DOCSLIB.ORG

IR Corcione; EP Janke; J. Cope

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
IR Corcione; EP Janke; J. Cope A Novel Approach on the Analysis of the Legitimacy or Illegitimacy of the Practice and Philosophy of Alchemy C. Brennan; I.R. Corcione; E.P. Janke; J. Cope; Department of History, SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo NY 14454 Argument Timeline There are a variety of cultural contexts that surround the study and practice of rd th 1900 BC: 3 Century AD: 12 Century: 1235: 17th Century: 18th century: Alchemy which challenge and complicate its perceived legitimacy. Juxtaposing Artephius Wrote a book Raymond Lully claims to Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece - John Dee believed that Numbers were Pierce the Black literary works from different time periods that provide complex and varying cultural Hermes writes Zosimos of called “The Art of preserving have found the coveted the basis to everything and the key to all Monk Claims to perspectives on alchemy against the more historically objective perspectives of major the emerald Panopolis wrote Human life” in which he Philosopher’s stone and knowledge, and that humans had the have performed tablet, founding the oldest claimed to have an elixir that is said to have created capacity for divinity. Dee claimed to have Transmutation of alchemical proponents such as Newton and Dee provides a multi-faceted way of the basis of surviving book on has allowed him to live over 50,000 pounds of gold discovered the Philosopher’s Stone. He Lesser metals into looking at what is now generally seen as an illegitimate and archaic pseudo-science. Alchemy alchemy 1000 years for Kind Edward II was an avid supporter of transmutation. gold. Alchemical Literature 35 AD: 750 AD: 1214: 1471: 1645: 1727: The Alchemist by Ben Jonson (1610) Jābir ibn Hayyān England - Roger Bacon, England, Sir Thomas Vaughan rises Sir Isaac Newton dies before Ancient China - ● The drama is widely accepted as a satirization of Alchemy, and perhaps Chang Tao-Ling (Gerber) makes celebrated astronomer and George Ripley to fame after developing successfully finding the claims to find several discoveries in physicist publishes a book on publishes a book medicines which seems Philosopher’s stone. Newton often more specifically John Dee, historically famous early alchemist. Alchemy in which he claims to Elixir of life Alchemy, is so cryptic claiming that to magically restore referred to alchemy as “The Great ● Alchemy is a source of greed and corruption in the drama about his symbols have prepared the philosopher’s Alchemy is the those near death, Work” and advocated “high ● “In the microcosm of Lovewit’s house, Subtle, Doll, and Face make up a Stone, Claimed that Alchemy was and writings that Soul’s way of leading Jean Baptista silence” among alchemists about sort of society or republic at war with the outside world...Drugger, a petty too powerful for everyone to know getting back to Van Helmont to claim their work, though much of his own people call his notes shopkeeper, and Dapper, a small-time “Gibberish” about because it would be used God Alchemy’s true purpose alchemical work is deemed not fit for evil. is to treat disease. for printing by the royal society. gambler and lawyer’s clerk, are revealed as fools through their inflated hopes for * www.ancient-origins.net wealth” ● “Even the most cautious reader must agree with Surly that Jonson portrays the Alchemical Symbology and Secret Societies Alchemical Scientists often-abused science as ‘a pretty kind of ● Symbols allowed alchemists to save time Sir Isaac Newton game, / Somewhat like trick o’ the cards, and space when writing. to cheat a man / With charming”** ● Newton wrote more about alchemy than he did about physics and ● Alchemists also understood the potential of *Finnigan, “The Role of Surly in The Alchemist.” mathematics **Flachmann, “Ben Jonson and the Alchemy of Satire.” their work and did not want uneducated https://www.scienceplaystimeline. ● He believed that alchemy dated back to the beginning of time and it newmedialab.cuny.edu people to read and learn their recipes, or was handed down in secret by supernatural agents. Believed it was too Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) make improper uses of their findings. powerful and dangerous to let everyone know how it worked, so he ● Victor Frankenstein’s alchemical studies lead to his interest in ● Aristotle founded the concept of the four urged people to keep “High silence” about their discoveries in alchemy basic elements shown as triangles; water, animation and creating his “monster” ● He focused on trying to find the philosopher’s stone which he believed ● His professors provide the cultural framework that complicates earth, fire and air. could turn metals into gold, cure and disease among other powerful ● The known seven metals were assigned and criticizes his firm belief in the alchemical ideology effects ● "Frankenstein came out of this period of great turmoil, following symbols as well. These symbols were ● Invented Calculus because he needed a tool to help with solving the associated with their corresponding