Download or read book Literatures of Alchemy in Medieval and Early Modern England written by Eoin Bentick and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2022-11-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the myriad ways in which alchemy was conceptualised by adepts and sceptics alike, from those with recourse to a fully functioning laboratory to those who did not know their pelican from their athanor!
Download or read book The Experimental Fire written by Jennifer M. Rampling and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-12-11 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 400-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of alchemy promised extraordinary physical transformations. Who would not be amazed to see base metals turned into silver and gold, hard iron into soft water, and deadly poison into elixirs that could heal the human body? To defend such claims, alchemists turned to the past, scouring ancient books for evidence of a lost alchemical heritage and seeking to translate their secret language and obscure imagery into replicable, practical effects. Tracing the development of alchemy in England over four hundred years, from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Jennifer M. Rampling illuminates the role of alchemical reading and experimental practice in the broader context of national and scientific history. Using new manuscript sources, she shows how practitioners like George Ripley, John Dee, and Edward Kelley, as well as many previously unknown alchemists, devised new practical approaches to alchemy while seeking the support of English monarchs. By reconstructing their alchemical ideas, practices, and disputes, Rampling reveals how English alchemy was continually reinvented over the space of four centuries, resulting in changes to the science itself. In so doing, The Experimental Fire bridges the intellectual history of chemistry and the wider worlds of early modern patronage, medicine, and science.
Download or read book Science and the Secrets of Nature written by William Eamon and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 508 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By explaining how to sire multicolored horses, produce nuts without shells, and create an egg the size of a human head, Giambattista Della Porta's Natural Magic (1559) conveys a fascination with tricks and illusions that makes it a work difficult for historians of science to take seriously. Yet, according to William Eamon, it is in the "how-to" books written by medieval alchemists, magicians, and artisans that modern science has its roots. These compilations of recipes on everything from parlor tricks through medical remedies to wool-dyeing fascinated medieval intellectuals because they promised access to esoteric "secrets of nature." In closely examining this rich but little-known source of literature, Eamon reveals that printing technology and popular culture had as great, if not stronger, an impact on early modern science as did the traditional academic disciplines.
Download or read book Darke Hierogliphicks written by Stanton J. Linden and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-05-11 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literary influence of alchemy and hermeticism in the work of most medieval and early modern authors has been overlooked. Stanton Linden now provides the first comprehensive examination of this influence on English literature from the late Middle Ages through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Drawing extensively on alchemical allusions as well as on the practical and theoretical background of the art and its pictorial tradition, Linden demonstrates the pervasiveness of interest in alchemy during this three-hundred-year period. Most writers—including Langland, Gower, Barclay, Eramus, Sidney, Greene, Lyly, and Shakespeare—were familiar with alchemy, and references to it appear in a wide range of genres. Yet the purposes it served in literature from Chaucer through Jonson were narrowly satirical. In literature of the seventeenth century, especially in the poetry of Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Milton, the functions of alchemy changed. Focusing on Bacon, Donne, Herbert, Vaughan, and Milton—in addition to Jonson and Butler—Linden demonstrates the emergence of new attitudes and innovative themes, motifs, images, and ideas. The use of alchemy to suggest spiritual growth and change, purification, regeneration, and millenarian ideas reflected important new emphases in alchemical, medical, and occultist writing. This new tradition did not continue, however, and Butler's return to satire was contextualized in the antagonism of the Royal Society and religious Latitudinarians to philosophical enthusiasm and the occult. Butler, like Shadwell and Swift, expanded the range of satirical victims to include experimental scientists as well as occult charlatans. The literary uses of alchemy thus reveal the changing intellectual milieus of three centuries.
Download or read book Alchemical Belief written by Bruce Janacek and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2015-08-21 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did it mean to believe in alchemy in early modern England? In this book, Bruce Janacek considers alchemical beliefs in the context of the writings of Thomas Tymme, Robert Fludd, Francis Bacon, Sir Kenelm Digby, and Elias Ashmole. Rather than examine alchemy from a scientific or medical perspective, Janacek presents it as integrated into the broader political, philosophical, and religious upheavals of the first half of the seventeenth century, arguing that the interest of these elite figures in alchemy was part of an understanding that supported their national—and in some cases royalist—loyalty and theological orthodoxy. Janacek investigates how and why individuals who supported or were actually placed at the traditional center of power in England’s church and state believed in the relevance of alchemy at a time when their society, their government, their careers, and, in some cases, their very lives were at stake.
