Alchemy Book Collection\374
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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. -
Alchemical Journey Into the Divine in Victorian Fairy Tales
Studia Religiologica 51 (1) 2018, s. 33–45 doi:10.4467/20844077SR.18.003.9492 www.ejournals.eu/Studia-Religiologica Alchemical Journey into the Divine in Victorian Fairy Tales Emilia Wieliczko-Paprota https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8662-6490 Institute of Polish Language and Literature University of Gdańsk [email protected] Abstract This article demonstrates the importance of alchemical symbolism in Victorian fairy tales. Contrary to Jungian analysts who conceived alchemy as forgotten knowledge, this study shows the vivid tra- dition of alchemical symbolism in Victorian literature. This work takes the readers through the first stage of the alchemical opus reflected in fairy tale symbols, explains the psychological and spiritual purposes of alchemy and helps them to understand the Victorian visions of mystical transforma- tion. It emphasises the importance of spirituality in Victorian times and accounts for the similarity between Victorian and alchemical paths of transformation of the self. Keywords: fairy tales, mysticism, alchemy, subconsciousness, psyche Słowa kluczowe: bajki, mistyka, alchemia, podświadomość, psyche Victorian interest in alchemical science Nineteenth-century fantasy fiction derived its form from a different type of inspira- tion than modern fantasy fiction. As Michel Foucault accurately noted, regarding Flaubert’s imagination, nineteenth-century fantasy was more erudite than imagina- tive: “This domain of phantasms is no longer the night, the sleep of reason, or the uncertain void that stands before desire, but, on the contrary, wakefulness, untir- ing attention, zealous erudition, and constant vigilance.”1 Although, as we will see, Victorian fairy tales originate in the subconsciousness, the inspiration for symbolic 1 M. Foucault, Fantasia of the Library, [in:] Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews, D.F. -
Williams, Robert (2019) Mundus Imaginalis & Intellectus Agens: Imagination and Agency in Making Relational Organigrammes
Williams, Robert (2019) Mundus Imaginalis & Intellectus Agens: Imagination and agency in making relational organigrammes. In: Organigrammes. L’art face aux mondes complexes, 22nd - 23rd November 2019, l’Axe A2S (Arts, Sciences, Société) de l’Institut ACTE. (Unpublished) Downloaded from: http://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/5440/ Usage of any items from the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository ‘Insight’ must conform to the following fair usage guidelines. Any item and its associated metadata held in the University of Cumbria’s institutional repository Insight (unless stated otherwise on the metadata record) may be copied, displayed or performed, and stored in line with the JISC fair dealing guidelines (available here) for educational and not-for-profit activities provided that • the authors, title and full bibliographic details of the item are cited clearly when any part of the work is referred to verbally or in the written form • a hyperlink/URL to the original Insight record of that item is included in any citations of the work • the content is not changed in any way • all files required for usage of the item are kept together with the main item file. You may not • sell any part of an item • refer to any part of an item without citation • amend any item or contextualise it in a way that will impugn the creator’s reputation • remove or alter the copyright statement on an item. The full policy can be found here. Alternatively contact the University of Cumbria Repository Editor by emailing [email protected]. Mundus Imaginalis et Intellectus Agens: Imagination and agency in making relational organigrammes Imagination et agence dans la création d'organigrammes relationnels Robert Williams Professor of Fine Art, The University of Cumbria Institute of the Arts. -
Verse and Transmutation History of Science and Medicine Library
Verse and Transmutation History of Science and Medicine Library VOLUME 42 Medieval and Early Modern Science Editors J.M.M.H. Thijssen, Radboud University Nijmegen C.H. Lüthy, Radboud University Nijmegen Editorial Consultants Joël Biard, University of Tours Simo Knuuttila, University of Helsinki Jürgen Renn, Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science Theo Verbeek, University of Utrecht VOLUME 21 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/hsml Verse and Transmutation A Corpus of Middle English Alchemical Poetry (Critical Editions and Studies) By Anke Timmermann LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 On the cover: Oswald Croll, La Royalle Chymie (Lyons: Pierre Drobet, 1627). Title page (detail). Roy G. Neville Historical Chemical Library, Chemical Heritage Foundation. Photo by James R. Voelkel. