She collected over four hundred alchemical, medicinal, and cosmetic recipes, and corresponded with other alchemical adepts about materials and laboratory techniques.
What is the Splendor Solis?
October 27, 2014 By
The most beautiful and well known illuminated alchemical manuscript in the world.
Pedlars and Alchemists in Friuli History of itinerant sellers in an alpine reality
August 25, 2014 By
This short review discusses about itinerant sellers in Friuli, who are Cramaro called (XI-XIX centuries). Attention is focused, in particular, on the question if some of theme were alchemists.
Depicting the Medieval Alchemical Cosmos: George Ripley’s Wheel of Inferior Astronomy
December 10, 2013 By
Alchemical writing often develops the idea of a physical or analogical correspondence between heaven and earth: a relationship most fre- quently and conveniently expressed by the use of the seven planetary symbols (Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn) to denote the seven metals (usually gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin and lead respectively).
Visualization in Medieval Alchemy
April 14, 2013 By
Therefore, rather than attempting to establish an exhaustive inventory of visual forms in medieval alchemy or a premature synthesis, the purpose of this article is to sketch major trends in visualization and to exemplify them by their earliest appearance so far known.
The Rise of Alchemy in Fourteenth-Century England
February 6, 2013 By
However the alchemical source of the early fourteenth century also explicitly maintained that knowledge of the secret of secrets involved an understanding of the hidden forces within the earth, and this in turn would bring earthly power. The most obvious manifestation of this interest in alchemical secrets lay in the belief that controlled experimentation with mercury and sulphur could effect transmutation of base metals into gold.
Fools, Devils, and Alchemy: Secular Images in the Monastery
December 9, 2012 By
The fool is one of the most popular and stable character types throughout cultures and times. This is especially true of medieval Europe. The fool, sometimes a jester, sometimes a clown or a trickster, is always recognizable through his abnormal appearance.
Understanding the Language of Alchemy
September 30, 2012 By
The editing of medieval alchemical texts poses a number of challenges to the modern scholar.
Towards a Context for Ibn Umayl, Known to Chaucer as the Alchemist ‘Senior’
August 18, 2012 By
his article will present what we know of the life and times of an important alchemist, Ibn Umayl.
Harley MS. 3469: Splendor Solis or Splendour of the Sun – A German Alchemical Manuscript
August 13, 2012 By
Splendor Solis oder Sonnenglanz is the title of an illuminated manuscript that can rightfully be called one of the principal works of the alchemical tradition (fig. 1). The text survives in many witnesses dating from the early sixteenth to the nineteenth century, of which Harl. MS. 3469 is definitely the most famous and best preserved example.
The Magic of Image: Astrological, Alchemical and Magical Symbolism at the Court of Wenceslas IV
May 22, 2012 By
The Czech Renaissance man of letters Vaclav Hajek of Libocany explained the representations of kingfishers and half naked bathmaidens that he saw painted on some Prague buildings, as records of saucy affairs from the life of the King Bohemia Wenceslas IV.
Contributions of contemporary science to Chaucer’s work
May 3, 2012 By
The thesis shows that the Medieval Sciences made a significant contribution to Chaucer’s mind and art, and that Chaucer shared the attitude of great scholars before and after him
Technology and Alchemical Debate in the Late Middle Ages
March 11, 2012 By
The medieval world view was marked by a deep division between art and nature. Stemming partly from Aristotle, and partlyfrom other Greek, Latin, and Arabic sources, this view placed strict boundaries on the conceptual limits of technical innovation.
Magic
January 16, 2012 By
No one knew the risks and rewards of magic better than Agrippa. His notorious handbook, De occulta philosophia, circulated in manuscript by 1510, though it was printed only in 1533, over the complaints of Dominican inquisitors.
Dreaming of dwarves: Nightmares and Shamanism in Anglo-Saxon Poetics and the Wid Dweorh Charm
January 8, 2012 By
Psychological and psychiatric ailments must have baffled early medical practitioners.
Conference on ‘Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment’ taking place at University of Cambridge
September 23, 2011 By
The University of Cambridge is hosting an international conference – Alchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment – which will include over 25 papes ranging from the ancient Greeks to the alchemical remedies of the fifteenth-century English royal physician John Argentein. The meeting will be the first of its kind to bring together leading […]
Adelard of Bath and Roger Bacon: early English natural philosophers and scientists
September 5, 2011 By
Adelard of Bath and Roger Bacon: early English natural philosophers and scientists Hackett, Jeremiah M. Endeavour, Vol. 26(2) 2002 Abstract The image of Roger Bacon as a ‘modern’ experimental scientist was propagated as historical truth in 19th century scientific historiography. Twentieth century criticisms attacked this tradition, arguing that Bacon was primarily a medieval philosopher with ‘medieval’ scientific […]
Early Medieval Crystal Amulets: Secular Instruments of Protection and Healing
June 28, 2011 By
The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing I: Images and Objects Sponsor: AVISTA: The Association Villard de Honnecourt for the Interdisciplinary Study of Medieval Technology, Science, and Art and Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages Organizer: Barbara S. Bowers (Ohio State University), and Linda Migl Keyser, (University of […]
A Comprehensive History of Beer Brewing
June 26, 2011 By
Brewing has been a human activity ever since the beginning of urbanization and civilization in the Neolithic period
LETTING THE GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE: EVOLUTION OF AROMATHERAPY THROUGH THE AGES
April 10, 2011 By
LETTING THE GENIE OUT OF THE BOTTLE: EVOLUTION OF AROMATHERAPY THROUGH THE AGES Lyubetska, Valeria (University of Manitoba) The Proceedings of the 11th Annual HISTORY OF MEDICINE DAYS, FACULTY OF MEDICINE THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY, March 22nd and 23rd (2002) Abstract In this paper I will trace and highlight the major points in the history of Aromatherapy development. […]
Ibn Wahshiyya and Magic
March 6, 2011 By
Ibn Wahshiyya and Magic Anaquel de Estudios Árabes X (1999) HÁMEEM-ANTTILA, JAAKKO Magic has always had a role to play in Islamie society’. Its use has often been condemned by religious scholars, yet the efficacy of magic has never been contested; the early tenth-century religious scholar al-Ash ‘arT (d. 324/936), to take but one example, wrote […]
Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?
February 20, 2011 By
Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman? LaGrandeur, Kevin Comparative Literature and Culture, Volume 12, Issue 3, (September 2010) Article 3 Abstract In his article “Do Medieval and Renaissance Androids Presage the Posthuman?” Kevin LaGrandeur analyzes the relationships between literary images of artificial humans associated with medieval alchemists and alchemy, their modified reemergence in the […]
Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium
January 31, 2011 By
The main concern of this paper will be with the problems raised by the reception of ancient alchemy in Byzantium.
A Previously Unidentified Fragment of ‘Pearce the Black Monke Upon the Elixir’ in MS. Mellon 43
January 6, 2011 By
A Previously Unidentified Fragment of ‘Pearce the Black Monke Upon the Elixir’ in MS. Mellon 43 Timmermann, Anke Marginalia, Vol.1 (2005) Abstract Among the manuscripts of the Mellon collection, which now forms part of Yale University’s Beinecke Library holdings, there is an alchemical miscellany of a diversity not unusual for sixteenth-century notebooks. The four (ex)tracts […]
Islamic Alchemy and the Birth of Chemistry
March 16, 2009 By
Examines the development of the science of chemistry in the Arabic world, from its religious and philosophical background, and focusing on two famous Islamic scholars – Jabir ibn Hayyan and Muhammad ibn Zakariyaa Razi.
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