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Home , Artephius, John Dee

A Novel Approach on the Analysis of the Legitimacy or Illegitimacy of the Practice and Philosophy of

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 Wrote a book Raymond Lully claims to Ancient Egypt - Ancient Greece - 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-. 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 - , England, Sir Thomas Vaughan rises Sir 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 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.” **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 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 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 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 , an advisor to Queen Elizabeth, and Rosa Alchemica by William Butler Yeats (1913) ● Alchemy was viewed in a negative light for his skills in 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 . 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 ’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 . 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