#medievalscience

Upon the decline of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries the continent of Europe found itself in the unique position of being able to rebuild itself and try to develop its own identity. The centuries ahead would shape not only Europe but the world with both events and influences from monarchies, economic and political structures, and the church. While Europe was becoming highly influential to different parts of the globe, other outside practices would be brought into the continent that would greatly influence Europe for centuries and have a hand in many aspects of European thought. Brought in from the east, the study of alchemy was one discipline that would heavily permeate medieval European thought. Greatly dismissed today as being a foolish and archaic study, alchemy in medieval Europe was a serious branch of study becoming an influence in theology, medicine, literature, and would be seriously consulted by some of the highest heads of the monarchies and the church. Much more than simply changing lead to gold, alchemy’s most successful transmutation was not in material goods, but in the fabric of medieval Europe.

    It is estimated that the study of alchemy was born in the Nile valley of ancient Egypt with the name “alchemy” being derived from the Arabic article “al” to the term “chemia”, meaning the preparation of silver and gold, which itself may have been derived from “Khem”, the ancient name for Egypt.Egyptian alchemists were extremely advanced in metallurgy (the science of studying various metal compounds, their physical and chemical behaviors, and their manipulations) and by 3000 B.C.E. Egyptians had mastered the art of smelting, fusion, alloying, and the weighing of various metals.While alchemy had a very solid base in the sciences, for the Egyptians alchemy was just as much spirit as science. According to the Egyptians, the father of alchemy was a godlike being named Thoth who was everlasting, existed on all planes, and was the inventor of language and writing who first brought the knowledge of not only alchemy but also mathematics, agriculture, music, religion, magic, medicine, and sciences to the people. Greek alchemy was rooted in the teaching of Aristotle and his discussions of the origin of minerals and metals in the earth, the four fundamental properties of hot, moist, cold, and dry and the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. To the Greeks Thoth became Hermes and his Latin name of Hermes Trismegistus is to whom the document The Emerald Tablet is attributed. This document gave the philosophical foundation of alchemy with rules such as “that which is below corresponds with that which is above, and that which is above corresponds to that which is below.”

17th century depiction of the Emerald Tablet 

These two cultures and their alchemical practices were fused together with the conquering of Egypt by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and when Alexandria fell to the Arabs in 641 they inherited the alchemical teachings. It was in the Islamic empires of Baghdad and Damascus in the seventh and eighth centuries that practices in metallurgical technique, the use of corrosive acids, and the belief that all life at its most basic is the result of the merging of sulfur and mercury were refined. Of the handful of influential alchemists that would come from the Islamic school of alchemical thought one of the most revered is Jabir ibn Hayyan of Baghdad. Jabir was employed as an alchemist in the court of the Abbasid Caliph and between the eighth and tenth century he would write a collection of 112 books on alchemy, seventy of which would be translated into Latin during the Middle Ages and known as the Septuaginta. Works attributed to Jabir (or to his Latin name of Geber) were often too detailed, complicated, and secretive to be understood by outsiders but they outlined some of the major components of alchemy that in order to transform base metals into gold one must purify and balance the sulfur and mercury. According to Jabir, sulfur and mercury were two elements that acted on metals in the same way as dyes on cloth, depending on the mixtures and treatments, a range of results were possible.

Symbols in medieval Arabic alchemy inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs

    While alchemy was becoming a flourishing practice in various parts of the globe it remained virtually unknown in Europe until the seizure of the Muslim cities of Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville between 1085 and 1248 by the Christian kings of Europe. Initially after the invasions the Muslim and Christian populations were able to live in mutual respect, exchanging ideas and attributes of one another’s culture. Schools of translation were established in these areas dedicated to the translation and transcribing of Muslim scientific knowledge making the knowledge available to Christian travelers. Additionally, English monks, clergy, and university scholars were attracted to the medical schools of the area as well as Italy and Sicily who were practitioners of alchemical practices. The earliest known translation of an Arabic alchemical document dates from 1130 and by 1200 Europe began seeing an abundance of translated alchemical work in their libraries, hospitals, and universities. Some of the most effective vessels for the spread of alchemical knowledge were the friars who were arguably some of the most scholarly travelers within Medieval Europe and would gather information to be documented in encyclopedic volumes acknowledging all fields of learning, including alchemy.

    Although it became a prevalent practice in the medieval age there were a few whose hands were especially important to the growth and general study of alchemy in Europe. One of the first European alchemists was Albert Magnus (1193-1280), a brilliant Dominican friar who was well educated in many fields of study. Magnus realized through the observation of metals that the regularity of properties of certain elements repeat in a cycle stating “These metals are similar in their essence, and differ only in their form. One may pass easily from one to another, following a definite cycle.”Partially based on this observation and the study of Aristotle’s theories of mineral generation, Magnus would develop his own theories on transmutation and have various alchemical writings accredited to him including Semita recta, De Occulta naturae, and de alchemica.He believed alchemy to be a branch of study that was part science and part philosophy seeking an understanding of God and spirituality through physical experimentation. One treatise attributed to Magnus tells of his pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone and the Elixir of Life with other writings of his documenting his experimentations with lead oxide, iron sulfate, and cream of tartar, and further experiments leading some to credit him with the discovery of potassium lye. Magnus commented in his writings that those pursuing alchemy became poverty stricken in their attempts and wrote rules that he believed the alchemist should adhere to for success:

“First. He should be discrete and silent, revealing to no one the results of his operations. Second. He should reside in a private house in an isolated situation. Third. He should choose his days and hours of labor with discretion. Fourth. He should have patience, diligence, and perseverance. Fifth. He should perform only according to the fixed rules. Sixth. He should use only vessels of glass or glazed earthenware. Seventh. He should be sufficiently rich to bear the expenses of his art. Eighth. He should avoid anything to do with princes and nobleman”

