Lecture 7. 1  Alchemy

word obscure al- Arabic chem may be Egyptian
    
I. Aristotle
    Meteorologica IV: chemical and biological processes
    prime matter opposites of hot cold - active
                 wet and dry - passive
    combinations make up ‘elements’
        water: wet-cold
        fire: hot-dry
        earth: dry-cold
        air: wet-hot
    though Theophrastus doubted whether fire was an element
    Plutarch doubts whether cold is not just absence of heat

‘Chemical’ processes
    concoction ( perfect and imperfect; boiling, parboiling, ripening)
    putrescence (and ends up as earth)
    liquifaction, solidification

smokey and wet exhalations from the earth
    smokey make the earths
    wet make the minerals

II. Theophrastus

*historia as a method: reports of sightings of things
    distrust of high level generalizations and theories
    collects information from practitioners in arts
    information has practical aspect
    not the study of the things in themselves
-studies of plants, stones, odor etc.  – things with less inherent purpose
-fire has several kinds – so Aristotle – depending on its action
    sometimes it melts, solidifies, concocts etc.
    leads easily to ‘my copper’
distinction between mineral and earth


III. Bolos of Mendes (AKA Democritus) 200BC treatise on alchemy
    Physica, in four books, on the making of gold,silver, gems, purple
    *‘nature delights in nature; and nature conquers nature and nature masters nature’
    so quoted in Maria and in Isis
    interest in metals: changing copper into gold using arsenic, mercury and antinomy
        importance of color as determinant of nature
        Gold sheen was gold-like
    First step in transmutation was to find the prime matter,
        then add the pure qualities in succession to attain the perfection of gold

IV. Maria the Jewess
    Kerotakis, the instrument used for such transformations
    tribikos (still)


V. Late Sources
a.  Stockholm and Leiden papyri, late antique sources
    Containing recipes on dying based on a book written by Anaxilaos of Larissa, c.  26BC

b.  Zosimos of Panopolis 300 AD, syncretism of all the usual late antique influences
interest especially in metal and lead, copper silver and gold
largely recipes: little theoretical content which joins the particulars
    no axiomatic method, no definitions, joining with the Hermetic tradition
    

Meteorology: Aristotle

"We consider a satisfactory explanation of phenomena inaccessible to observation to have been given when our account of them is free from impossibilities"

regular but disorderly processes in the sublunary sphere
    sun: efficient cause
    wet and dry exhalations: material cause

dry smokey stuff rises: gets ignited by the  celestial friction
    forms shooting stars
    chasms, trenches (aurora): color caused by refraction
    comets

wet exhalations
    when low; dew and hoar frost
    when high: rain, snow and hail

hail: problems
    caused by cold mist ejected down into hot air which compresses in further into hail

winds from vapors – dry exhalations
    from the points of the compass from low areas
rivers from mountains, which are water sponges, high places
land and sea exchange place

sea is salty – smokey exhalation
    like the residuum of digestion
    is an admixture – this is why salt water is heavier

earthquakes: hot exhalations forced down into the earth
lightning and thunder: ignited hot exhalation squeezed out by cooler cloud
    collides with neighboring clouds
    hurricanes and whirlwinds from similar causes

rainbows, sundogs, halos: reflection from vapor

exhalations in the earth: earths and minerals