planets. the French Revolution and then the rise of Napoleon...Old high level math involved in his physics research institutions had to be ripped upn and created ● Did most of his research when Cambridge was closed due to the * ● Other substances were again and in different ways” plague ● Victor Frankenstein has become the archetype of also given symbols, as ● Translated the Emerald Tablet from ancient Egypt indicated. However, it the “evil alchemist,” portrayed as “arrogant, power has been proven to be John Dee -crazy, secretive, and insane in their pretensions to transcend the human condition and the limits of difficult to understand the ● A large part of John Dee’s life was surrounded ‘permitted’ knowledge”** relationship between the by engaging in reading and practicing alchemy in icons and the properties the late 16th century in England. *Regan, “Current of Pseudoscience Underlies ‘Frankenstein’”; **Haynes, “From Alchemy to Artificial Intelligence.” of the substances. ● Dee was a master of mathematics, and https://www.members.aon.at astronomy, an advisor to Queen Elizabeth, and Rosa Alchemica by William Butler Yeats (1913) ● Alchemy was viewed in a negative light for his skills in navigation were vital towards ● The story is grounded in Yeats’ involvement in the Hermetic Students of hundreds of years. Most considered it as an exploration of the New World. www.thehistoryblog.com the Golden Dawn, a secret alchemical society to which he belonged* irreversible mental illness caused from an ● One of Dee’s greatest alchemical works was his ● “As the Reformation produced a ferment of religious uncertainties, alchemy insane desire to obtain riches, leading to 1564 Hermetic work titled, Monas Hieroglyphica enjoyed a renewal of interest. Europeans sought in alchemy the mystical misery and social isolation. or "The Hieroglyphic Monad.” This contained a and ritualistic spirit that was being neglected in revised forms of worship. ● Alchemy was a dangerous science, where Cabalistic explanation of his own glyph which However...this renewed zeal for the mystical side of alchemy tended to at the time those who practiced it could be symbolized the overall “mystical unity of ignore the physical side of alchemy”* sentenced to death. creation.” ● “Michael [Robartes] does not wish for physical ● An alchemists main tool was the furnace, ● His most influential work to the outside world immortality, but for the immortal world beyond death, which influenced their shabby and dirty was his publication of a "Mathematical Preface" which is clearly the desire of the symbolist...Michael image to society. Also, as seen in many to Henry Billingsley’s English translation of (i.e., Yeats) does not believe in the elixir, but he does paintings, their mental disorder was Euclid’s Elements in 1570. It explains believe in the possibility that the elixir symbolizes--that reflected the extreme messiness of their mathematics importance and its influence in various applications such as arts and other of spiritual immortality” laboratory. heterodoxology.com *Allen, James Lovic. "Life As Art: Yeats And The Alchemical Quest." Studies In The Literary Imagination sciences. 14.1 (1981):17. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 30 Mar. 2015 theorderofthequest.wordpress.com **Gorski, Yeats and Alchemy. 1999. SUNY Press http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed085p1501.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Alchemical Culture and Poetry in Early Modern England
    Alchemical culture and poetry in early modern England PHILIP BALL Nature, 4–6 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW, UK There is a longstanding tradition of using alchemical imagery in poetry. It first flourished at the end of the sixteenth century, when the status of alchemy itself was revitalised in European society. Here I explain the reasons for this resurgence of the Hermetic arts, and explore how it was manifested in English culture and in particular in the literary and poetic works of the time. In 1652 the English scholar Elias Ashmole published a collection of alchemical texts called Theatrum Chymicum Britannicum, comprising ‘Several Poeticall Pieces of Our Most Famous English Philosophers’. Among the ‘chemical philosophers’ represented in the volume were the fifteenth-century alchemists Sir George Ripley and Thomas Norton – savants who, Ashmole complained, were renowned on the European continent but unduly neglected in their native country. Ashmole trained in law, but through his (second) marriage to a rich widow twenty years his senior he acquired the private means to indulge at his leisure a scholarly passion for alchemy and astrology. A Royalist by inclination, he had been forced to leave his London home during the English Civil War and had taken refuge in Oxford, the stronghold of Charles I’s forces. In 1677 he donated his impressive collection of antiquities to the University of Oxford, and the building constructed to house them became the Ashmolean, the first public museum in England. Ashmole returned to London after the civil war and began to compile the Theatrum, which was intended initially as a two-volume work.
