Some Recent Developments in the Historiography of Alchemy

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copy Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry 2011 DOI 101179174582311X13129418299063

ambix Vol 58 No 3 November 2011 215ndash37

Some Recent Developments in the Historiography of AlchemyMarcos Martinoacuten-TorresUCL Institute of Archaeology London UK

The number of researchers and publications devoted to the history of alchemy has seen exponential growth and diversification in recent decades to such an extent that some scholars speak of a ldquoNew Historiography of Alchemyrdquo On the occasion of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry this paper outlines some highlights of the literature since 1990 with a view to identify current trends but also challenges for the future Some of the most important changes identified are a marked awareness of the risks of presentism a shift from ambitious histories to contextualised microhistories a heightened recognition of the internal diversity of historical alchemy and a greater emphasis on its practical dimensions and its role in the Scientific Revolution Among the challenges the paper underscores the potential risks of an excessive historiographical fragmentation the need for further interdisciplinary training and cooperation and the responsibilities of alchemy historians towards students and the general public alike

Introduction

In July 2006 about 150 delegates participated in the International Conference on the

History of Alchemy and Chemistry held at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in

Philadelphia1 This very successful event was widely acclaimed as the first of its kind

in nearly twenty years2 After this scholars interested in the history of alchemy had

to wait only two years for an equally well attended follow-up conference which took

place in Madrid3 The next major international conference on alchemy took place

1 Selected conference papers were published as Chymists and Chymistry Studies in the History of Alchemy and

Early Modern Chemistry ed L M Principe (Sagamore Beach Mass Science History Publications 2007)2 The main scholarly meeting devoted to alchemy before the Philadelphia conference took place in Groningen

Holland in 1989 See Z R W M von Martels ed Alchemy Revisited Proceedings of the International

Conference on the History of Alchemy at the University of Groningen 1989 Collection de Travaux de

lrsquoAcademie Internationale drsquoHistoire des Sciences 33 (Leiden Brill 1990)3 The conference took place in El Escorial (Madrid) 7ndash12 September 2008 Some conference papers were

published in Chymia Science and Nature in Medieval and Early Modern Europe ed M Loacutepez Peacuterez D Kahn

and M Rey Bueno (Newcastle Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010)

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216 MARCOS MARTINOacuteN-TORRES

in Cambridge in September 20114 but keen scholars had plenty of opportunity

to engage in discussion around the history of alchemy in the intervening period

in 2010 alone there were workshops and conference sessions regarding alchemy in

Cambridge5 Budapest6 Aberdeen7 Paris8 Amsterdam9 Berlin10 and Lille11 to name

but a few Quantifying scholarly output in the social sciences is particularly difficult

but gross qualitative indicators can be found for example a frequency histogram of

the term ldquoalchemyrdquo in publication titles archived in JSTOR dated from 1960 to 2000

shows a steady growth (Figure 1)12 A similar trend can be seen if one browses recent

issues of journals such as Ambix and Isis or the newer journals Aries Azogue and

Early Science and Medicine Even Science has recently included a popular article

entitled ldquoThe Alchemical Revolutionrdquo13 Clearly the history of alchemy is enjoying

something of a renaissance and with the popularity of alchemy in the mass media

rising and so much academic work yet to be done this trend is unlikely to slow down

in the near future

Considering the remarkable volume of research taking place in this field the

seventy-fifth anniversary of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

seems an appropriate occasion to take stock of some of the ongoing developments

not only to celebrate past and recent achievements but also perhaps to identify

remaining caveats and suggest pointers for future enquiry This paper presents a

modest attempt to review some of the most significant developments in the

historiography of alchemy in the last twenty years Considering the sheer richness

and complexity of the literature a thorough review would demand time expertise

and insight well beyond what this reviewer can offer Therefore this paper can

only purport to present some highlights skewed by the perspective of someone

who is most familiar with current research on late medieval and early modern

transmutational alchemy published in English Although an attempt will be made

to acknowledge some significant contributions to other research areas such as the

medical applications of alchemy and work published in European languages other

than English there is no ambition to provide an exhaustive bibliographical guide and

4 International Conference ldquoAlchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenmentrdquo 22ndash24 September

2011 University of Cambridge5 SHAC Graduate Workshop on the History of Alchemy and Chemistry University of Cambridge 8 January

20106 International workshop ldquoOn the Fringes of Alchemyrdquo Medieval Studies Department Central European

University Budapest 8ndash11 July 20107 Panel ldquoThe Practice of Medieval and Early Modern Alchemyrdquo at the BSHS Annual Conference 2010

University of Aberdeen 22ndash25 July 20108 Workshop ldquoQuestioning lsquoOccultrsquo Sciencesrdquo Universiteacute Paris 7 16 June 20109 ldquoAlchemy Between Science and Religionrdquo ESSWE Thesis Workshop University of Amsterdam 24 June

201010 Workshop ldquoScientific Objects and their Materiality in the History of Chemistryrdquo Max Planck Institute for the

History of Science Berlin 24ndash26 June 201011 ldquoChimie et alchimie continuiteacutes et rupturesrdquo Seminar series on ldquoHistoire de la chimie aux XVIIe et XVIIIe

siegraveclesrdquo Universite de Lille November 2010 to May 201112 httpwwwjstororg (accessed 20 October 2010)13 S Reardon ldquoThe Alchemical Revolutionrdquo Science 332 (2011) 914ndash15

