SECTION G WHO'S WHO IN AURORA CONSURGENS

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ALCHEMY

"[T]he main line of development of alchemy began in Hellenistic Egypt, and particularly in Alexandria and other towns in the Nile delta." Holmyard, p. 25

"[E]vidence that alchemy was being practised in the centuries immediately before and after the birth of Christ is provided by the fact that, about A.D. 300, an author named Zosimos, of Panopolis (Akhmim) in Egypt, wrote an encyclopedia on the subject in twenty-eight books. Some of the passages in it are apparently original, but a large part of the work is a compilation from earlier texts now lost." Holmyard, p. 27

"Events of the seventh to tenth centuries proved to have a decisive effect upon the development of alchemy." Holmyard, p. 60

"[S]uccessful wars of conquest brought Egypt, Palestine, Syria, much of Asia Minor, Crete, Sicily, Rhodes, Cyprus, and part of North Africa under Muslim control. ... [I]n the eighth century Muslim armies ... crossed into Spain. ... The invasion of Spain was quickly completed and the conquerors then passed into France; here, however, they were finally brought to a halt in 732, when Charles the Hammer dealt them a crushing blow at Pointiers.

"Thus within a century after the Prophet's death [632] Islam had become a vast empire stretching from the Pyrenees to the Indus ... .

"When political conditions became quieter the Muslims soon manifested a great interest in learning, and having overrun not only Alexandria and Harran but all the other principal centres of Greek culture they were able to indulge it to the full. ... [T]he chief works in Greek on philosophy astronomy, mathematics, medicine, and other sciences were translated into Arabic ..." Holmyard, 62f.

"Until the twelfth century almost the sole contact between Islam and Christian Europe was through the crusades, which were clearly not favourable to the transmission of learning. Soon after 1100, however, European scholars began to discover that the Saracens [Muslims] were possessed of much knowledge and ancient wisdom, and the bolder spirits began to travel in Muslim lands in search of learning and enlightenment. Sicily, an appanage [vassal state] of Islam from 902 to 1091, was captured by the Normans in the latter year, and the island thus became a centre of diffusion of Arabic learning. It was, however, in Spain—still largely under Moorish control—that the greatest activity prevailed. Students were welcomed to the colleges and libraries at Toledo, Barcelona, Pamplona, and other Spanish towns, and study was soon followed by translation." Holmyard, 105

"[A]ll the principal, and many of the minor, alchemical writers and books became familiar ... quickly to the West in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ... " Holmyard, 109 47 NAMES AND WORKS

Albertus Magnus (the Great) "the dominant figure in Latin learning and natural science of the thirteenth century ... the one learned man of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to be called 'the Great.' Albertus Magnus, Count of Bollstädt, was born at Lauingen in Suabia, probably in the year 1193 ... . Joining the Dominican Order at Padua in 1223, he rapidly became a prodigy of learning and was proopularly known as the Doctor Universalis ... . From 1228 to 1245 he taught at Freiburg, Ratisbon, Strasbourg, and Cologne, while from 1245 to 1248 he lectured in Paris and began the compilation of his great philosophical treatises. He was Provincial of his Order from 154 to 1257, and bishop of Ratisbon from 1260 to 1262; he then left his episcopal palace on the Danube and retired to a cloister at Cologne to devote the rest of his life to writing and study ... . He is said to have died at Cologne on 15 November 1280 ... . A genuinely pious man, he conformed strictly to the rules of his Order ... . His fame as a teacher was so great that the young Thomas Aquinas made the long journey from Italy to Cologne to become his pupil.

"Albertus ... was probably the best-read man of his time, and ... he had an extensive and unusually accurate of contemporary science ... . He visited mines, mineral outcrops, and alchemical laboratories ... .

"Albertus was not an Arabic scholar, but was well acquainted with Latin translations of Avicenna ... and other Muslim writers." In 'The Little Book of Alchemy', he relates that he was given a knowledge of alchemy by the grace of God. ... He ... proceeds to discuss the various operations and pieces of apparatus used in alchemy, and describes the common chemical substances and experiments that may be carried out with them. Finally, recipes are given for the production of gold and silver.

