis of the two versions shows that one of them has undergone a process of textual manipulation. In particular, an interpolation of short philosophical passages concerning the doctrine of prime matter has relevant interpretative implications. These additions appear to be grounded in the early thirteenth-century philosophical debate on cosmology and the first Latinate reception of Aristotle’s metaphysics.     

Stoicism and Alchemy in Late Antiquity: Zosimus and the Concept of Pneuma

At the beginning of the twentieth century, historians associated the alchemy of the third-century alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis with Platonism and Aristotelianism, explicating his theory of alchemical transmutation under the intellectual umbrella of these philosophical traditions. More recently, scholars of alchemy such as Christina Viano and William Newman have suggested a connection between Zosimean alchemy and Stoicism. Through a close reading of texts in Zosimus’s corpus, this paper posits a Stoic interpretation of several aspects of Zosimean alchemy, focusing on the concepts of pneuma and tension. For Zosimus, I argue, pneuma played a vital role in colouring metals, while tension conferred stability and cohesion upon metallic compounds. This interpretation suggests that Zosimus applied Stoic concepts to describe the alchemical process of tincturing metals.     

New Light on the Alchemical Writings of Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636)

The Polish alchemist Michael Sendivogius is best known for the influential Novum lumen chymicum, a work composed of three separate texts. Sendivogius's authorship was questioned in the mid-seventeenth century, and these reservations are still held by some modern historians. On the other hand, other early modern and modern readers not only accepted his authorship of all three texts, but also ascribed as many as eleven texts to him. This paper discusses the key works published under the anagrammatised name of Sendivogius with the aim of resolving the authorship question. Newly discovered evidence makes it possible to trace the circumstances leading to the publication of these works in much greater detail than previously, and to present new arguments affirming Sendivogius's authorship. In the Tractatus de sulphure, Sendivogius promised to write another two treatises, which readers sought to identify and (in some cases) to write themselves. This paper sets out, and rejects, the arguments for including them in the corpus of genuine Sendivogian writings.     

Synthesis and Structural Analysis of Higher Analogs of Sucrose

ABSTRACT

Three sucrose monoalcohols with free hydroxyl groups at C-1', C-6, and C-6' (1, 4, and 6) were prepared selectively and in good yield from 2,3,3',4,4'-penta-O-benzylsucrose. These compounds were oxidized to aldehydes and reacted with stabilized ylide, Ph₃P=CHCO₂Me to afford appropriate α,β-unsaturated esters 10, 11, and 12. Each olefin was cis-hydroxylated with OsO₄/NMO to stereoisomeric diols 13/14, 15/16, and 17/18, configurations of which were assigned by chemical correlation and CD evaluation. Stereoselectivity of the osmylation reaction was surprisingly low (ca 3:2), especially as compared to a similar process performed on simple derivatives of 6,7-unsaturated methyl glycosides for which the ratio of isomeric diols was assigned as 10:1. The osmylation of 11 (derivative homologated by a C₂-unit at the glucose part) did not obey Kishi's rule. Horner-Emmons reaction of sucrose aldehyde 7 with a sugar-derived phosphonate 22 afforded α,β-unsaturated derivative 24, homologated by a C₇-unit at the glucose end.     

Bienzyme Electrode Compatible Behavior for Water-Soluble and-Insoluble Substrates

Abstract

A bienzymatic sensing layer containing two enzymes able to work sequentially, choline oxidase (ChOD) and phospholipase D (PLaseD), was used to design an electrochemical biosensor for the detection of either a water-soluble (choline) or insoluble (phosphatidylcholine) substrate. A photocrosslinkable polymer, poly(vinyl alcohol) bearing styrylpyridinium groups (PVA-SbQ), was used as host-matrix for enzyme immobilization. Controlled amounts of PVA-SbQ and of the two enzymes were directly coated on a platinum disk, then photopolymerized. The compatibility of working conditions for choline and phosphatidylcholine detection in the presence of Triton X-100 and CaCl₂ was investigated. The effect of the activity ratio PLaseD / ChOD on the sensor performance was determined. The sensitivities to choline and to phosphatidylcholine were 18 mA.1mol^?1 and 0.66 mA.1.mol^?1 respectively, the detection limit being 1.5.10^?8 M for choline and 1.5.10^?6 M for phosphatidylcholine. The linear range extended up to ca. 10^?4 M for choline and ca. 2.10^?5 M for phosphatidylcholine and the response time was close to 30 seconds for choline and ca. 2 min for phosphatidylcholine.     

Alchemy,Prophecy, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Iberia: Anselmo Castelo Branco's Critique of Benito Feijoo

The Benedictine monk Benito Jerónimo Feijoo (1676–1764) is now considered one of the major figures of the Spanish and Iberian Enlightenment. However his work, both in Spain and in Portugal, was far from being universally acclaimed. His critical approach to the subject of alchemy in his essay “Piedra Filosofal,” published in the third volume of his magisterial Teatro Crítico Universal (1726–1739), sparked an unexpected response from the Portuguese alchemist Anselmo Castelo Branco, who sought to refute Feijoo's claims in his own work, the Ennoea. This paper presents an outline of this exchange and its position within Iberian Enlightenment circles. It further argues that Castelo Branco's defence of alchemy was informed by his political and prophetic views, in particular his adherence to the Portuguese messianic doctrine of Sebastianism.