The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy

The Chemical Choir: A History of Alchemy

by P.G.Maxwell-Stuart (Author)

Synopsis

The history of alchemy is traced from its earliest roots through to its influence and use in modern-day science.Beginning in China in the search for the secret of immortality, and appearing independently in Egypt as an attempt to produce gold, alchemy received a great boost in Europe from studies by Islamic and Jewish alchemists. Their written accounts were translated into Latin and combined with what was known of Greek natural science to produce an outburst of attempts to manipulate matter and change it into transformative substances called the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life.Alchemy's heyday in Europe was the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Demonstrations of the art were performed in royal courts under conditions meant to obviate any fraud, and specimens of the gold so transmuted can be seen in various museums. During the nineteenth century, attempts were made to amalgamate alchemy with the religious and occult philosophies then growing in popularity; and in the twentieth century psychologists - principally Carl Jung - perceived in alchemy a powerful vehicle for aspects of their theories about human nature. At the same time laboratory scientists continued to experiment in ways very similar to those of their Medieval and early modern forebears.P.G. Maxwell-Stuart explores the history of alchemy with authority and verve, showing that its study is not one of the odder byways of antiquarianism but a living part of the history of Science itself.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 200
Edition: First Edition; First Impression
Publisher: Hambledon Continuum
Published: 29 May 2008

ISBN 10: 184725148X
ISBN 13: 9781847251480

Media Reviews
'It breaks down a complex subject - the study of nature through experiments with chemicals - into ten easy-to-read chapters ...
The reader who has always wondered about alchemy and has not yet read a history of the subject will find The Chemical Choir an entertaining starting point.' - Reviews in History
'It breaks down a complex subject -- the study of nature through experiments with chemicals -- into ten easy-to-read chapters ...
The reader who has always wondered about alchemy and has not yet read a history of the subject will find The Chemical Choir an entertaining starting point.' - Reviews in History
'It breaks down a complex subject the study of nature through experiments with chemicals into ten easy-to-read chapters ...
The reader who has always wondered about alchemy and has not yet read a history of the subject will find The Chemical Choir an entertaining starting point.' - Reviews in History
Author Bio
Dr Peter Maxwell-Stuart is an Honorary Lecturer in the School of History at the University of St Andrews. His many publications include Witchcraft - A History (Tempus 2000) and The Occult in Medieval Europe (Palgrave 2005).