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217SOME RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF ALCHEMY

many deserving authors and publications will not accordingly receive the detailed

treatment that their contributions merit14

Twenty years in a snapshot

A word cloud is a visual depiction of a cluster of words where the size of each word

reflects the number of times that it appears in a given text Word or tag clouds are

often used to illustrate the content of websites based on the tags or keywords most

frequently used to describe their various pages or simply based on the word content

of a given site However they are useful in other forms of textual analysis for

example to assess and visually display the main emphasis of a given speech through

the identification of recurrent terms In order to provide a starting point for this

review I tried to generate word clouds that could encapsulate some of the leading

fi gure 1 Frequency histogram for the number of papers containing the term ldquoalchem-rdquo published between 1960 and 2004 and stored in JSTOR Note that many journals do not appear in JSTOR until a few years after their publication so post-2000 publications are likely to be underrepresented here

14 Somewhat more descriptive bibliographical guides up to 2005 are included in Chemical History Reviews of

the Recent Literature ed C A Russell and G K Roberts (Cambridge Royal Society of Chemistry 2005)

Of particular relevance are the introductory essay by the editors (ldquoGetting to Know History of Chemistryrdquo

1ndash18) and N G Coleyrsquos chapter on ldquoChemistry before 1800rdquo (19ndash48) For reviews up to the 1980s see A G

Debus Science and History A Chemistrsquos Appraisal (Coimbra Universidade de Coimbra 1984) and A G

Debus ldquoFrom the Sciences to History A Personal and Intellectual Journeyrdquo in Experiencing Nature Proceed-

ings of a Conference in Honor of Allen G Debus ed P H Theerman and K H Parshall (Dordrecht

Kluwer 1997) 237ndash80 An exhaustive bibliographical compilation is offered by A Pritchard Alchemy A

Bibliography of English-Language Writings (httpwwwalchemy-bibliographycouk) (accessed 1 April 2011)

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themes in the scholarly study of alchemy during different periods hoping to identify

continuities and ruptures The source of underlying data for the generation of the

word clouds shown in this paper is JSTOR For each of the periods covered a search

was performed for all of the publications including words with the root ldquoalchem-rdquo

anywhere in the text The results were arranged in order of relevance (ie weighed

by aspects such as the frequency of the term in the papers and its appearance in

paper titles) and the top entries were selected five hundred each for the decades

1930ndash1940 and 1960ndash1970 and one thousand for 1990ndash2010 The paper and journal

titles as well as the author names were subsequently fed into Wordle an online tag

cloud generator15 Common words such as articles and prepositions were removed

from the clouds in addition to terms related to botany (given the surprising abun-

dance of plant names that include our term of interest) and other uninformative

words such as ldquobookrdquo ldquostudyrdquo and ldquosocietyrdquo Needless to say the resulting pictures

have a strong Anglo-American bias and they are by no means comprehensive

or representative of the whole discipline mdash with Ambix constituting one notable

exclusion However they provide a reasonably large sample to allow for some first

impressions as suggested by the comparison that follows16

Starting with the 1930s (Figure 2) some of the most conspicuous terms after

ldquoSciencerdquo and ldquoHistoryrdquo are ldquoPhilosophyrdquo and ldquoMatterrdquo The image thus denotes an

interest of alchemy historians in early theories of matter consistent with the rather

abstract elucubrations of much early scholarship Also featured are ldquoPhilologyrdquo

and ldquoLiteraturerdquo albeit in smaller font size Interestingly the term ldquoAlchemyrdquo is

significantly smaller here than in the word clouds for the 1960s and especially for

1990ndash2010 This is because most of the publications included even though they may

tangentially address alchemical topics do not generally focus exclusively on alchemy

and thus do not refer to it in their titles Among the authors who can be identified

15 httpwwwwordlenet (accessed 1 April 2011)16 Although JSTOR is an archive of periodical publications these frequently include book reviews so the impact

of published books is also reflected here

fi gure 2 Word cloud for ldquoalchemyrdquo in JSTOR 1930ndash1940

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by their surnames are Lynn Thorndike Julius Ruska Tenney Davis George Sarton

and Frances Siegel mdash the latter two partly owing to their regular publication of

critical bibliographies of the history and philosophy of science In terms of geograph-

ical regions besides the predictable ldquoEnglishrdquo and ldquoAmericanrdquo (probably inflated by

their repetition in journal titles) the most remarkable terms are ldquoChineserdquo ldquoAsiaticrdquo

and ldquoArabicrdquo The only recognisable European flavour is provided by the repeated

mention of Roger Bacon

If we fast-forward to the 1960s (Figure 3) the situation appears to have changed

significantly The geographical and chronological foci have shifted to the late

medieval and early modern period in Europe with terms such as ldquoRenaissancerdquo

ldquoModernrdquo ldquoJacobeanrdquo and ldquoElizabethanrdquo This trend is accompanied by a marked

preponderance of works on language and literature with Shakespeare Ben Jonson

and Chaucerrsquos Canonrsquos Yeomanrsquos Tale among others featuring in rather large fonts

These literary works famously scornful of the stereotypical greedy or fraudulent

alchemist have been greatly influential in a narrow understanding of alchemy with a

long-lasting impact Leaving these approaches aside the names of some important

scholars can be picked out Nathan Sivin whose work largely explains the persistence

of the term ldquoChineserdquo in the cloud ldquoHallrdquo recognising both Marie Boas Hall and A

Rupert Hall and Carl Jung Other terms such as ldquoReligionrdquo ldquoFolklorerdquo ldquoTechnologyrdquo

and ldquoCulturerdquo feature more prominently in the 1960s than they did in the 1930s

partly owing to Jungian influence on the historiography of alchemy over this period

