Alchemy and Alchemists

Voorkant
Pocket Essentials, 2006 - 160 pagina's
"Alchemy has traditionally been viewed as 'the history of an error', an example of mediaeval gullibility and greed, in which alchemists tried to turn lead into gold, create fabulous wealth and find the elixir of life. But alchemy has also been described as 'the mightiest secret that a man can possess', and it obsessed the likes of Isaac Newton, Robert Boyle and many of the founders of modern science. This book explores the history of the so-called Royal Art, from its mysterious beginnings in Egypt and China, through the Hellenistic world and the early years of Islam and into mediaeval Europe. Some of the greatest minds of the Middle Ages, figures such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas were drawn to alchemy, and legendary alchemists such as Nicholas Flame were thought to have actually succeeded in finding the Philosopher's Stone. During the Renaissance, Paracelsus and his followers helped revolutionise medicine, and during the seventeenth century, alchemy played a major role in paving the way for modern science. During the twentieth century, it became a focus of interest for the psychologist Carl Jung and his followers, who believed that the alchemists had discovered the unconscious. Sean Martin shows how Chinese and Indian alchemy draws on the relationship between alchemy and early modern science, while also making an assessment of this most enduring mysterious and fascinating of subjects, to which all others has been described as 'child's play'.- book jacket.

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Inhoudsopgave

Introduction
13
Alchemy in the West
39
Alchemy in the East 880
80
Copyright

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