"Albert's almost equally famous pupil, Thomas Aquinas, believed like his master in the possibility of making gold and silver alchemically ... " Holmyard, pp. 114-117

Alphidius 12th century? CW 11, par. 161, n. 74

Alphonsus

Amalricians "An heretical sect founded towards the end of the twelfth century, by Amaury de Bène or de Chartres (Lat., Almaricus, Amalricus, Amauricus), a cleric and professor in the University of Paris, who died between 1204 and 1207. The Amalricians, like their founder, professed a species of pantheism, maintaining, as the fundamental principle of their system, that God and the universe are one; that God is everything and everything is God." http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01379b.htm

Averroës Muslim writer p. 118

Avicenna "Abu Ali ibn Sina, known in Europe as Avicenna. ... This Islamic genius, the 'Prince of Physicians', who has been described as the Aristotle of the Arabians and certainly the most extraordinary man the nation produced, was not in fact an Arab but a Persian. ... Appointed physician to one of the princes of the country at the tender age of seventeen, Avicenna held many 48 important posts in after years, on one occasion being grand vizier or prime minister to Shams al- Daula at Hamadhan. He later went to Ispahan, and after an eventful life died at Hamadhan in 1036 or 1037. In his comparatively brief span of existence he accomplished an amazing mass of literary, medical, philosophical, and scientific work ... " Holmyard, pp. 92f.

Calid see Morienus

Christian Rosencreuz "a poor but noble Knight who was born in Germany in 1358. As the result of a vow taken in his early youth, the young man started out on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. While living in Asia Minor he learned Arabic, studied with several Arabian alchemists and translated an important occult document into Latin. On his way home he stopped in Spain, where he tried to interest some of the more intellectual Moors in his occult doctrines. Failing in this, he returned to his native Germany where he assumed the mystical name of Christian Rosencreuz, or Christian Rosy-Cross. He soon attracted a group of disciples and together they built a Lodge which they called the 'House of the Holy Spirit.'" http://www.wisdomworld.org/setting/rosicrucians.html

Convention of Philosophers see Turba Philosophorum

"The Corpus Hermeticum is a collection of texts from the second and third centuries of our era that survived from a more extensive literature. Reflecting the generalized spiritual orientation of late Hellenistic gnosis rather than a tradition in any organized sense, these sometimes contradictory texts share only their claim to a common source of revelation, Hermes Trismegistus. In most of the texts his revelations are presented as a dialogue with one of three pupils: Tat, Asclepius, or Ammon. According to Augustine[115], Asclepius was the grandson of the great Greek god of the same name, and Tat was likewise the grandson of his divine namesake (the Roman deity Mercurius, the same as the Greek god Hermes).The Hermetic texts are often cited as examples of the extent of late Hellenistic syncretism, for they exhibit traits of magic, astrology, alchemy, Platonism and Stoicism, and the Mysteries, as well as Judaism and gnostic thought." http://www.granta.demon.co.uk/arsm/jg/corpus.html

"By 'Dionysius the Areopagite' is usually understood the judge of the Areopagus who, as related in Acts, xvii, 34, was converted to Christianity by the preaching of St. Paul, and according to Dionysius of Corinth (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., III, iv) was Bishop of Athens." http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05013a.htm

Emerald Table see Tabula Smaragdina

Ephraem Syrus "(Ephraim the Syrian), a saint who lived in Mesopotamia during the first three quarters of the 4th century A.D. He is perhaps the most influential of all Syriac authors; and his fame as a poet, commentator, preacher and defender of orthodoxy has spread throughout all branches of the Christian Church." http://87.1911encyclopedia.org/E/EP/EPHRAEM_SYRUS.htm

Gerhard Dorn "lebte Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts als Arzt in Frankfurt am Main, Straßburg und Basel. Er war leidenschaftlicher Anhänger des Paracelsus und hat in mehreren Streitschriften die 49

Lehren seines Meisters verteidigt. Mehr ist über ihn nicht bekannt." http://www.richardwolf.de/latein/dorn.htm "was a doctor a at the end of the 16th century in Frankfort, Strasbourg and Basel. He was a passionate follower of Paracelsus and discussed defended the views of his teacher in extensive works. More about him is not known."