The most immediately striking feature of the word cloud for the last twenty

years is the sheer size of the term ldquoAlchemyrdquo which is notably larger than ldquoHistoryrdquo

ldquoSciencerdquo or any other word in the image (Figure 4) By now alchemy has become

a subject of study in its own right and as such it features in numerous publication

titles In order to facilitate the reading of the otherwise very small words the three


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above terms were removed and the remaining words recast in a new cloud

(Figure 5) Here interest in the Renaissance and early modern periods appears to have

crystallised and thematic keywords are more diverse ldquoLiteraturerdquo is still a prominent

term but so is ldquoScientific Revolutionrdquo as well as ldquoMedicinerdquo ldquoExperimentalrdquo

ldquoTechnologyrdquo ldquoMagicrdquo ldquoGoldrdquo and ldquoCulturerdquo significantly ldquoChymistryrdquo has

newly appeared ldquoReligionrdquo ldquoLanguagerdquo and ldquoPhilosophyrdquo do appear but in

comparatively smaller sizes than in previous decades According to the cloud the

authors chiefly responsible for the recent developments include William Newman

Lawrence Principe Bruce Moran Pamela Smith and Tara Nummedal These and

other scholars have focused on figures such as Robert Boyle Isaac Newton George

Starkey and Simon Forman who also feature in the cloud ldquoBen Jonsonrdquo however

has shrunk considerably

The 1990ndash2010 word cloud thus provides a few interesting indicators to help

us locate some of the recent developments in the historiography of alchemy These

aspects will be addressed in the following sections together with a few others which

for reasons such as the partial coverage of JSTOR or their very recent nature did not

make it into the cloud but are still deemed worthy of consideration17

Alchemy chemistry and chymistry

A review of the recent historiography on alchemy ought to start with what is arguably

the most seminal and widely cited paper in the literature of the last two decades This

is none other than William R Newman and Lawrence M Principersquos ldquoAlchemy vs

Chemistry The Etymological Origins of a Historiographic Mistakerdquo published in


17 It should be noted that many journals operate a ldquomoving wallrdquo whereby articles are only made available on

JSTOR a few years after they have been published Thus although my search covered the whole period the

sample for 2005ndash2010 is probably even less representative than the rest

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of A

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and

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199818 In this article Newman and Principe take a fresh look at the old topic of the

relationship between alchemy and chemistry once again revisiting the etymology but

combining it with a historiographical review They make the strong claim that

prior to the eighteenth century the terms ldquoalchemyrdquo and ldquochemistryrdquo were largely

synonymous when discrimination was made between the two this was generally

based on contingent criteria that were individual to each author and different from

the present ones19 Newman and Principe therefore contend that it may be pointless

and anachronistic to explore the relationships between say early modern alchemy

and chemistry as such studies would tend to perpetuate an artificial cleft between

ldquothe esotericrdquo and ldquothe scientificrdquo that is set a priori and does not apply to the period

concerned Importantly this claim does away with much traditional scholarship that

sought to tell the history of chemistry as a long struggle of light and reason over the

obscurity and superstition of alchemy Newman and Principersquos paper can be read in

combination with a follow-up publication printed in 2001 in which two important

points are made first they restate that alchemy was much more than the quest for

the Philosophersrsquo Stone and that gold-making was indeed just one activity within a

fi gure 5 Word cloud for 1990ndash2010 after removal of the terms ldquoAlchemyrdquo ldquoHistoryrdquo and ldquoSciencerdquo

18 W R Newman and L R Principe ldquoAlchemy vs Chemistry the Etymological Origins of a Historiographic

Mistakerdquo Early Science and Medicine 3 no 1 (1998) 32ndash65 Related arguments can be found in earlier works

by both authors19 On the intellectual and institutional context for the ldquoinventionrdquo of chemistry as different from alchemy see

also L M Principe ldquoA Revolution Nobody Noticed Changes in Early Eighteenth-Century Chymistryrdquo in

New Narratives in Eighteenth-Century Chemistry ed L M Principe (Dordrecht Springer 2007) 1ndash22 and

L M Principe ldquoTransmuting Chymistry into Chemistry Eighteenth-Century Chrysopoeia and its Repudia-

tionrdquo in Neighbours and Territories The Evolving Identity of Chemistry ed J R Bertomeu-Saacutenchez D T

Burns and B Van Tiggelen (Louvain-la-neuve Meacutemosciences 2008) 21ndash34 Further contributions to this

topic in the last two decades are among many others B Joly ldquoAlchimie et rationaliteacute la question des critegraveres

de deacutemarcation entre chimie et alchimie au XVIIe siegraveclerdquo Sciences et Techniques en Perspective 31 (1995)

93ndash107 F Abbri ldquoAlchemy and Chemistry Chemical Discourses in the Seventeenth Centuryrdquo Early Science

and Medicine 5 no 2 (2000) 214ndash26 and A Clericuzio ldquolsquoSooty Empiricksrsquo and Natural Philosophers The

Status of Chemistry in the Seventeenth Centuryrdquo Science in Context 23 no 3 (2010) 329ndash50

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much broader field and second they show that the long-assumed connections

between the alchemist and vitalistic theories of matter and concerns with the

supernatural were far from predominant As if this was not enough to stir the waters

of the hitherto authoritative study of alchemy Principe and Newman also question

the Jungian interpretation of alchemical texts as projections of a collective

unconscious by suggesting that it is possible to identify real materials and recipes in

the superficially confusing and apparently allegorical texts of the alchemists20 There

is a very important corollary to this revision if alchemy in general and gold-making

in particular is viewed as part of a wider early modern interest in experimenting with

nature rather than as an obscure nonscientific endeavour that occupied outcasts

then its potential role in the development of modern science cannot be overlooked21