Download or read book Verse and Transmutation written by Anke Timmermann and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2013-09-25 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Verse and Transmutation: A Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry identifies and investigates a corpus of twenty-one anonymous Middle English recipes for the philosophers’ stone through critical editions and studies on their histories in early modern manuscripts, literature and libraries.
Download or read book The Experimental Fire written by Jennifer M. Rampling and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023-03-08 with total page 427 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A 400-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of alchemy promised extraordinary physical transformations. Who would not be amazed to see base metals turned into silver and gold, hard iron into soft water, and deadly poison into elixirs that could heal the human body? To defend such claims, alchemists turned to the past, scouring ancient books for evidence of a lost alchemical heritage and seeking to translate their secret language and obscure imagery into replicable, practical effects. Tracing the development of alchemy in England over four hundred years, from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Jennifer M. Rampling illuminates the role of alchemical reading and experimental practice in the broader context of national and scientific history. Using new manuscript sources, she shows how practitioners like George Ripley, John Dee, and Edward Kelley, as well as many previously unknown alchemists, devised new practical approaches to alchemy while seeking the support of English monarchs. By reconstructing their alchemical ideas, practices, and disputes, Rampling reveals how English alchemy was continually reinvented over the space of four centuries, resulting in changes to the science itself. In so doing, The Experimental Fire bridges the intellectual history of chemistry and the wider worlds of early modern patronage, medicine, and science.
Download or read book Books of Secrets written by Allison Kavey and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How cultural categories shaped--and were shaped by--new ideas about controlling nature Ranging from alchemy to necromancy, "books of secrets" offered medieval readers an affordable and accessible collection of knowledge about the natural world. Allison Kavey's study traces the cultural relevance of these books and also charts their influence on the people who read them. Citing the importance of printers in choosing the books' contents, she points out how these books legitimized manipulating nature, thereby expanding cultural categories, such as masculinity, femininity, gentleman, lady, and midwife, to include the willful command of the natural world.
Download or read book The Chemistry of Alchemy written by Cathy Cobb and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique approach to the history of science using do-it-yourself experiments along with brief historical profiles to demonstrate how the ancient alchemists stumbled upon the science of chemistry. Be the alchemist! Explore the legend of alchemy with the science of chemistry. Enjoy over twenty hands-on demonstrations of alchemical reactions. In this exploration of the ancient art of alchemy, three veteran chemists show that the alchemists' quest involved real science and they recount fascinating stories of the sages who performed these strange experiments. Why waste more words on this weird deviation in the evolution of chemistry? 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 trial, by error, by design, and by persistence, the alchemists discovered acids, alkalis, alcohols, salts, and exquisite, powerful, and vibrant reactions--which can be reproduced using common products, minerals, metals, and salts. So gather your vats and stoke your fires! Get ready to make burning waters, peacocks' tails, Philosophers' stone, and, of course, gold!
Download or read book Splendor Solis written by Dr. Stephen Skinner and published by Watkins Media Limited. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only high-quality yet affordable edition available of the classic alchemical manuscript Splendor Solis, described as "the most magnificent treatise on alchemy ever made". Includes up-to-date commentary from experts in the field and a modern translation of the 16th-century text. A magnificent edition of the Splendor Solis for all those interested in alchemy, magic and mysterious manuscripts. Popularly attributed to the legendary figure Salomon Trismosin, the Splendor Solis ('Splendour of the Sun') is the most beautiful alchemical manuscript ever made, with 22 fabulous illustrations rich in allegorical and mystical symbolism. The paintings are given a fitting showcase in this new Watkins edition, which accompanies them with Joscelyn Godwin's excellent contemporary translation of the original 16th-century German text, as well as interpretation from alchemical experts Stephen Skinner and Georgiana Hedesan, and from Rafal T. Prinke, an authority in central and Eastern European esoteric manuscripts. Stephen Skinner explains the symbolism of both the text and the illustrations, suggesting that together they describe the physical process of the alchemical transmutation of base metal into gold. Rafal T. Prinke explains the theories about the authorship of both text and illustrations, discussing Splendor Solis as the turning point in alchemical iconography passing from the medieval tradition to that of the Baroque and the reasons for the misattribution of Splendor Solis to Poysel and Trismosin. Georgiana Hedesan looks at the legendary figure of Salomon Trismosin and his creation by followers of Theophrastus Paracelsus as part of an attempt to integrate their master in a lineage of ancient alchemical philosophers. The images are taken from the British Library manuscript Harley 3469, the finest example of the Splendor Solis to survive.
