About Alchemists

When we think of alchemy, we think of magicians trying to change lead into gold. Yet alchemy was actually the study of chemistry from the 3rd century BC all the way through the next 2000 years. The word probably comes from the Greek chemeia, which meant to transmute or change matter; and that's what alchemy, like chemistry itself, has always been concerned with. Alchemy originated when Aristotle took up an older idea that all matter combined the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. He guessed that these elements could be changed -- transmuted -- by the action of heat and cold, or dampness and dryness. Aristotle's ideas were developed first by the Greeks after him, and then by Arab scientists. From time to time, alchemy mired itself in metaphysical razzle-dazzle. The practical Romans had no taste for it at all. So, as civilization spread North into Europe, alchemy all but vanished until the 13th and 14th centuries, when scholars began to reread the old Greek and Arabic texts. Of course, alchemy promised great wealth to anyone who figured out how to transmute other metals into gold. It might seem a waste that so many alchemists devoted their lives to that, but the spin-off was enormous. By trying to understand transmutation, they learned about practical metallurgy, about extracting metals from ores, and about chemical reaction. Their results were reported in terms alien to our ears, but the late medieval chemists were suprisingly able metallurgists. Late-17th-century chemists saw matter as made up of three elements, or "earths," as they were called: Vitreous earth gave solidity to matter; fluid earth gave it liquidity; and fatty earth, which was later called phlogiston, gave it combustibility. These were the old Aristotelian elements of earth, water, and fire -- without air! Air was thought to be inert and not a part of other materials. All the while, a more and more analytical science was being built on these ideas. The alchemical view of matter didn't give way to an atomic theory until less than two hundred years ago. And then it didn't give way completely. When people realized that heat wasn't a part of matter, they replaced phlogiston with caloric. Caloric was another Aristotelian substance that occupied all matter and flowed from hot bodies to cold ones. Even after the atomic theory of matter replaced the various earths, caloric was still being used to describe heat when my grandfather was a little boy. So before we write alchemy off as voodoo magic, we'd better ask what our own chemistry will look like in the 22nd century. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.

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History Of Alchemy

From an early period the Egyptians possessed the reputation of being skillful workers in metals and, according to Greek writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers, and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of the various metals, that in it their various substances were incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth century, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form. There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained in its entirety in his works. The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their instrumentality the art was brought to Morocco and thus in the eighth century to Spain, where it flourished exceedingly. Indeed, Spain from the ninth to the eleventh century became the repository of alchemic science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova and Granada were the centers from which this science radiated throughout Europe. The first practical alchemist may be said to have been the Arbian Geber, who flourished 720-750. From his "Summa Perfectionis", we may be justified in assuming that alchemical science was already matured in his day, and that he drew his inspirations from a still older unbroken line of adepts. He was followed by Avicenna, Mesna and Rhasis, and in France by Alain of Lisle, Arnold de Villanova and Jean de Meung the troubadour; in England by Roger Bacon and in Spain itself by Raymond Lully. Later, in French alchemy the most illustrious names are those of Flamel (b. ca. 1330), and Bernard Trevisan (b. ca. 1460) after which the center of of interest changes to Germany and in some measure to England, in which countries Paracelsus, Khunrath (ca. 1550), Maier (ca. 1568), Norton, Dalton, Charnock, and Fludd kept the alchemical flame burning brightly. It is surprising how little alteration we find throughout the period between the seventh and the seventeenth centuries, the heyday of alchemy, in the theory and practice of the art. The same sentiments and processes are found expressed in the later alchemical authorities as in the earliest, and a wonderful unanimity as regards the basic canons of the great art is evinced by the hermetic students of the time. On the introduction of chemistry as a practical art, alchemical science fell into desuetude and disrepute, owing chiefly to the number of charlatans practicing it, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century, as a school, it may be said to have become defunct. Here and there, however, a solitary student of the art lingered, and in the department of this article "Modern Alchemy" will demonstrate that the science has to a grate extent revived during modern times, although it has never been quite extinct. Taken from a 1960 reprint of "AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF OCCULTISM", by Lewis Spence; University Press, Hyde Park, New York. Originally Published in 1920, it is considered to be one of the most complete texts on the subject.

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Ahmad Ibn Imad Ul Din

Ahmad ibn Imad al-din, was a Persian physician and alchemist. He was probably from Nishapur. He was the author of an alchemical treatise titled On the Art of the Elixir (or Fi sina'at al-iksir) which is preserved in the National Library of Medicine. No other copy has been identified, and the author is not listed in the published bibliographies of Islamic writers on alchemy. He wrote the alchemical treatise titled On the Art of the Elixir (or Fi sina'at al-iksir), in which he describes various Chemical Reactions. The manuscript copy is undated, but appears to be of the 17th or 18th century. In it, there is extensive marginalia giving citations from Jabir ibn Hayyan.

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Saint Thomas Aquinas

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Saint Thomas Aquinas [Thomas of Aquin, or Aquino] was an Italian Catholic philosopher and theologian in the scholastic tradition, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Universalis. He is the most famous classical proponent of natural theology. He gave birth to the Thomistic school of philosophy, which was long the primary philosophical approach of the Catholic Church. He is considered by the Catholic Church to be its greatest theologian; he is one of the thirty-three Doctors of the Church. Also, many institutions of learning have been named after him.

The birth-year of Thomas Aquinas is commonly given as 1227, but he was probably born early in 1225 at his father's castle of Roccasecea (75 m. e.s.e. of Rome) in Neapolitan territory.

He died at the monastery of Fossanova, one mile from Sonnino (64 m. s.e. of Rome), Mar. 7, 1274.

His father was Count Landulf of an old high-born south Italian family, and his mother was Countess Theodora of Theate, of noble Norman descent.

In his fifth year he was sent for his early education to the monastery of Monte Cassino, where his father's brother Sinibald was abbot.

Later he studied in Naples.

Probably in 1243 he determined to enter the Dominican order; but on the way to Rome he was seized by his brothers and brought back to his parents at the castle of S. Giovanni, where he was held a captive for a year or two and besieged with prayers, threats, and even sensual temptation to make him relinquish his purpose.

Finally the family yielded and the order sent Thomas to Cologne to study under Albertus Magnus, where he arrived probably toward the end of 1244. He accompanied Albertus to Paris in 1245, remained there with his teacher, continuing his studies for three years, and followed Albertus at the latter's return to Cologne in 1248.

For several years longer he remained with the famous philosopher of scholasticism, presumably teaching. This long association of Thomas with the great polyhistor was the most important influence in his development; it made him a comprehensive scholar and won him permanently for the Aristotelian method.

In 1252 probably Thomas went to Paris for the master's degree, which he found some difficulty in attaining owing to attacks, at that time on the mendicant orders.

Ultimately, however, he received the degree and entered ceremoniously Upon his office of teaching in 1257; he taught in Paris for several years and there wrote certain of his works and began others.

In 1259 he was present at an important chapter of his order at Valenciennes, At the solicitation of Pope Urban IV. (therefore not before the latter part of 1261), he took up his residence in Rome.

In 1269-71 he was again active in Paris. In 1272 the provincial chapter at Florence empowered him to found a new studium generale at such place as he should choose, and he selected Naples. Early in 1274 the pope directed Mm to attend the Council of Lyons and he undertook the journey, although he was far from well.

On the way he stopped at the castle of a niece and there became seriously ill. He wished to end his days in a monastery and not being able to reach a house of the, Dominicans he was carried to the Cistercian Fossanova.

There, first, after his death, his remains were preserved.

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