The work by Newman and Principe has heralded what they call the ldquoNew

Historiographyrdquo of alchemy The flagship of this historical revisionism is the

use of the archaic term ldquochymistryrdquo which the authors proposed as a more neutral

all-inclusive alternative that avoids the anachronistic connotations usually attached

to the traditional ldquoalchemyrdquo and ldquochemistryrdquo The term is now so popular that it has

become commonplace in subsequent historiography at the very least academic

writers and conference presenters increasingly feel the need to justify their term of

choice and show their awareness of the ldquochymistry riffrdquo22 As an indication of this

trend the number of times that ldquochymistryrdquo features in books digitised by Google

Books multiplied three-fold between 1998 and 2008 (Figure 6) Although many

historians have embraced it some critical voices of the revisionist approach have

appeared typically in the form of variously convincing exceptions to some of

the generalisations made by Principe and Newman in the above-mentioned

publications and their subsequent work23 If nothing else these critiques are coherent

with the ethos of this revisionism in that they challenge monolithic views and keep

the historiography diverse and multivocal

The historiographical developments highlighted in the rest of this paper can be seen

as largely coherent with this New Historiography This is not to say however that

they have all been inspired by the two most prominent advocates of this realignment

alone Rather they have emerged from a broader intellectual atmosphere that

challenges authoritative histories acknowledges the risks of generalisation and

appreciates that specific research skills and critical approaches are essential for a

proper historiography of alchemy

20 See also J Rodriacuteguez Guerrero ldquoExamen de una amalgama problemaacutetica psicologiacutea analiacutetica y alquimiardquo

Azogue 4 (2001) wwwrevistaazoguecom (accessed 1 April 2011)21 L M Principe and W R Newman ldquoSome Problems with the Historiography of Alchemyrdquo in Secrets of

Nature Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe ed W R Newman and A Grafton (Cambridge

Mass MIT Press 2001) 385ndash43422 Such a disclaimer was wittily made by SHACrsquos chairman Robert Anderson in his opening words to the

celebration of the societyrsquos seventy-fifth anniversary23 H Tilton The Quest for the Phoenix Spiritual Alchemy and Rosicrucianism in the Work of Count Michael

Maier (Berlin Walter de Gruyte 2003) 9ndash18 B Vickers ldquoThe lsquoNew Historiographyrsquo and the Limits of

Alchemyrdquo Annals of Science 65 (2008) 127ndash56 and response in W R Newman ldquoBrian Vickers on Alchemy

and the Occult a Responserdquo Perspectives on Science 17 no 4 (2009) 482ndash506 G-F Cālian ldquoAlkimia

operativa and alkimia speculativa Some Modern Controversies on the Historiography of Alchemyrdquo Annual

of Medieval Studies at CEU 16 (2010) 166ndash90

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The craftsman the magician and the scholar

One of the many challenging issues in the study of early alchemy has been its some-

what ambiguous position between the mechanical and the liberal arts Traditionally

it has been argued that until 1600 there was ldquoa sharp dividing linerdquo between the two

spheres and only from the Renaissance onwards do we see a growing interaction

between them24 But were alchemists mere craftsmen concerned with the practical

exploitation of nature mdash chiefly the production of gold and medical remedies mdash or

were they humanists interested in the explanation of the secrets of the natural mdash

or even the supernatural mdash world Most scholars now agree that most alchemists

irrespective of personal orientations engaged in the practical processing of real

substances Furthermore transmutation was by necessity an investigative

endeavour no established method existed for turning base metals into gold and

therefore alchemists could never be traditional craftspeople who simply repeated

practical procedures These and similar realisations have led modern historians to

investigate on the one hand potential sources of the practical knowledge deployed

by alchemists and on the other the contributions that the alchemistsrsquo own research

may have made to the modern scientific method The scholarly exploration of

these ideas has yielded some of the most refreshing approaches to early alchemy in

particular and to the roots of the Scientific Revolution in general

fi gure 6 Linechart showing the growth in the frequency of the term ldquochymistryrdquo in books available digitally through Google Books with publication dates between 1990 and 2008 Graph generated by Google Books Ngram Viewer (httpngramsgooglelabscom)

24 Edgar Zilsel ldquoThe Origins of William Gilbertrsquos Experimental Methodrdquo Journal of the History of Ideas 2 no

1 (1941) 1ndash32

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For a few decades now the so-called ldquoscholar and craftsman thesisrdquo has helped

to increase awareness that the transfer of skills and knowledge among different

professional spheres played an important part in the development of the experimental

method and the natural sciences in general25 Implicitly or explicitly this thesis

appears to have regained popularity in the recent historiography of alchemy The

printing press the use of vernacular languages and the growing involvement of lay

investors in traditional crafts such as metallurgy greatly contributed to the diffusion

of the borders of knowledge and specialism between craftsmen and natural philoso-

phers mdash and alchemy could not be alien to these historical developments Recent

research has highlighted how sixteenth-century books of secrets and more learned

publications on technology reached keen alchemists and other readers who capital-

ised on this knowledge26 This alchemical interest in the crafts is unlikely to be

completely new both before and after the printing press alchemists learned through

the circulation of manuscripts and by direct interaction with and observation of

practitioners producing commodities such as metals pigments and glass As

suggested by the word cloud presented above Pamela Smith has been one of the most

prominent recent advocates of the role of what she calls ldquovernacular knowledgerdquo