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Timmermann, Anke. Verse and transmutation : a corpus of Middle English alchemical poetry (critical editions and studies) / by Anke Timmermann. pages cm. – (History of Science and Medicine Library ; Volume 42) (Medieval and Early Modern Science ; Volume 21) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-25484-8 (hardback : acid-free paper) – ISBN 978-90-04-25483-1 (e-book) 1. Alchemy–Sources. 2. Manuscripts, English (Middle) I. Title. QD26.T63 2013 540.1'12–dc23 2013027820 This publication has been typeset in the multilingual “Brill” typeface. With over 5,100 characters covering Latin, IPA, Greek, and Cyrillic, this typeface is especially suitable for use in the humanities. For more information, please see www.brill.com/brill-typeface. ISSN 1872-0684 ISBN 978-90-04-25484-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-90-04-25483-1 (e-book) Copyright 2013 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. -
Newton's Dark Secrets
Original broadcast: November 15, 2005 BEFORE WATCHING Newton’s Dark Secrets 1 Ask students what they know about Sir Isaac Newton. List student answers on the board. Where and when did he live? What did he do? PROGRAM CONTENTS What is he most known for? NOVA presents the life and science of 2 Organize students into three Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), one of groups. As they watch, have each the greatest scientists who ever lived. group take notes on one of the following topics: Newton’s key scientific and mathematical discov- The program: eries, his religious journey, and his • chronicles Newton’s upbringing in the early part of the work in alchemy. Scientific Revolution. • recounts Newton’s attendance at Trinity College at Cambridge University in England, where he studied the latest scientific ideas, AFTER WATCHING and his return to his hometown of Woolsthorpe four years later when the plague struck Cambridge. 1 Have students who took notes on • reviews the advances Newton made in gravity, calculus, and the the same topic meet and present their notes. Ask the following composition of light while he was at Woolsthorpe. questions as different teams • relates Newton’s return to Cambridge, where he was appointed the share their notes: What were some Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a chair currently held by physicist of Newton’s mathematical and Stephen Hawking. scientific contributions? Which are • reports how Newton solved the problem of chromatic aberration in important in the world today? What role did religion play in his life? refracting telescopes by designing and building a reflecting telescope Why was he interested in alchemy? based on mirrors rather than lenses. -
A Lexicon of Alchemy
A Lexicon of Alchemy by Martin Rulandus the Elder Translated by Arthur E. Waite John M. Watkins London 1893 / 1964 (250 Copies) A Lexicon of Alchemy or Alchemical Dictionary Containing a full and plain explanation of all obscure words, Hermetic subjects, and arcane phrases of Paracelsus. by Martin Rulandus Philosopher, Doctor, and Private Physician to the August Person of the Emperor. [With the Privilege of His majesty the Emperor for the space of ten years] By the care and expense of Zachariah Palthenus, Bookseller, in the Free Republic of Frankfurt. 1612 PREFACE To the Most Reverend and Most Serene Prince and Lord, The Lord Henry JULIUS, Bishop of Halberstadt, Duke of Brunswick, and Burgrave of Luna; His Lordship’s mos devout and humble servant wishes Health and Peace. In the deep considerations of the Hermetic and Paracelsian writings, that has well-nigh come to pass which of old overtook the Sons of Shem at the building of the Tower of Babel. For these, carried away by vainglory, with audacious foolhardiness to rear up a vast pile into heaven, so to secure unto themselves an immortal name, but, disordered by a confusion and multiplicity of barbarous tongues, were ingloriously forced. In like manner, the searchers of Hermetic works, deterred by the obscurity of the terms which are met with in so many places, and by the difficulty of interpreting the hieroglyphs, hold the most noble art in contempt; while others, desiring to penetrate by main force into the mysteries of the terms and subjects, endeavour to tear away the concealed truth from the folds of its coverings, but bestow all their trouble in vain, and have only the reward of the children of Shem for their incredible pain and labour. -
Ethan Allen Hitchcock Alchemy Collection in the St