    [Show full text]
  • Agrippa's Cosmic Ladder: Building a World with Words in the De Occulta Philosophia
    chapter 4 Agrippa’s Cosmic Ladder: Building a World with Words in the De Occulta Philosophia Noel Putnik In this essay I examine certain aspects of Cornelius Agrippa’s De occulta philosophia libri tres (Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1533), one of the foun- dational works in the history of western esotericism.1 To venture on a brief examination of such a highly complex work certainly exceeds the limitations of an essay, but the problem I intend to delineate, I believe, can be captured and glimpsed in its main contours. I wish to consider the ways in which the German humanist constructs and represents a common Renaissance image of the universe in his De occulta philosophia. This image is of pivotal importance for understanding Agrippa’s peculiar worldview as it provides a conceptual framework in which he develops his multilayered and heterodox thought. In other words, I deal with Agrippa’s cosmology in the context of his magical the- ory. The main conclusion of my analysis is that Agrippa’s approach to this topic is remarkably non-visual and that his symbolism is largely of verbal nature, revealing an author predominantly concerned with the nature of discursive language and the linguistic implications of magical thinking. The De occulta philosophia is the largest, most important, and most complex among the works of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535). It is a summa of practically all the esoteric doctrines and magical practices ac- cessible to the author. As is well known and discussed in scholarship, this vast and diverse amount of material is organized within a tripartite structure that corresponds to the common Neoplatonic notion of a cosmic hierarchy.
    [Show full text]
  • John Dee, Willem Silvius, and the Diagrammatic Alchemy of the Monas Hieroglyphica
    The Royal Typographer and the Alchemist: John Dee, Willem Silvius, and the Diagrammatic Alchemy of the Monas Hieroglyphica Stephen Clucas Birkbeck, University of London, UK Abstract: John Dee’s Monas Hieroglyphica (1564) was a work which involved a close collaboration between its author and his ‘singular friend’ the Antwerp printer Willem Silvius, in whose house Dee was living whilst he composed the work and saw it through the press. This article considers the reasons why Dee chose to collaborate with Silvius, and the importance of the intellectual culture – and the print trade – of the Low Countries to the development of Dee’s outlook. Dee’s Monas was probably the first alchemical work which focused exclusively on the diagrammatic representation of the alchemical process, combining diagrams, cosmological schemes and various forms of tabular grid. It is argued that in the Monas the boundaries between typography and alchemy are blurred as the diagrams ‘anatomizing’ his hieroglyphic sign (the ‘Monad’) are seen as revealing truths about alchemical substances and processes. Key words: diagram, print culture, typography, John Dee, Willem Silvius, alchemy. Why did John Dee go to Antwerp in 1564 in order to publish his recondite alchemical work, the Monas Hieroglyphica? What was it that made the Antwerp printer Willem Silvius a suitable candidate for his role as the ‘typographical parent’ of Dee’s work?1 In this paper I look at the role that Silvius played in the evolution of Dee’s most enigmatic work, and at the ways in which Silvius’s expertise in the reproduction of printed diagrams enabled Dee to make the Monas one of the first alchemical works to make systematic use of the diagram was a way of presenting information about the alchemical process.