Through examination of artisanal practice in the early modern world she has

expressly contended that artisans created abstract knowledge through their direct

sensory experience with natural materials27 Thus any study of early forms of

scientific enquiry and experimentation with nature should pay more consideration to

artisans rather than dismissing them as practitioners who used their hands but not

their heads An eloquent example of the increasingly fluid boundaries between ldquocraftrdquo

and ldquosciencerdquo in early modern alchemy is Graf Wolfgang II of Hohenlohe an

aristocrat interested in transmutation he could apply his knowledge and skills to

more mundane matters such as the assay of noble metal ores to guide mining explo-

rations28 In the same vein the famous transmutational alchemist George Starkey

25 As early proponents see R Hall ldquoThe Scholar and the Craftsman in the Scientific Revolutionrdquo in Critical

Problems in the History of Science ed M Clagett (Madison Wis The University of Wisconsin 1962) 3ndash23

R K Merton Science Technology and Society in Seventeenth-Century England first published in Osiris 4

(1938) and the papers mostly dated in the 1940s collected in The Social Origins of Modern Science ed E

Zilsel (Dordrecht Kluwer 2000) For more recent examples see works edited by J V Field and A J L James

in Renaissance and Revolution Humanists Scholars Craftsmen and Natural Philosophers in Early Modern

Europe (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 1993) published in honour of R Hall26 W Eamon Science and the Secrets of Nature Books of Secrets in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

(Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 1994) P O Long Openness Secrecy Authorship Technical Arts

and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance (Baltimore Md Johns Hopkins University

Press 2001) M Pereira ldquoAlchemy and the Use of Vernacular Languages in the Late Middle Agesrdquo Speculum

74 no 2 (1999) 336ndash5627 See especially P Smith The Body of the Artisan Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution (Chicago

Ill University of Chicago Press 2004) but also P Smith and B Schmidt ed Making Knowledge in Early

Modern Europe Practices Objects and Texts 1400ndash1800 (Chicago Ill University of Chicago Press 2007)

in addition to other essays by P Smith including most recently ldquoVermilion Mercury Blood and Lizards

Matter and Meaning in Metalworkingrdquo in Materials and Expertise in Early Modern Europe Between Market

and Laboratory ed U Klein and E Spary (Chicago Ill University of Chicago Press 2010) 29ndash4928 J Weyer Graf Wolfgang II von Hohenlohe und die Alchemie Alchemistische Studienn Schloss Weikersheim

1587ndash1610 (Sigmaringen Thorbecke Verlag 1992)

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His

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and

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invested some of the money he earned as a medical practitioner in order to learn

metallurgical skills29 Besides resituating alchemists within wider networks of learning

and practice these and other studies demonstrate that the early modern belief in

transmutation was compatible with other forms of knowledge and academic enquiry

rather than an aberration for fraudsters and social reprobates

Yet the transfer of knowledge took place in the other direction too and

recent works have highlighted the explicit acknowledgement of alchemists that

some nonalchemists make when talking about technical discoveries as well as the

alchemical theories implicit in metallurgical treatises30 The contribution of chymistry

to intellectual knowledge goes well beyond the provision of a few technical secrets

in its methods and theories of matter it appears to have paved the way for modern

experimental science31 The last decade has seen a plethora of publications that

place chymistry as a foundation stone of the so-called Scientific Revolution By

demonstrating that the quest for transmutation and alchemical theories of matter

were at the core of the most influential scientific work of such figures as Boyle

and Newton rather than sidelines or ldquoguilty pleasuresrdquo the recent historiography is

adding to the evidence that chymistry may have played a more fundamental role in

the Scientific Revolution than has been hitherto recognised32 Some recent surveys

drawing on a wider range of sources demonstrate that the cases of Boyle and Newton

were not so exceptional in this regard mdash alchemy and transmutation it appears

provided fundamental foundations for modern chemical theories and methods

29 W R Newman Gehennical Fire The Lives of George Starkey an American Alchemist in the Scientific

Revolution (Cambridge Mass Harvard University Press 1994) W R Newman and L M Principe Alchemy

Tried in the Fire Starkey Boyle and the Fate of Helmontian Chymistry (Chicago Ill University of Chicago

Press 2002)30 See W Dym ldquoAlchemy and Mining Metallogenesis and Prospecting in Early Mining Booksrdquo Ambix 55 no

3 (2008) 232ndash25431 Fire assay deserves a special mention here as an analytical technique relevant to chymists and metallurgists

which routinely utilised several scientific procedures and natural laws that would not be formulated in print

for centuries Its role in the development of modern chemistry is only beginning to be recognised See

Th Rehren ldquoAlchemy and Fire Assay mdash An Analytical Approachrdquo Historical Metallurgy 30 no 2 (1996)

136ndash42 W R Newman ldquoAlchemy Assaying and Experimentrdquo in Instruments and Experimentation in the

History of Chemistry ed F Holmes and T H Levere (Cambridge Mass MIT Press 2000) 35ndash54 and

M Martinoacuten-Torres and Th Rehren ldquoAlchemy Chemistry and Metallurgy in Renaissance Europe A Wider

Context for Fire-assay Remainsrdquo Historical Metallurgy 39 no 1 (2005) 14ndash2832 The main references on Boylersquos alchemy are L M Principe The Aspiring Adept Robert Boyle and His

Alchemical Quest (Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 1998) and M Hunter Boyle Between God and

Science (New Haven Conn Yale University Press 2009) On Newtonrsquos alchemy see B J T Dobbs The