A Guide to the Ethan Allen Hitchcock Alchemy Collection in the St. Louis Mercantile Library The St. Louis Mercantile Library Association Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock (1798 - 1870) A GUIDE TO THE ETHAN ALLEN HITCHCOCK COLLECTION OF THE ST. LOUIS MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION A collective effort produced by the NEH Project Staff of the St. Louis Mercantile Library Copyright (c) 1989 St. Louis Mercantile Library Association St. Louis, Missouri TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Staff................................ i Foreword and Acknowledgments................. 1 A Guide to the Ethan Allen Hitchcock Collection. .. 6 Aoppendix. 109 NEH PROJECT STAFF Project Director: John Neal Hoover* Archivist: Ann Morris, 1987-1989 Archivist: Betsy B. Stoll, 1989 Consultant: Louisa Bowen Typist: ' Betsy B. Stoll This project was made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities * Charles F. Bryan, Jr. Ph.D., Executive Director of the Mercantile Library 1986-1988; Jerrold L. Brooks, Ph.D. Executive Director of the Mercantile Library, 1989; John Neal Hoover, MA, MLS, Acting Librarian, 1988, 1989, during the period funded by NEH as Project Director -i- FOREWORD & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: For over one thousand years, the field of alchemy gathered to it strands of religion, the occult, chemistry, pure sciences, astrology and magic into a broad general philosophical world view which was, quite apart from the stereotypical view of the charlatan gold maker, concerned with the forming of a basis of knowledge on all aspects of life's mysteries. As late as the early nineteenth century, when many of the modern fields of the true sciences of mind and matter were young and undeveloped, alchemy was a beacon for many people looking for a philosophical basis to the better understanding of life--to the basic religious and philosophical truths. -
Alchemy Rediscovered and Restored
ALCHEMY REDISCOVERED AND RESTORED BY ARCHIBALD COCKREN WITH AN ACCOUNT OF THE EXTRACTION OF THE SEED OF METALS AND THE PREPARATION OF THE MEDICINAL ELIXIR ACCORDING TO THE PRACTICE OF THE HERMETIC ART AND OF THE ALKAHEST OF THE PHILOSOPHER TO MRS. MEYER SASSOON PHILADELPHIA, DAVID MCKAY ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1941 Alchemy Rediscovered And Restored By Archibald Cockren. This web edition created and published by Global Grey 2013. GLOBAL GREY NOTHING BUT E-BOOKS TABLE OF CONTENTS THE SMARAGDINE TABLES OF HERMES TRISMEGISTUS FOREWORD PART I. HISTORICAL CHAPTER I. BEGINNINGS OF ALCHEMY CHAPTER II. EARLY EUROPEAN ALCHEMISTS CHAPTER III. THE STORY OF NICHOLAS FLAMEL CHAPTER IV. BASIL VALENTINE CHAPTER V. PARACELSUS CHAPTER VI. ALCHEMY IN THE SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES CHAPTER VII. ENGLISH ALCHEMISTS CHAPTER VIII. THE COMTE DE ST. GERMAIN PART II. THEORETICAL CHAPTER I. THE SEED OF METALS CHAPTER II. THE SPIRIT OF MERCURY CHAPTER III. THE QUINTESSENCE (I) THE QUINTESSENCE. (II) CHAPTER IV. THE QUINTESSENCE IN DAILY LIFE PART III CHAPTER I. THE MEDICINE FROM METALS CHAPTER II. PRACTICAL CONCLUSION 'AUREUS,' OR THE GOLDEN TRACTATE SECTION I SECTION II SECTION III SECTION IV SECTION V SECTION VI SECTION VII THE BOOK OF THE REVELATION OF HERMES 1 Alchemy Rediscovered And Restored By Archibald Cockren THE SMARAGDINE TABLES OF HERMES TRISMEGISTUS said to be found in the Valley of Ebron, after the Flood. 1. I speak not fiction, but what is certain and most true. 2. What is below is like that which is above, and what is above is like that which is below for performing the miracle of one thing. -
Gold and Silver: Perfection of Metals in Medieval and Early Modern Alchemy Citation: F
Firenze University Press www.fupress.com/substantia Gold and silver: perfection of metals in medieval and early modern alchemy Citation: F. Abbri (2019) Gold and sil- ver: perfection of metals in medieval and early modern alchemy. Substantia 3(1) Suppl.: 39-44. doi: 10.13128/Sub- Ferdinando Abbri stantia-603 DSFUCI –Università di Siena, viale L. Cittadini 33, Il Pionta, Arezzo, Italy Copyright: © 2019 F. Abbri. This is E-mail: [email protected] an open access, peer-reviewed article published by Firenze University Press (http://www.fupress.com/substantia) Abstract. For a long time alchemy has been considered a sort of intellectual and histo- and distributed under the terms of the riographical enigma, a locus classicus of the debates and controversies on the origin of Creative Commons Attribution License, modern chemistry. The present historiography of science has produced new approach- which permits unrestricted use, distri- es to the history of alchemy, and the alchemists’ roles have been clarified as regards the bution, and reproduction in any medi- vicissitudes of Western and Eastern cultures. The paper aims at presenting a synthetic um, provided the original author and profile of the Western alchemy. The focus is on the question of the transmutation of source are credited. metals, and the relationships among alchemists, chymists and artisans (goldsmiths, sil- Data Availability Statement: All rel- versmiths) are stressed. One wants to emphasise the specificity of the history of alche- evant data are within the paper and its my, without any priority concern about the origins of chemistry. Supporting Information files. Keywords. History of alchemy, precious metals, transmutation of metals. -
PETRUS BONUS, Pretiosa Margarita Novella [The Precious New Pearl] in Latin, Decorated Manuscript on Paper Spain (Catalonia), C
