Screen LibraryThe chemistry of alchemy : from dragon's blood to donkey dung, how chemistry was forged /
As the authors show, the writings of medieval alchemists may seem like the ravings of brain-addled fools, but there is more to the story than that. Recent scholarship has shown that some seemingly nonsensical mysticism is, in fact, decipherable code, and Western European alchemists functioned from a...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Group Author: | ; |
| Published: |
Prometheus Books,
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| Publisher Address: | Amherst, New York : |
| Publication Dates: | 2014. |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
As the authors show, the writings of medieval alchemists may seem like the ravings of brain-addled fools, but there is more to the story than that. Recent scholarship has shown that some seemingly nonsensical mysticism is, in fact, decipherable code, and Western European alchemists functioned from a firmer theoretical foundation than previously thought. They had a guiding principle, based on experience: separate and purify materials by fire and reconstitute them into products, including, of course, gold and the universal elixir, the Philosophers' stone. Their efforts were not in vain: by tri |
| Carrier Form: | 364 pages: illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 345-348) and index. |
| ISBN: |
9781616149154 (hardback) : 1616149159 (hardback) |
| Index Number: | QD13 |
| CLC: | O6-09 |
| Call Number: | O6-09/C653 |
| Contents: | X-rated alchemy -- Setting the scene. Stirring the fires ; The Zosimos effect ; Demonstration 1. Calcination, distillation ,transmutation! ; Islamic authors : romancing the stone ; Demonstration 2. The mercury/sulfur makeup of metals -- Alchemy in the middle. Middle-aged alchemy ; Auld Michael and the fractious friars ; Demonstration 3. The firing and falsifying of gold ; Geber and the sum of perfection ; Demonstration 4. Divine waters ; Aqua vitae! ; Demonstration 5. Burning waters ; Philosophers' stone ; Demonstration 6. Erina's fabulous philosophers' stone ; Rocky romance : miners and mag |