    [Show full text]
  • Historical Influence of the Rosicrucian Fraternity on Freemasonry
    Historical Influence of the Rosicrucian Fraternity on Freemasonry Introduction Freemasonry has a public image that sometimes includes notions that we practice some sort of occultism, alchemy, magic rituals, that sort of thing. As Masons we know that we do no such thing. Since 1717 we have been a modern, rational, scientifically minded craft, practicing moral and theological virtues. But there is a background of occult science in Freemasonry, and it is related to the secret fraternity of the Rosicrucians. The Renaissance Heritage1 During the Italian renaissance of the 15th century, scholars rediscovered and translated classical texts of Plato, Pythagoras, and the Hermetic writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, thought to be from ancient Egypt. Over the next two centuries there was a widespread growth in Europe of various magical and spiritual practices – magic, alchemy, astrology -- based on those texts. The mysticism and magic of Jewish Cabbala was also studied from texts brought from Spain and the Muslim world. All of these magical practices had a religious aspect, in the quest for knowledge of the divine order of the universe, and Man’s place in it. The Hermetic vision of Man was of a divine soul, akin to the angels, within a material, animal body. By the 16th century every royal court in Europe had its own astrologer and some patronized alchemical studies. In England, Queen Elizabeth had Dr. John Dee (1527- 1608) as one of her advisors and her court astrologer. Dee was also an alchemist, a student of the Hermetic writings, and a skilled mathematician. He was the most prominent practitioner of Cabbala and alchemy in 16th century England.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter Ix. the Spiritual Conferences (1581-1589)
    CHAPTER IX. THE SPIRITUAL CONFERENCES (1581-1589). I. The True and Faithful Relation and additional M.S. sources — Casaubon’s objects in publishing the T.F.R. in 1659 — to confute atheism and discredit enthusiasm — his view of Dee as deluded by devils. II. The conferences mark no abrupt discontinuity in Dee’s career — their conformity with his general interests and speculations — the Angelic realm a recognised topic in Natural Philosophy — Platonism and intermediate spiritual entities — sixteenth century pneumatology — belief in prevalence of spirits and their communion with men — Platonic hierarchy of spirits reflected even in conventional scale of demons — such a scale encourages view that the less malevolent and powerful may be safely dealt with or controlled — confusion of such demons with daemons and fairies — resemblance of Kelley’s “angels” to traditional fairies — Dee’s insistence that they can only be servants of God perhaps influenced by Platonic doctrines of negativity of evil — the usual orthodox condemnation of all dealings with spirits — but the doctrine that man may come consciously to associate with angels in this life a familiar feature in contemporary mystical Platonism — similarity of Kelley’s “angelic books” and the Cabalah — the frequency of crystal gazing — Dee’s own view of the conferences as the crown and seal of all his past intellectual endeavour — scrying as one of the chief parts of “experimental science” — the union of practical experience and speculative theology. III. Particular reasons for Dee’s so extensive concentration on the conferences at this date — his apocalyptic view of history — influence of the cyclical theories of Trithemius and progressive revelations through time of Joachim of Flora — Dee’s chronology — connection with astrological teachings — the doctrine of trigons governing historical and religious change — the conjunction of 1583 interpreted as indicating the birth of a new religion or the end of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • Charlotte.Pdf
    TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I BIRTH AND EDUCATION Tercentenary of Dee’s death — No life of him — Persistent misunderstanding — Birth — Parentage — At Chelmsford Grammar School — St. John’s College, Cambridge — Fellow of Trinity — Theatrical enterprise — In the Low Countries — M.A. of Cambridge — Louvain University — Paris — Readings in Euclid — Correspondents abroad — Return to England. CHAPTER II IMPRISONMENT AND AUTHORSHIP Books dedicated to Edward VI. — Upton Rectory — Long Leadenham — Books dedicated to Duchess of Northumberland — Ferrys informs against his “magic” — In prison — Handed over to Bonner — At Philpot’s trial — Efforts to found a State Library — Astrology — Horoscopes — Choice of a day for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation — Introduced to her by Dudley — Sympathetic magic — Bachelor of Divinity — In Antwerp — Monas Hieroglyphica — Preface to Billingsley’s Euclid — Called a conjurer. CHAPTER III MORTLAKE Proposed benefices — Propædeumata Aphoristica — Alchemical secrets — Settled at Mortlake — Journey to Lorraine — Illness — The Queen’s attentions — Mines and hidden treasure — Wigmore Castle — Marriage — Death of first wife — Literary correspondence — John Stow — Diary commenced — The Hexameron Brytannicum — The British Complement — Slander and falsehood — A petty navy — The sea-power of Albion — Fisheries and foreign policy. CHAPTER IV JANE DEE A comet or blazing star — Second marriage — Jane Fromond — Hurried journey abroad — Berlin and Frankfort — Birth of a son — Christening — Edward Dyer — Duc d’Alencon — Michael Lock — His sons — The Queen’s visit — Sir Humphrey Gilbert at Mortlake — Adrian Gilbert — John Davis — The Queen’s Title Royall — Lord Treasurer Burleigh — Death of Dee’s mother — The Queen’s visit of condolence — Map of America — Visits to the Muscovy House — Frobisher and Hawkins — Birth of a daughter — Accident to Arthur.