Great Mirror see Vincent of Beauvais'

Gregory the Great "540, Rome-604, Rome architect of the medieval papacy (reigned 590-604), a notable theologian who was also an administrative, social, liturgical, and moral reformer. Drawing upon St. Augustine of Hippo's City of God for his views, Gregory formulated ideas of a Christian society that became formalized in the Middle Ages. Among his accomplishments were a reform of the mass from which came the Gregorian chant. Since the 8th century he has been regarded as a doctor (teacher) of the church." Encyclopaedia Britannica

Holy Ghost Movement see Joachim of Flora

Honorius of Autun A theologian, philosopher, and encyclopedic writer who lived in the first half of the twelfth century. Honorius has been correctly described as one of the most mysterious personages in all the medieval period. All that can be stated with certainty is that he flourished between the years 1106 and 1135, that he spent the greater part of that time in Southern Germany, and that he wrote a very large number of works, most of which have come down to us. He is generally said to have been a native of Autun in Burgundy. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07461a.htm

Hugo of St. Victor "Medieval philosopher, theologian, and mystical writer; b. 1096, at the manor of Hartingham in Saxony; d. 11 March, 1141" http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07521c.htm

Joachim of Flora 1132-1202, southern Italy; Cistercian monk; he conceived the Trinity as an historical process; Age of the Father corresponded to the Old Testament, Age of the Son corresponded to the New Testament and the first thousand years of Christianity; the Age of the Holy Ghost "was considered ... to begin about 1000 A.D., and that period was to be characterized by the qualities of love and spirit, the manifestation of the Holy Ghost in individuals. Joachim was a spokesperson for the Holy Ghost Movement, a succession of 'heretical' sects that pronounced the importance of an individual relation to the Holy Spirit, as opposed to the Church." Edinger, Aion Lectures, pp. 72f.

Johannes Scotus Erigena John the Scot c800-c880 Irish Theologian and NeoPlatonist Philosopher Encyclopaedia Britannica

Julius Ruska 1867-1949, German Orientalist and historian of science http://julius.ruska.de/

Maimonides "1135, Córdoba-1204, Egypt, Jewish philosopher, jurist, and physician, the foremost intellectual figure of medieval Judaism. His first major work, begun at age 23 and completed 10 years later, was a commentary on the Mishna. A monumental code of Jewish law 50 followed in Hebrew, The Guide of the Perplexed in Arabic, and numerous other works, many of major importance. His contributions in religion, philosophy, and medicine have influenced Jewish and non-Jewish scholars alike." Encyclopaedia Britannica

Morienus "a disciple of the earlier Alexandrian alchemist Stephanos [who flourished ... 610 - 641] pp. 29, 64 In the fourth century, Zosimus the Panopolite wrote his treatise on The Divine Art of Making Gold and Silver, and in the fifth Morienus, a hermit of Rome, left his native city and set out to seek the sage Adfar, a solitary adept whose fame had reached him from Alexandria. Morienus found him, and after gaining his confidence became his disciple. After the death of his patron, Morienus came into touch with King Calid, and a very attractive work purporting to be a dialogue between himself and the king is still extant under the name of Morienus." http://www.alchemylab.com/history_of_alchemy.htm

New Pearl of Great Price see Petrus Bonus'

Origen "the most important theologian and biblical scholar of the early Greek church" Encyclopaedia Britinnica "Origen was a favorite of Jung, who quotes him many times in Aion ... . His dates are approximately 185-254. He was born in Alexandria, a Greek-Egyptian city, of Christian parents. ... Origin was saturated with the whole of Greek philosophical wisdom and also the Hebrew scriptures and the recent Christian material. ... Origin should be especially honored by Jungians because he first put forth the heretical idea of the ultimate salvation of the devil. That means that Origin already foresaw the potential healing of the Christian split that was just happening." Edinger, Aion Lectures, p. 47

Paracelsus 1493, Einsiedeln, Switz-1541, Salzburg Archbishopric of Salzburg [now in Austria], German-Swiss physician and alchemist who established the role of chemistry in medicine. Encyclopaedia Britannica Paracelsus was one of Jung's favorite historical personages.

Petrus Bonus' The New Pearl of Great Price "An alchemical work highly esteemed by the alchemists themselves was 'The New Pearl of Great Price' written in 1130 or thereabouts by Petrus Bonus. The author cannot be identified with certainty, but he may have belonged to the Avogadrus family of Ferrara; the book itself was written at Pola, then a city of the Italian province of Istria but now, undere the name of Pulj, included in Yugoslavia." Holmyard, p. 141 pseudo-Aristotle