Janus Faces of Genius The Role of Alchemy in Newtonrsquos Thought (Cambridge Mass Cambridge Univer-

sity Press 1991) L Principe ldquoReflections on Newtonrsquos Alchemy in the Light of the New Historiography of

Alchemyrdquo in Newton and Newtonianism New Studies ed J E Force and S E Hutton (Dordrecht Kluwer

2004) 205ndash19 W R Newman ldquoThe Background to Newtonrsquos Chymistryrdquo in The Cambridge Companion to

Newton ed I Bernard Cohen and George Smith (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2002) 358ndash69

W R Newman ldquoNewtonrsquos Early Optical Theory and its Debt to Chymistryrdquo in Lumiegravere et vision dans les

sciences et dans les arts de lrsquoAntiquiteacute du XVIIe siegravecle ed D Jacquart and M Hochmann (Geneva Librairie

Droz 2010) and J T Young ldquoIsaac Newtonrsquos Alchemical Notes in the Royal Societyrdquo Notes and Records

of the Royal Society 60 (2006) 25ndash34 For a comparison between Boylersquos and Newtonrsquos alchemies see

L Principe ldquoThe Alchemies of Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton Alternate Approaches and Divergent Deploy-

mentsrdquo in Rethinking the Scientific Revolution ed Margaret J Osler (Cambridge Cambridge University

Press 2000) 201ndash20

Pub

lishe

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hing

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iety

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the

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tory

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lche

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and

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try


rather than anecdotal contributions33 Along similar lines recent scholarship has

continued to show that religion esotericism and magic which infused early modern

chymistry as well as other areas of natural philosophy were neither independent

strands nor unsurpassable obstacles to the emergence of modern science34

Networks patrons business and fraudsters

With many long-standing assumptions in the line of fire historians have become

increasingly wary of the dangers of generalisation Following a surprising surge of

broad histories of chemistry in the early 1990s35 we are progressively abandoning

attempts to reconstruct the history of chemistry or that of science generally as a

single line of evolution dotted with individual luminaries who brought the discipline

towards an ever more knowledgeable present36 Instead we appreciate that even the

greatest chymists did not exist in isolation that the tree of knowledge is far too diverse

to be simplified in a chronography of discoveries and that only through a detailed

consideration of specific sociocultural contexts can we explain the emergence of ideas

Some historians such as David Knight have embraced the motto that ldquoscience

after all is not just a matter of geniuses in garretsrdquo and subsequently devoted

themselves to exploring the development of ideas rather than of individuals37

A notable example of this approach is Hiro Hirairsquos exhaustive Le concept de

semence which traces the use and influence of the concept of semina rerum in

early modern theories of generation38 Many others have continued to anchor their

historical research on specific characters with a special emphasis on early modern

alchemists39 However they chiefly use them as foci for much more dynamic studies

33 B T Moran Distilling Knowledge Alchemy Chemistry and the Scientific Revolution (Cambridge Mass

Harvard University Press 2005) W R Newman Atoms and Alchemy Chymistry and the Experimental

Origins of the Scientific Revolution (Chicago Ill The University of Chicago Press 2006) Some disagreement

remains however see U Klein ldquoStyles of Experimentation and Alchemical Matter Theory in the Scientific

Revolutionrdquo Metascience 16 (2007) 247ndash56 and response in W R Newman ldquoAlchemical Atoms or Artisanal

lsquoBuilding Blocksrsquo A Response to Kleinrdquo Perspectives in Science 17 no 2 (2009) 212ndash23 and A F Chalmers

ldquoBoyle and the Origins of Modern Chemistry Newman Tried in the Firerdquo Studies in History and Philosophy

of Science 41 (2010) 1ndash10 and response in W R Newman ldquoHow Not to Integrate the History and Philosoph y

of Science A Reply to Chalmersrdquo Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 41 (2010) 203ndash1334 See A G Debus ldquoChemists Physicians and Changing Perspectives on the Scientific Revolutionrdquo Isis 89

(1998) 66ndash81 J Henry The Scientific Revolution and the Origins of Modern Science (Basingstoke Palgrave

2002) and Newman ldquoBrian Vickers on Alchemyrdquo For an early recommendation not to artificially segregate

the ldquononscientificrdquo from the ldquoscientificrdquo see W Pagel ldquoThe Vindication of Rubbishrdquo Middlesex Hospital

Journal 45 (1945) 1ndash4 as cited in Debus ldquoChemists Physicians and Changing Perspectivesrdquo35 The most ambitious of these in size and scope are B Bensaude-Vincent and I Stengers Histoire de la

chimie (Paris Eacuteditions la Deacutecouverte 1993) and especially W H Brock The Fontana History of Chemistry

(London Fontana 1992) These and other general surveys aimed at different readers are discussed

comparatively in Russell and Roberts ldquoGetting to Knowrdquo36 As a recent review of presentism in the history of science see O Moro Abadiacutea ldquoThinking About lsquoPresentismrsquo

from a Historianrsquos Perspective Herbert Butterfield and Heacutelegravene Metzgerrdquo History of Science (2009) 47 55ndash7737 D Knight Ideas in Chemistry A History of the Science (London The Athlone Press 1992) 7 See also

Trevor H Levere Transforming Matter A History of Chemistry From Alchemy to the Buckyball (Baltimore

Md Johns Hopkins University Press 2001)38 H Hirai Le concept de semence dans les theacuteories de la matiegravere agrave la Renaissance de Marsile Ficin agrave Pierre