Download or read book The Alchemy of Conquest written by Ralph Bauer and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Age of the Discovery of the Americas was concurrent with the Age of Discovery in science. In The Alchemy of Conquest, Ralph Bauer explores the historical relationship between the two, focusing on the connections between religion and science in the Spanish, English, and French literatures about the Americas during the early modern period. As sailors, conquerors, travelers, and missionaries were exploring "new worlds," and claiming ownership of them, early modern men of science redefined what it means to "discover" something. Bauer explores the role that the verbal, conceptual, and visual language of alchemy played in the literature of the discovery of the Americas and in the rise of an early modern paradigm of discovery in both science and international law. The book traces the intellectual and spiritual legacies of late medieval alchemists such as Roger Bacon, Arnald of Villanova, and Ramon Llull in the early modern literature of the conquest of America in texts written by authors such as Christopher Columbus, Amerigo Vespucci, José de Acosta, Nicolás Monardes, Walter Raleigh, Thomas Harriot, Francis Bacon, and Alexander von Humboldt.
Download or read book Chymia written by Miguel López-Pérez and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2010-10-12 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In September 2008, an international conference on the history of alchemy was held at El Escorial, close to the ancient location of the distilling houses operating under royal patronage during the second half of the 16th century. The present book consists of a selection of the papers presented then, shedding light on little-studied medieval and early modern texts, important alchemical doctrines such as medieval corpuscularianism, early modern spiritus mundi or the function of salt within chymical principles, and discussing such prominent figures as Paracelsus, Isaac Hollandus, Michael Sendivogius, Fontenelle or G. E. Stahl. Last but not least, the book offers new insights on the most recent history of Spanish alchemy.
Download or read book Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum written by Elias Ashmole and published by Cosimo, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 517 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "To All Ingeniously Elaborate Students, In the most Divine Mysteries of Hermetique Learning." Or so British politician and Freemason ELIAS ASHMOLE (1617-1692) dedicated this curious artifact of the esoteric and spiritual philosophy of alchemy. An avid collector of antiquaries and other oddities (they were, upon his death, bequeathed to Oxford University, which used them to found the Ashmolean Museum), Ashmole counted among his treasures volumes of metaphysical poems available only in private, and fiercely guarded, manuscripts. In 1652, though, he collected many of these writings in this hefty tome, annotated with his own comments. Included are: . "The Ordinall of Alchimy" by Thomas Norton . "The Compound of Alchymie" by Sir George Ripley . "Liber Patris Sapientiae" . "The Tale of the Chanons Yeoman" by Geoffry Chaucer . "The Worke of John Dastin" . "The Hunting of the Greene Lyon" by the Viccar of Malden . "Bloomsfields Blossoms: Or, The Campe of Philosophy" . "Sir Ed Kelley Concerning the Philosopher's Stone" . and much more. Once a resource for such natural philosophers as Isaac Newton, the Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum remains an astonishing album of arcania.
Download or read book Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum written by Elias Ashmole and published by Literary Licensing, LLC. This book was released on 2014-03-29 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Is A New Release Of The Original 1750 Edition.
Download or read book Blood Matters written by Bonnie Lander and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2018-05-04 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blood Matters explores blood as a distinct category of inquiry in medieval and early modern Europe and draws together scholars who might not otherwise be in conversation.
Download or read book Alchemical Poetry 1575 1700 written by Robert M. Schuler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-02-11 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of interest to interdisciplinary historians as well as those in various other fields, this book presents the first publication of 14 poems ranging from 12 to 3,000 lines. The poems are printed in the chronological order of their composition, from Elizabethan to Augustan times, but nine of them are verse translations of works from earlier periods in the development of alchemy. Each has a textual and historical introduction and explanatory note by the Editor. Renaissance alchemy is acknowledged as an important element in the histories of early modern science and medicine. This book emphasises these poems’ expression of and shaping influence on religious, social and political values and institutions of their time too and is a useful reference work with much to offer for cultural studies and literary studies as well as science and history.
Download or read book The Concept of Nature in Early Modern English Literature written by Peter Remien and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-14 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Participates in an intellectual history of ecology while prompting a re-evaluation of nature in the early modern period.
