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Ambix
The Catalogue of the Ripley Corpus: Alchemical Writings Attributed to George Ripley (d. ca. 14902010 •
2011 •
This essay considers the implications of a shift in focus from ideas to practices in the history of alchemy. On the one hand, it is argued, this new attention to practice highlights the diversity of ways that early modern Europeans engaged alchemy, ranging from the literary to the entrepreneurial and artisanal, as well as the broad range of social and cultural spaces that alchemists inhabited. At the same time, however, recent work has demonstrated what most alchemists shared-namely, a penchant for reading, writing, making, and doing, all at the same time. Any history of early modern alchemy, therefore, must attend to all of these practices, as well as the interplay among them. In this sense, alchemy offers a model for thinking and writing about early modern science more generally, particularly in light of recent work that has explored the intersection of scholarly, artisanal, and entrepreneurial forms of knowledge in the early modem period.
2018 •
By the time it was published in 1705, the "Speculum Sapientiae" claimed to have had a long history going back to 1672. However, the fact that exaggerated stories were commonplace in alchemical literature leads us to question its credibility. This paper explores the secret lives of this alchemical text prior to its print publication to clarify the roles of manuscripts in early-modern alchemy. Specifically, I argue that there were three aspects that could distinguish manuscript from print: provenance, materiality, and exclusivity. These can be seen at work in the fate of Johann Heinrich Vierordt, an itinerant alchemist and cavalry captain whose career is inextricably linked to the scribal dissemination of the "Speculum Sapientiae." In addition to manuscript copies of that text at libraries across Europe, a significant cache of correspondence preserved in Gotha documents Vierordt’s dealings with Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha. The verisimilitudinous provenance of Vierordt’s alchemical secrets and tincture played a crucial role in allowing him to gain Friedrich’s trust. Yet it was only after Vierordt presented him with a precious parchment manuscript of the "Speculum Sapientiae" that he truly succeeded in gaining the duke’s patronage. Subsequently, reports of multiple conflicting copies surfacing in Amsterdam sealed Vierordt’s fall from favour.
University of Bristol (l uk.bl.ethos.805631 )
ANATOMY OF SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ALCHEMY AND CHEMISTRY2020 •
ABSTRACT It is claimed that alchemy and alchemists/early modern chymists contributed substantially to proto-chemistry in important ways. To a significant degree, sound science was being practised in the Latin West during the seventeenth century, though not all criteria were met consistently across all nations at all times. This thesis will: (1) Define the criteria for best practice of science (specifically chemistry) using a Wittgensteinian approach; (2) Examine the level to which such criteria were appreciated and adhered to across a representative sample of chemical practices during the seventeenth century. As a counteraction to the extremely negative perceptions of alchemy, often associated with the occult, I demonstrate a dynamic, international community, whose operational practices, far from being unscientific, included many of the criteria which are regarded in modern times as essential prerequisites of science. Determining exactly what constitutes good science is problematic, especially since it is disputed by some that science can even be distinguished from non-science. Therefore, a Wittgensteinian 'family resembles' approach to analysis of science has been selected, establishing the essential characteristics by which good science can be recognised. These criteria are divided into two groups, one designated ‘core requirements’ plus further ‘desirable’ elements. By evaluating various Early Modern chymistry textbooks, operational procedures, research communities and other components, I conclude that many of the criteria for good science were extant in the period in the Latin West. There are a few criteria which are under-represented or absent, for example, Popperian falsificationism and an inconsistent application of scepticism. The overall conclusion is the core criteria of critical reasoning, robust experimentation techniques, challenges to authorities and many of the important values and methods were present within a research community that had developed significantly in the Early Modern period, spanning Europe during the seventeenth-century and beyond.
2008 •
Archaeology International
The archaeology of alchemy and chemistry in the early modern world: an afterthought2012 •
An influential strand of English alchemy was the pursuit of the “vegetable stone,” a medicinal elixir popularized by George Ripley (d. ca. 1490), made from a metallic substance, “sericon.” Yet the identity of sericon was not fixed, undergoing radical reinterpretation between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries as Ripley’s lead-based practice was eclipsed by new methods, notably the antimonial approach of George Starkey (1628–65). Tracing “sericonian” alchemy over 250 years, I show how alchemists fed their practical findings back into textual accounts, creating a “feedback loop” in which the authority of past adepts was maintained by exegetical manipulations—a process that I term “practical exegesis.”
Alchemy and Rudolf II. Exploring the Secrets of Nature in Central Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries
Alchemy and Rudolf IIIvo Purš, Vladimír Karpenko (eds.) It is difficult to think of a theme in Bohemian and Central European history in the early modern age that is so popular and at the same time still today so little understood as that of the alchemy that is associated with the reign of the Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612). The blame for this can by no means be laid solely at the door of the wellknown film from the early 1950s, for it only took over the oversimplified picture of “Rudolfine alchemy” as it was developed in Czech and German historiography in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th. This picture mixed legends with facts that could be historically documented, and which were consequently frequently interpreted incorrectly. It was not until the 1970s that the situation started to change, when a renewed interest in Mannerism and Rudolfine art led historians to examine other areas of Rudolfine culture, and therefore alchemy, too, which was a significant part of that culture. This interest was naturally accompanied by historians looking at alchemy itself in a different way, no longer seeing it simply as a predecessor of modern chemistry – and thus as a subject reserved for the specialised history of science – and starting to study it as a complex and significant cultural-historical and social phenomenon connected with other disciplines, technologies, and areas of the life of society, including not only medicine, mining and metallurgy, but also religion, visual art, and the representation of the nobility. This publication deals both with activities that were directly supported by the Emperor Rudolf II, and also those that developer in the broader social circle connected with the imperial court. This extended beyond the Czech lands to take in Austria and many parts of the Holy Roman Empire. The theme under consideration is primarily delimited by the period of the reign of Rudolf II, from 1576 to 1612, but for a proper understanding of the context it is also essential to refer to the development of alchemical research in Central Europe roughly from the beginning of the 16th century, and it is likewise important to follow its repercussions in the 17th century. Texts: Ivo Purš, Vladimír Karpenko, Jarmila Hausenblasová, William Eamon, René Zandbergen, Rafał T. Prinke, Hiro Hirai, Alena Richterová, Jakub Hlaváček, Josef Smolka, Václav Bůžek, John A. Norris, and Pavel Drábek Second edition, first english edition, 869 pp., index of names, Praha 2016
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2007 •
2003 •
Bulletin for the History of Chemistry
Review: Gary Patterson, Chemistry in 17th-Century New England. Cham, Springer, 20202022 •
2021 •
Bulletin of the Indian Institute of History of Medicine (Hyderabad)
Medical aspects of the late European alchemy1995 •
2018 •
2005 •
Longevity and Immortality. Europe - Islam - Asia (Micrologus 26).
A Quest for Longevity? A New Approach to the Earliest Testimonies of Medieval Alchemy2018 •
Annual of Medieval Studies at CEU, VOL. 16, 2010, 166-190.
Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemy2010 •
2005 •
The Sixteenth Century Journal
Bruce T. Moran, Andreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy: Separating Chemical Cultures with Polemical Fire (Sagamore Beach, MA: Science History Publications, 2007)2009 •
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
<i>Chymists and Chymistry: Studies in the History of Alchemy and Early Modern Chemistry</i> (review)2008 •
1993 •
2020 •
2000 •
… AND TERRITORIES THE EVOLVING IDENTITY OF …
Speaking About the Other Ones: Swedish Chemists on Alchemy, c. 1730-702008 •