    [Show full text]
  • Secret Book (Liber Secretus), by Artephius
    INDEX Alchemical Manuscript Series Volume One: Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, by Basil Valentine Triumphal Chariot of Antimony by Basil Valentine is considered to be a masterpiece of chemical literature. The treatise provides important advances in the manufacture and medical action of chemical preparations, such as, metallic antimony, solutions of caustic alkali, the acetates of lead and copper, gold fulminate and other salts. Accounts of practical laboratory operations are clearly presented. Instructions in this book are noteworthy, as they provide weights and proportions, a rarity in alchemical literature. Volume Two: Golden Chain of Homer, by Anton Kirchweger, Part 1 Frater Albertus was once asked if he could only have one book on alchemy, which would it be? He answered that it would be the Golden Chain of Homer. This collection of books written by several authors and printed in various editions, was first printed in 1723. Concepts of Platonic, Mosaic, and Pythagorean philosophy provide extensive instruction in Cosmic, Cabbalistic, and laboratory Alchemical Philosophy. Volume Three: Golden Chain of Homer, by Anton Kirchweger, Part 2 Frater Albertus was once asked if he could only have one book on alchemy, which would it be? He answered that it would be the Golden Chain of Homer. This collection of books written by several authors and printed in various editions, was first printed in 1723. Concepts of Platonic, Mosaic, and Pythagorean philosophy provide extensive instruction in Cosmic, Cabbalistic, and laboratory Alchemical Philosophy. Volume Four: Complete Alchemical Writings, by Isaac Hollandus, Part 1 Complete Alchemical Writings was written by father and son Dutch adepts, both named Isaac Hollandus.
    [Show full text]
  • Thirteenth Plate
    Thirteenth Plate When examining this thirteenth plate the reader will imme- diately notice that it closely resembles the tenth plate with its partition between the practical and the symbolical parts of the image. We can conclude that there have been six consecutive plates that appear in pairs. Each pair at first glance seems identical but this is not quite the case, as we have pointed out earlier, and neither is it the case for this plate. Upon closer examination a number of suprising discrepancies will come to light. Let us have a closer look at the man who simultaneously pours out two flasks, each into one of the two plates of the scale. Now only two asterisks appear in the flask in his right hand whilst the one he is holding in his left hand shows no more than a tiny sun instead of the flosculus it was marked with previously. The two little signs which have disappeared and which have remained inside the recipient together constitute the famous re, in other words, two thirds of rer and half of the initial rere. It is not our intention here to try and complicate or obscure the earlier mentioned elucidation by Fulcanelli on this matter. Jacob Sulat’s teachings, to which we rigorously adhere, preceded the Mystery of the Cathedrals by two and a half centuries. The book of the Master refers to the compost and it is this same enigma to which the Lallemant hotel and the tenth and thirteenth engravings of the Mutus Liber refer. This compost is the term used in ancient treatises for the philosophic composite which is ready to raise itself and go through the progression that is ponderable both in terms of colour and sound and which is in perfect harmony with the progressive growth of the external or elementary fire.
