Page 6 - Book of Composition

Introduction

Adam McLean

Liber de compositione alchimiae is reputed the first text on alchemy
to have been translated from Arabic sources into Latin. It is dated 1144
and marks the beginning of the European concern with alchemy that has
endured for nearly 900 years.

The translator was Robertus Castrensis, Robert of Chester, now
usually referred to as Robert of Ketton, c.1110-1160 an English monastic
scholar who based himself in Spain, and occupied himself in translating
key works from Arabic to Latin, thus making them available to European
culture. He is best known perhaps for his translation of the Koran and the
Algebra of al-Kwarizimi.

At first ‘The book of the composition of alchemy’ circulated in
manuscript among the small group of people who would have been
interested in this material. At least six manuscripts have survived from
the 13th century, seven from the 14th, and eighteen from the 15th, there
being many variations between these manuscripts. In 1559 the work was
printed in Latin at Paris,

Morieni Romani, Quondam Eremitae Hierosolymitani, de
transfiguratione metallorum, et occulta, summaque antiquorum
philosophorum medicina, Libellus, nusquam hactenus in lucem editus.
Paris, apud Gulielmum Guillard, in via Iacobaea, sub diuae Barbarae
signo. 1559.

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