Gassendi (Turnhout Brepols 2005)39 A resurgence of ldquochemical biographiesrdquo is also noted in the history of chemistry See Russell and Roberts

ldquoGetting to Knowrdquo and Coley ldquoChemistry before 1800rdquo

Pub

lishe

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

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and

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mis

try


of networks of people who lived in specific settings maintaining important intellectual

and mundane interactions alike If R Evansrsquos study of the court of Rudolf II

can be considered an early example of this strategy40 Bruce Moranrsquos research on

the ldquocirclerdquo of Moritz of Hessen41 and Doacutera Boboryrsquos work on Count Boldizsaacuter

Batthyaacuteny42 provide exemplary recent instances Other examples can be found

in articles monographs or edited volumes on Robert Boyle43 John Dee44

Simon Forman45 George Ripley46 Andreas Libavius47 George Starkey48 John of

Rupescissa49 John Winthrop Jr50 and Johann Moriaen51 These publications are

much more than chronicles of feats and dates of the chymists or patrons in question

they include painstaking research into their published and unpublished sources

notebooks correspondence and other documentary sources integrated into their

broader institutional and socioeconomic context Other historians have more

explicitly concerned themselves with specific institutional settings such as the

Accademia del Cimento52 or the Swedish Board of Mines53 further demonstrating

how self-promotion personal connections and rivalry had a part to play in explaining

the history of alchemy Although there is no space to comment on the individual

merit of these publications the networks that they reveal can all be said to constitute

small but very significant pieces in the historical mosaic of early science

Of particular relevance (and among the most informative to historians) are the

relationships that existed between alchemists and their patrons either as individual

arrangements or as larger networks of practitioners centred on an aristocratic sponsor

The study of alchemical patronage is not new but recent scholarship has brought it

back to the fore Most of the studies cited in the paragraph above address where

40 R J W Evans Rudolf II and His World A Study in Intellectual History 1576ndash1612 (Oxford Clarendon 1973)41 B T Moran The Alchemical World of the German Court Occult Philosophy and Chemical Medicine in the

Circle of Moritz of Hessen (1572ndash1632) Sudhoffrsquos Archiv Beiheft 29 (Stuttgart Franz Steiner Verlag 1991)42 D Bobory The Sword and the Crucible Count Boldizsaacuter Batthyaacuteny and Natural Philosophy in

Sixteenth-Century Hungary (Newcastle Cambridge Scholar Publishing 2009)43 Principe The Aspiring Adept Hunter Boyle44 D E Harkness John Deersquos Conversations with Angels Cabala Alchemy and the End of Nature (Cambridge

Cambridge University Press 1999) S Clucas ed John Dee Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance

Thought (Dordrecht Springer 2006) and the special issue Ambix 52 no 3 (2005)45 B H Traister The Notorious Astrological Physician of London Works and Days of Simon Forman (Chicago

Ill University of Chicago Press 2001) L Kassell Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London Simon Forman

Astrologer Alchemist and Physician (Oxford Clarendon 2005)46 J M Rampling ldquoEstablishing the Canon George Ripley and His Alchemical Sourcesrdquo Ambix 55 no 3

(2008) 189ndash20847 B T Moran Andreas Libavius and the Transformation of Alchemy Separating Chemical Cultures with

Polemical Fire (Sagamore Beach Mass Science History Publications 2007)48 Newman Gehennical Fire Newman and Principe Alchemy Tried in the Fire49 L DeVun Prophecy Alchemy and the End of Time John of Rupescissa in the Late Middle Ages (New York

Columbia University Press 2009)50 W Woodward Prosperorsquos America John Winthrop Jr Alchemy and the Creation of New England Culture

1606ndash1676 (Chapel Hill NC University of North Carolina Press 2010)51 J T Young Faith Medical Alchemy and Natural Philosophy Johann Moriaen Reformed Intelligencer and

the Hartlib Circle (Aldershot Ashgate 1998)52 M Beretta A Clericuzio and L M Principe ed The Academia del Cimento and its European Context

(Sagamore Beach Mass Science History Publications 2009)53 H Fors Mutual Favours The Social and Scientific Practice of Eighteenth-Century Swedish Chemistry

(Doctoral dissertation Uppsala Universitet 2003) H Fors ldquoOccult Traditions and Enlightened Science The

Swedish Board of Mines as an Intellectual Environment 1680ndash1760rdquo in Principe Chymists and Chymistry

239ndash52

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for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

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and

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mis

try


relevant the various deals struck between alchemists and their patrons as these often

help us to understand the intellectual and economic atmosphere that both enabled

and constrained alchemy In addition to those recent research has shed light on the

often mentioned but rarely studied alchemy in the court of Philip II in Spain54 When

patronage of alchemists is studied in detail patrons often emerge neither as selfless

sponsors of research nor as superstitious adepts of obscure arts Rather these studies

have shown that alchemists offered practical solutions to real problems and ambitions

mdash mostly health and wealth mdash and that their services were often requested as such55

A particularly original and insightful contribution along this line has been offered by

Tara Nummedal who has tried to disentangle the different types of character who

would fall under the umbrella of ldquoalchemyrdquo in the sixteenth-century Holy Roman

Empire Among others she has crucially singled out the figure of the fraudster or

Betruumlger as a specific alchemical character one who holds much responsibility for the

disrepute of alchemy past and present but who does not represent the myriad of

laboratory practitioners concerned with metallic transmutation medicine and other

secrets of nature An important aspect of her work has centred on the legal proceedings

that led in many cases to the imprisonment or execution of these individuals In every

instance the culprits were accused of deceit or fraud for selling false Philosophersrsquo