Fresco of Magnus     

 The writings of Magnus specifically on the subject of alchemy vary greatly from his belief that he was granted a working knowledge of alchemy by the grace of God to his writings within his Book of Minerals where he expressed that much of the alchemical work being done is only accomplished by people dyeing metals. Other writings attributed to him include the Libellus de alchimia which contains descriptions of alchemical operations, specific pieces of lab equipment to be used in said operations, and common chemicals and experiments to be carried out with them. Lastly, this book contains recipes for the production of gold and silver with Magnus stating ‘that metals can be produced by alchemy which are the equal of natural metals in almost all of their qualities and effects.” One of the most famous pupils of Magnus was St. Thomas Aquinas who believed the practice of alchemy was possible but that the art was an extremely difficult one relying on things such as celestial alignment that could not be controlled by the alchemist. 

1929 French trading card depicting Magnus as an alchemist

    The first of the early alchemists to believe that the alchemy was a path to eternal life was Roger Bacon (1214- 1292), a highly educated member of the Franciscan Order who would experiment and write extensively on the study of alchemy becoming one of its most prominent voices in Europe. A supporter of visible and tangible knowledge, Bacon believed that the Bible contained the whole of all knowledge and that to understand it fully one must understand every art and science. He believed in two forms of alchemy, “speculative” and “practical” in which speculative alchemy teaches of the generation of things from the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) and the salts, gems, and humors that arise from them. Practical alchemy which dealt with the actual manufacturing of elements, metals, chemicals and the like was regarded by Bacon to be the most important of the sciences because it could be used not only to create material goods but also could lead to discoveries on how to prolong human life beyond the natural timeframe. Bacon was a firm believer in experimentation within the sciences and felt there may have been ways that science could prevail over nature. In his 1249 work De Secretis Artis Naturce Bacon details a process in refining saltpeter, writes of metallurgic experiments with gold, silver, lead, tin, copper and iron, and describes the processes of subliming, distilling, calcining, the regulating of heat, and the maintenance of alchemical equipment. It is reported that although he was a Franciscan monk and had credentials from Oxford Bacon’s experimentation grew some criticism from the church who placed him under house arrest in Oxford in 1257. Pope Clement IV agreed to end his imprisonment under the condition that Bacon record all of his knowledge into a single book resulting in the writing of the Opus Majus. Completed in 1268 this book illustrated his belief that the integration of all sciences would lead to a single philosophy that had been lost to mankind. Despite his being released from prison Bacon continued to write alchemical texts and criticize the church claiming the ancient civilizations were superior to Christian thought. He was sent to prison for heresy in 1278 and upon being released fourteen years later he once again began writing against the church avoiding prison again until his death in 1292. 

Depiction of Roger Bacon the alchemist in Michael Maier's Symbola aurea mensae 

    Born in approximately 1235 Arnold of Villanova was a physician who had been educated in Naples and although a skeptic on some medicinal practices of the time he was a frequent writer on the subject of alchemy. The longest of his works which translates to The Treasure of Treasures, Rosary of the Philosophers, and the Greatest Secret of all Secrets, begins with Arnold saying he will hold nothing back but urges that the reader has to be ready to decipher the hidden meanings within and that supplementary study will be required to fully understand the art. Discussing the alchemical theory of mercury and sulfur being the two basic ingredients of the universe and all metals he accepts the theory of metallic reconstitution but expressed that mercury is a much more important substance than sulfur and it should be possible to derive gold and silver from mercury alone. According to Arnold, a “mercurial liquid” is needed for the transmutation of base metals and the various precise recipes are given for the transmutation of gold from mercury. Philosophically he shared opinions with Bacon in that the study of the natural world would decipher the greater meaning of life and that medical knowledge, and the knowledge of extending human life, could be divinely inspired. Blending his knowledge of a physician and that of alchemy it was claimed that Arnold believed illness caused by an imbalance of humors could be treated by the application of metals, something that witnesses claim he had allegedly practiced in treating and curing a pope with alchemical gold. 

Alchemical text with the work of Villanova

    One of the most important British voices on alchemy in the fifteenth century was George Ripley, a man who spent much of his early life in a monastery only to leave and travel Europe for many years before returning to England and becoming a member of the Carmelite order where he focused on alchemical studies. Written in 1475 and dedicated to King Edward IV, his main work entitled The Compound of Alchymie conteining Twelve Gates describes the twelve steps required to achieve the magnum opus, the Philosopher’s Stone, and complete the physical process of transmutation. These twelve steps of calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, purification, congelation, cibation, sublimination, fermentation, exaltation, multiplication and projection are individually elaborated on within the text however the text is often difficult to understand with some or the works being produced in the form of scrolls filled with colorful drawings of human and animal which are supposed to symbolize certain parts of the alchemical processes. Ripley subscribed to the common alchemical belief that the progress of alchemy can be viewed by observing the change in colors of the elements involved which Ripley would describe in more highly encrypted language such as “Pekoks fethers in color gay, the Raynbow which shall overgoe The Spottyed Panther wyth the Lyon greene, the Crowys byll bloe as lede.” These allegorical texts relay the belief held by Ripley and other alchemists that the key to all scientific wisdom lay in the obscure texts of ancient civilizations and that the knowledge of alchemy was to be a secret to be understood by the most educated and, like many other alchemists, the purpose was not only the creation of physical gold but also the relationship between the body and soul. However, accounts of Ripley’s accomplishments in the creation of gold were spread throughout Europe with stories of him ranging from him yearly donating extravagant sums of money to the crusades to accounts of those living near him upon his return to England complaining of the smell coming from his laboratory. 

From the alchemical scrolls of George Ripley

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