Raymond Lully "philosopher, poet, and theologian, b. at Palma in Majorca, between 1232 and 1236; d. at Tunis, 29 June, 1315. Probably a courtier at the court of King James of Aragon until thirty years of age, he then became a hermit and afterwards a tertiary of the Order of St. Francis. From that time he seemed to be inspired with extraordinary zeal for the conversion of the Mohammedan world. To this end he advocated the study of Oriental languages and the refutation of Arabian philosophy, especially that of Averroes. He founded a school for the members of his community in Majorca, where special attention was given to Arabic and Chaldean. Later he taught in Paris. About 1291 he went to Tunis, preached to the Saracens [Muslims], disputed with them in philosophy, and after another brief sojourn in Paris, returned to the East as a missionary. After 51 undergoing many hardships and privations he returned to Europe in 1311 for the purpose of laying before the Council of Vienna his plans for the conversion of the Moors. Again in 1315 he set out for Tunis, where he was stoned to death by the Saracens." http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12670c.htm

Roger Bacon "was born at Ilchester in Somerset, probably in 1214, and appears to have belonged to a wealthy family ... . [H]e undertook the study of Greek at Oxford ... and join[ed] the Franciscan Order about 1247. From 1234 to 1250 he studied and lectured at the university of Paris, choosing as his master one of the most modest and most learned men of the time, one who had devoted himself to the study of chemistry and mathematics and astronomy ..

"In common with all other Christians of his age, he believed that the Bible contained, either explicitly or implicitly, the whole realm of knowledge. On the other hand, to understand the Bible thoroughly every art and science is necessary. ... His advocacy of the experimental method was therefore primarily concerned not with the search for objective truth but with the exposition of scriptural scientific knowledge. ...

"Bacon distinguished two kinds of alchemy, namely 'speculative' and 'practical'. ...

"He had a wide acquaintance with the Arabic authors, whom ... he could read in the original ... " Holmyard, p. 118-121.

Senior, Latin name of Mohammed ibn Umail, 900 - 960, famous in European alchemy. von Franz, Alchemy, p. 107

Speculum maius see Vincent of Beauvais'

Tabula Smaragdina or the Emerald Table "[T]he earliest known versions of this expression of alchemical dogma are in Arabic. The Table itself is ascribed to Hermes or the Egyptian Thoth, god of mathematics and science, and it has been well known since the early Middle Ages in a Latin rendering." p. 97 "[T]he Emerald Table is one of the oldest and most long-lived of alchemical documents. In its original form it was alleged to have been found in a cave, inscribed on a plate of emerald held in the hands of the corpse of the thrice-greatest Hermes, Hermes Trismegistus." Holmyard, p. 98f

Turba Philosophorum or Convention of Philosophers "The Turba first appears in Latin manuscripts of the thirteenth century, and the earliest printed edition was published at Basel in 1572. It takes the form of a debate between a large number of philosophers and was held in great respect by generation after generation of alchemists.

"The Latin version shows unmistakable signs of having been translated from the Arabic, and the content of the speeches make it equally clear that at least some of the material must have been derived from the Greek." Holmyard, p. 82 52

"The Turba is an early Latin treatise of the 12th century, translated from an originally Arabic compilation dating back to the 9th and 10th century. Its contents, however, stem from Hellenistic sources." CW 11, par. 161, n. 69

Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum maius or Great Mirror "Vincent (c. 1190—c. 1264), a Dominican, was for a time sub-prior of the monastery at Beauvais, near Amiens, where his administrative duties interfered with his literary activities—a fact about which he complains. He was also librarian and chaplain to Louis IX and tutor to the king's two sons, but the numerous demands upon his time still gave him leisure to write a lengthy work entitled Speculum maius or 'Great Mirror' ... the whole work forming an encyclopedia intended to reflect the sum of contemporary knowledge. ... Vincent quotes not merely from Avicenna but from other Arabic authors ... . He believed in the main theory of alchemy, namely the possibility of transmutation ... ." Holmyard, p. 113f.

SOURCES

Edward Edinger, The Aion Lectures

Encyclopaedia Britannica CD 97

E.J. Holmyard, Alchemy

Marie-Louise von Franz, Alchemy: an Introduction to the Symbolism and the Psychology

C.G. Jung, The Collected Works of C.G. Jung (CW)

SELECTED ALCHEMY WEB SITES

Alchemy Lab, home page: http://www.alchemylab.com

Alchemy Lab, contents page: http://www.alchemylab.com/contents.htm

Alchemy Lab, history of alchemy: http://www.alchemylab.com/history_of_alchemy.htm

The Alchemy Web Site, home page: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/index.html