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  Genizah fragments T-S Ar.44.4 and T-S NS 31.6
Posted by: Paul Ferguson - 01-12-2023, 05:03 PM - Forum: Alchemy texts - No Replies

'On close examination Gabriele Ferrario discovered it was in fact a collection of alchemical recipes. What makes it special, compared to many other alchemical recipes in the Genizah, is that there are not only technical instructions but they reference in quite a lot of detail books of Arabic alchemical literature – works from the Jabirian corpus.' 

https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/genizah-fragme...e-ferrario

   

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  Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth
Posted by: Paul Ferguson - 01-12-2023, 04:42 PM - Forum: Reviews and book notices - No Replies

Surrealist artist Max Ernst defined collage as the "alchemy of the visual image." Students of his work have often dismissed this comment as simply a metaphor for the transformative power of using found images in a new context. Taking a wholly different perspective on Ernst and alchemy, however, M. E. Warlick persuasively demonstrates that the artist had a profound and abiding interest in alchemical philosophy and often used alchemical symbolism in works created throughout his career.

With Google extracts:
https://tinyurl.com/27cfpffn

   

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  University of Bologna research
Posted by: Paul Ferguson - 01-12-2023, 11:15 AM - Forum: Articles on alchemy - No Replies

Can alchemy be described as a protoscience? Do ancient texts with obscure formulas and procedures describe mystic rituals and allegoric visions? Or do they record instructions to carry out real scientific experiments? In other words, can alchemy be considered the ancestor of chemistry?

A group of scholars at the University of Bologna comprising philologists, historians of science, and chemists has attempted to answer these questions. To do so, they not only revived and studied ancient alchemical texts in detail but also put the described procedures into practice in the laboratory. The results of this interdisciplinary work - developed within the AlchemEast ERC project awarded to Prof. Matteo Martelli, Department of Philosophy and Communication Studies - have been published in the journal PNAS.


https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/958189

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2123171119

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  Arthur Machen and Alchemy
Posted by: Paul Ferguson - 01-11-2023, 07:58 PM - Forum: Alchemy texts - No Replies

I've just been reading about Arthur Machen. It's thought that this charming article about alchemy in Household Words first inspired his interest in esoterica at the tender age of 8:

https://www.djo.org.uk/household-words/v...e-135.html

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  Spranger's Allegory of Alchemy
Posted by: Carl Lavoie - 01-09-2023, 01:31 AM - Forum: Alchemical symbolism and imagery - No Replies

.
By the wonderful Flemish Mannerist painter, Bartholomeus Spranger, an Allegory of Alchemy. 

https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-pr...chemy.html

.

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  The Alchemy of Glass
Posted by: Adam McLean - 01-05-2023, 10:48 AM - Forum: Reviews and book notices - No Replies

The Alchemy of Glass Counterfeit, Imitation, and Transmutation in Ancient Glassmaking

Marco Beretta
Published 2009
The book illustrates how glass played an important role in ancient technical and alchemical literature and how the chemical operations devised to improve glass-making inspired alchemists to better define the theoretical boundaries of their discipline and, more specifically, the notion of transmutation.



Now made available online:-

https://www.academia.edu/40144531/The_Al...lassmaking

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  Potion Craft Alchemy Simulator
Posted by: Paul Ferguson - 01-05-2023, 06:05 AM - Forum: Alchemical symbolism and imagery - No Replies

"Any student of history can tell you there is a myriad of professions that no longer exist due to technological advancement, societal trends, or some combination of the two. One such profession is alchemist, which was a term for the earliest students of chemistry, though they didn’t know it at the time. Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator developed by niceplay games and published by tinyBuild gives a peek into what that lifestyle could have been like in ye olden times."


https://techraptor.net/gaming/reviews/po...tor-review

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  Unique alchemical emblem
Posted by: Adam McLean - 12-31-2022, 11:23 AM - Forum: Alchemical symbolism and imagery - Replies (4)

I recently found this rather puzzling alchemical emblem. I can't recall seeing anything quite like it
It is a folded parchment sheet in

University of Kassel, 2° Ms. chem. 24

It is entitled, Spherae sive Compassi mineralis Nova inventio  (A New Discovery of the Mineral Sphere or Compass)

It was created by Justus de Buschia, probably in 1552.


Six rays stream down from heaven and are being collected in a hemispherical vessel. It has a number of holes in its base, and beneath this, on the platform supporting the hemisphere, there are six circular discs. The rays from above shine through the holes onto these discs, which are labelled, Iovis, Solis, Lunae, Martis, Saturni, and Veneris. These discs each bear a symbol that I cannot quite make out.



   

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  'Alchemy on Medals'
Posted by: Carl Lavoie - 12-31-2022, 05:20 AM - Forum: Articles on alchemy - Replies (2)

.
A recently (August '22) amended page, from a site on numismatics, about medals commemorating successful transmutations.

https://www.coingallery.de/Varia/Alchemi...emie_E.htm

.

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  Kircher alchemical chart
Posted by: Adam McLean - 12-30-2022, 08:59 PM - Forum: Alchemical symbolism and imagery - Replies (3)

Here is an interesting diagram found in Athanasius Kircher's book on alchemy in his Mundus Subterraneus.

The Latin text appears to say.
Whatever is contained in the whole of alchemy is set before the eyes of the inquisitive reader, as if in an anacephalaeotic synopsis. And outside of this, whether you look at the manufacture of stone, or at the metallurgical art, or at the mixtures of metals, or again at their genesis, do not look for anything useful and fruitful for chemical operations.

In this combinatorial chart, the imperfect metals and substances all seem to trace themselves back to the perfect metals plus sulphur.

   

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