Alchemy, image and text: the waning of alchemy and the decline of visual discourse in the late Renaissance

Adrian Holme, University of the Arts London.

From its obscure origins in antiquity the alchemical tradition enjoyed a late flowering in seventeenth-century Europe with the appointment of alchemists at
European Courts and a profusion of alchemical publication within the rapidlyexpanding output of printed books. . Alchemical literature employed a balance of text
and image, in which visual argument, using analogy, resemblance, emblem and allegory, complemented text... The question of why this system gave way, in the
late seventeenth century and ensuing Enlightenment to modern scientific and other serious discourse, progressively stripped of images, is discussed with
reference to the writings of Francis Bacon, Edmund Burke, Ernst Gombrich, WJT Mitchell and Marshall McLuhan. 

Full text:

www.researchgate.net/publication/273525832_Alchemy_image_and_text_The_waning_of_alchemy_and_the_decline_of_visual_discourse_in_the_late_Renaissance

Martha Keith Schuchard writes: "Determined to collaborate with [the medical doctor and alchemist] Dr. Levison, Nordensjköld traveled to London in 1779, where he moved into the Jew’s residence in Soho Square (nearby Rainsford’s home in the square). In December Nordensjköld and Levison began printing A Plain System of Alchymy, which combined Swedenborgian metaphysics with practical chemistry. They interrupted the printing when they decided to travel to Stockholm in order to solicit the sponsorship of Gustav III for their alchemical endeavors.”

https://bq.blakearchive.org/26.2.schuchard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_Nordenski%C3%B6ld

https://www.alchemywebsite.com/spiritual_stone.html



Only the first 16 pages were printed. Available as a pdf from the link below - click on 'Klicka här för att ladda ner filen'

https://weburn.kb.se/eod_best/metadata/0...rjd05z.htm

"If the paramount project of W.B. Yeats’ professional life was the perfection of the art of poetry, it was intertwined with a personal preoccupation, the study and practice of magic—not in any metaphorical sense, but the dedicated pursuit of supernatural powers based upon the ancient traditions of alchemy and necromancy, which began in his youth and persisted to the end of his long life."

https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/magic-s...eats-magus

"Prior to the founding of the Inner Order behind the Golden Dawn, Theurgy had never before been the primary focus of the Rosicrucian spiritual tradition, but rather Alchemy instead. Indeed, the Rosicrucian tradition itself grew out of the Alchemical tradition. The true place of Theurgy within the Rosicrucian tradition has always been as a complementary discipline to Alchemy."


https://augustorderofthemysticrose.org/f...and_gd.pdf

"The Alchemical Arts brought down to earth"

Joseph Lisiewski.

Full text/Open source.

https://archive.org/details/grimoire_201...h/mode/2up

First published in Ad Lucem XII 2005.

http://sanmarcoslodge342.org/wp-content/...oix-II.pdf

Hamilton-Jones edition.

https://documents.pub/document/bacstroms...tml?page=1

Openverse is a tool that allows openly licensed and public domain works to be discovered and used by everyone.

Openverse searches across more than 700 million images and audio from open APIs and the Common Crawl dataset. It goes beyond simple search to aggregate results across multiple public repositories into a single catalog, and facilitates reuse through features like machine-generated tags and one-click attribution.

Currently Openverse only searches images and audio, with search for video provided through External Sources. But we plan to add additional media types, such as open texts and 3D models, with the ultimate goal of providing access to the estimated 2.5 billion CC-licensed and public domain works on the web. All of our code is open source (Openverse front end, Openverse API, Openverse Catalogue) and we welcome community contribution. You can see what we’re currently working on.



https://openverse.org/en-gb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonhard_Thurneysser

https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek...BJYPH5J6SU

From Theosophische Darstellung zur Alchemie


   

"This thesis examines the evidence for divinatory practices in Roman Egypt, focusing on rituals for questioning deities, and using the so-called "Theban Magical Library" as the core corpus within which this practice is examined. The first chapter examines the evidence for this archive, its publication and reception history, as well as its form and contents, in terms of physical, scribal, linguistic, and ritual features. This analysis is then used to situate the Library within the cultural context of Roman Egypt, and the historical development of Egyptian magical practice."

Full text

Many alchemical references.



https://figshare.mq.edu.au/articles/thes...19440419/1