    [Show full text]
  • Roger Bacon: the Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma
    University at Albany, State University of New York Scholars Archive History Honors Program History 2019 Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma Victoria Tobes University at Albany, State University of New York Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/history_honors Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tobes, Victoria, "Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma" (2019). History Honors Program. 12. https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/history_honors/12 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the History at Scholars Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in History Honors Program by an authorized administrator of Scholars Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 1 Roger Bacon: The Christian, the Alchemist, the Enigma By: Victoria Tobes [email protected] An honors thesis presented to the Department of History, University at Albany, State University of New York in partial fulfillment of the requirements for graduation with Honors in History. Advisors: Dr. Patrick Nold and Dr. Mitch Aso 5/12/2019 2 ABSTRACT: This paper explores the life and work of 13th century English Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon in light of the spiritual-religious practice of alchemy. Bacon’s works in pertinence to alchemy reflect his belonging to a school of intellectual thought known as Hermeticism; which encompasses the practice of alchemy. Bacon can be placed among other philosophic practitioners of alchemy throughout history; allowing for expanded insight into the life of this medieval scholar. Throughout history, Bacon’s most well-known work, the Opus Majus, has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ground of Artes — the Monas — Alchemy; 1558-1564) I
    CHAPTER VI. NUMBERS — LOGISTICAL, FORMAL AND APPLIED. (THE GROUND OF ARTES — THE MONAS — ALCHEMY; 1558-1564) I. Accession of Elizabeth — Dee taken into favour — commences period of fame and success. II. Work on binomials and other lost mathematical writings — the revision of the Ground of Artes — Recorde and Dee — their similar views and interests — the popularity of this work — a text book for self instruction from the first elements onwards — its defence of mathematics and plea for wider instruction in it — this knowledge the distinguishing criterion between men and animals (n.21) — its utility — Dee's additions to the G.A. III. Dee journeys to Continent to print his books — letter to Cecil — copies out the Steganographia — Trithemius' mysticism and magic and their influence on Dee (n.35). IV. Publication of the Monas — Dee's perpetual high regard for this work — its contemporary and subsequent fame (n.39) — contrasted with Aphorisms — its intentional obscurity — the tradition of unfolding secret wisdom as obscurely as possible — the prefatory letter to Maximilian — geometrical figures the key to natural and spiritual truth — the signs of the planets — the forms of letters of the alphabet — the striking results Dee anticipates from this study. V. Its theme and underlying assumptions — the "Monad" as God — connections with neo- Platonic doctrines — reasons for choice of this particular hieroglyph — Mercury — Aries — relations of Monas to cabalistic theory — and the later search for a real character. VI. Analysis of the text — the point and the circle — generation of planetary signs and astronomy — the cross — the semi-circle — numerology of the figure and alchemical sections — Dee's work well within an accepted tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Seeing the Word : John Dee and Renaissance Occultism
    Seeing the Word : John Dee and Renaissance Occultism Håkansson, Håkan 2001 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Håkansson, H. (2001). Seeing the Word : John Dee and Renaissance Occultism. Department of Cultural Sciences, Lund University. Total number of authors: 1 General rights Unless other specific re-use rights are stated the following general rights apply: Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Read more about Creative commons licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Seeing the Word To Susan and Åse of course Seeing the Word John Dee and Renaissance Occultism Håkan Håkansson Lunds Universitet Ugglan Minervaserien 2 Cover illustration: detail from John Dee’s genealogical roll (British Library, MS Cotton Charter XIV, article 1), showing his self-portrait, the “Hieroglyphic Monad”, and the motto supercaelestes roretis aquae, et terra fructum dabit suum — “let the waters above the heavens fall, and the earth will yield its fruit”.
    [Show full text]
  • And Some Other Medieval Names of the Philosophers' Stone
    A note on lapis philosophicus, lapis philosophorum, and some other medieval names of the philosophers’ stone The first occurrences of philosophres ston registered in the Middle English Dictionary are from non-technical poems of the end of the fourteenth century: the Confessio Amantis refers to “the parfit Elixir Of thilke philosophres Ston,” and the Canon’s Yeoman like­ wise refers to the goal of alchemy in the words “The philosophres stoon, Elixir clept, we sechen.” 1 The fact that Gower and Chaucer evidently expected their readers to under­ stand the term although there is no earlier evidence of its circulation in English suggests very strongly that those readers would have encountered it in another language: in this case evidently Latin. In accordance with its usual policy, MED had little to say about the etymology of the English lexical item: it noted that philosophre is “From OFfilosofe & L philosophusf but gave no indication that philosophres ston translated a Latin lexical item. Although there have been a number of discussions of Chaucer’s alchemical know­ ledge, these do not appear to ask where in post-classical Latin the etymon of philosophres ston is first attested. The object of this note is to explore some answers to that question. Their formula­ tion began with consultancy work for the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, generated in the course of the revision of the entry philosophers' stone.2 This was origi­ nally published in fascicle Ph-Piper of the first edition of OED, which appeared under the editorship of James Murray in June 1906.
    [Show full text]