PETRUS BONUS, Pretiosa margarita novella [The Precious New Pearl] In Latin, decorated manuscript on paper Spain (Catalonia), c. 1450-1480 i (paper) + 92 + i (paper) folios on paper (watermarks, unidentified Oxhead, and Oxhead with eyes, nostrils, further features, above a crescent moon, similar to Briquet 14390, Montpellier 1458, Montpellier 1449-1466, and Clermont Ferrand 1460, and WIES, IBE 4435.02, Tortosa 1477), early foliation in faded ink, top outer corner recto, 1- 30, with f. 10 bis, modern foliation in pencil, top outer corner recto (cited), complete (collation, i-vii12 viii12 [-9 through 12, cancelled with no loss of text]), horizontal catchwords inner lower margin, no signatures, ruled very lightly in lead, with full length vertical bounding lines and with the top and bottom horizontal rules full across on a few folios (justification, 205-203 x 144-140 mm.), written below the top line in a stylized cursive gothic bookhand with no loops in two columns of thirty-eight lines, red rubrics, alternately red and blue paragraph marks and two-line initials, large three-line initial, f. 1, darkened silver (?) on a notched ground that follows the shape of the initial (color damaged, yellow?) with a short spray of leaves and small flowers with black ink sprays extending from the initial into the inner margin, trimmed, with loss of some marginalia, f. 73, large hole in the top inner portion of the leaf (loss of text), f. 24, small hole top margin, f. 1, initial damaged, water stains upper margins and top lines of text, (text remains legible, with some passages rewritten in darker ink), smaller, darker stains lower margins, but in sound and legible condition. -
Alchemylab Articles\374
Alchemical Theory The One Thing (or the Subtle Ether) Space, whether interplanetary, inner matter, or inter-organic, is filled with a subtle presence emanating from the One Thing of the universe. Later alchemists called it, as did the ancients, the subtle Ether. This primordial fluid or fabric of space pervades everything and all matter. Metal, mineral, tree, plant, animal, man; each is charged with the Ether in varying degrees. All life on the planet is charged in like manner; a world is built up in this fluid and move through a sea of it. Alchemical Ether, which some Hermeticists call the Astral Light, determines the constitution of bodies. Hardness and softness, solidity and liquidity, all depend on the relative proportion of ethereal and ponderable matter of which they me composed. The arbitrary division and classification of physical science, the whole range of physical phenomena, proceeds from the primary Ether, for science has reduced matter as we know it to nothing but Ether, which, although not solid matter, is still matter, the First Matter of the alchemists. When most of us speak of matter, of course, we usually visualize solid substance, but it has been proved by that matter is not actually solid, but merely a stress, a strain in the etheric field of time and space. The atom and the electrons and protons of which it is composed, all move in a sea of Ether, so, that in accordance with this theory of alchemy, the very air we breathe, the very bodies we inhabit, all things most likewise be moving in this sea of Ether, the parent element from which all manifestation has come. -
Manly Palmer Hall Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts, 1500-1825
http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf838nb2kp Online items available Finding aid for the Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, 1500-1825 Finding aid prepared by Trevor Bond. Finding aid for the Manly Palmer 950053 1 Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts, 1500-1825 ... Descriptive Summary Title: Manly Palmer Hall collection of alchemical manuscripts Date (inclusive): 1500-1825 Number: 950053 Creator/Collector: Hall, Manly P. (Manly Palmer), 1901-1990 Physical Description: 7.5 linear feet(243 vols.) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688 (310) 440-7390 Abstract: A collection of 243 manuscripts detailing the arts of Alchemy, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and Masonry, gathered by Manly Palmer Hall, author and researcher in the realms of mysticism and the occult. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy. Language: Collection material is in Latin Biographical/Historical Note Manley Hall was born in 1901,in Peterborough, Canada, to William S. and Louise Palmer Hall. The Hall family moved to the United States in 1904 and lived for a time in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Manly Hall settled in Los Angeles in 1919. As a young man he became interested in occult matters. He subsequently joined a number of societies, among them the Theosophical Society, the Freemasons, the Societas Rosecruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis, and the American Federation of Astrologers. In 1922 Manly Hall wrote his first book on philosophy/religion, Initiates of the Flame. According to Hall, he began collecting works on mysticism and the esoteric sciences: "late in the fall of 1922, the plan for a comprehensive work on the symbolism of western mystical societies began to take shape in my mind.