Stones circulating counterfeit coinage or especially from the mid-sixteenth century

failing to deliver alchemical products after entering contractual agreements with

princes It was fraud and not alchemy that was chastised

The entrepreneurial dimension of alchemy however was not constrained to

supplying metals and medicines to European courts Among other commodities glass

has been revealed as a key output of the alchemical laboratory that had been greatly

overlooked by previous historians Two new volumes although rather different in

approach have both focused on the history of glass-making and placed emphasis on

the important role played by alchemists in the invention of or experimentation with

different types of glass56 As an artificial imitation of natural stones invented in the

second millennium BC glass represents one of the earliest and most unequivocal

expressions of the old alchemical precept of ldquoart imitating naturerdquo and one that

54 See F J Puerto Sarmiento ldquoThe Golden Panacea Alchemy and Distillation in the Court of Philip II

(1527ndash1598)rdquo Dynamis 17 (1997) 107ndash40 J Rodriacuteguez Guerrero and P Rojas Garciacutea ldquoLa Chymica de

Richard Stanihurst en la Corte de Felipe IIrdquo Azogue 4 (2001) wwwrevistaazoguecom (accessed 1 April 2011)

M Rey Bueno ldquoLa Mayson pour Distiller des Eauumles at El Escorial Alchemy and Medicine at the Court of

Philip II 1556ndash1598rdquo in Health and Medicine in Hapsburg Spain Agents Practices Representations Medical

History Supplement 29 ed T Huguet-Termes J Arrizabalaga and H J Cook (London The Wellcome Trust

2009) and W Eamon ldquoMasters of Fire Italian Alchemists in the Court of Philip IIrdquo in Loacutepez Peacuterez Kahn

and Rey Bueno Chymia Science and Nature 138ndash5655 For an especially articulate presentation of this and related arguments see P H Smith ldquoAlchemy as a

Language of Mediation at the Habsburg Courtrdquo Isis 85 no 1 (1994) 1ndash25 and P H Smith The Business of

Alchemy Science and Culture in the Holy Roman Empire (Princeton NJ Princeton University Press 1994)

See also essays in Patronage and Institutions Science Technology and Medicine at the European Court

1500ndash1750 ed B T Moran (Rochester NY Boydell Press 1991) especially the editorrsquos essay (ldquoPatronage

and Institutions Courts Universities and Academies in Germany An Overview 1550ndash1750rdquo 169ndash84)56 M Beretta The Alchemy of Glass Counterfeit Imitation and Transmutation in Ancient Glassmaking

(Sagamore Beach Mass Science History Publications Watson Publishing 2009) this is a survey of the

history of glass focused on how practical experience with natural and artificial stones informed evolving

theories of matter D Kerssenbrock-Krosigk ed Glass of the Alchemists Lead Crystal mdash Gold Ruby

1650ndash1750 (Corning NY The Corning Museum of Glass 2008) this is a superbly illustrated exhibition

catalogue including valuable introductory essays by notable historians

Pub

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try


stimulated great interest among natural philosophers craftspeople and consumers

alike Investigations with glass nourished theories of matter enabled the production

of more efficient laboratory instruments and ultimately fed a keen market that sought

ever more beautiful and sophisticated products All of these dimensions are intercon-

nected and the books cited should prompt a sorely overdue consideration of the

intellectual and commercial implications of glass in future scholarship on alchemy57

Western medieval alchemy and chymiatria

The study of early modern transmutational and metallurgical alchemy has experi-

enced a dramatic revival but other areas of investigation have also experienced strong

growth over the past couple of decades Research on Western medieval alchemy and

chymiatria illustrates some of these developments Notwithstanding the various

Anglophone works cited above many important studies in these fields are written in

languages other than English or focus on European regions beyond the confines of

Britain or central Europe Although they share approaches with those discussed

above such as an inclination to focus on microhistories (often based around a critical

edition) and a renewed interest in patronage we should also underscore the fact

that some of these studies also provide strong contributions to fields that represent

different original and influential academic traditions

As a body of work that has enlightened our understanding of one of the most

important strands of alchemical thought in Europe since the Middle Ages Michela

Pereirarsquos rigorous treatment of the pseudo-Lullian corpus deserves a special mention58

Further important work on medieval alchemy and medicine has continued to be

produced in Italy59 Other notable exhaustive works on Western medieval

alchemy include critical editions of the Arnald de Villanova corpus60 the Rosarium

57 On glass see also A M Roos ldquoA Speculum of Chymical Practice Isaac Newton Martin Lister (1639ndash1712)

and the Making of Telescopic Mirrorsrdquo Notes and Records of the Royal Society 64 no 2 (2010) 105ndash20 On

the connections between laboratory and market see essays in Klein and Spary Materials and Expertise

Another key material that should be rescued from neglect by alchemy historians is brass a golden alloy of

copper and zinc that was widely perceived as ldquotinctured copperrdquo See V Karpenko ldquoNot All That Glitters

is Gold Gold Imitations in Historyrdquo Ambix 54 no 2 (2007) 172ndash191 and Th Rehren and M Martinoacuten-

Torres ldquoNaturam ars imitata European Brassmaking between Craft and Sciencerdquo in Archaeology History

and Science Integrating Approaches to Ancient Materials ed M Martinoacuten-Torres and Th Rehren (Walnut

Creek Cal Left Coast 2008) 167ndash8858 M Pereira The Alchemical Corpus Attributed to Raymond Lull (London Warburg Institute Surveys and

Texts 1989) M Pereira Lrsquooro dei filosofi saggio sulle idee di un alchimista del Trecento (Spoleto Centro

Italiano di Studi sullrsquoAlto Medioevo 1992) M Pereira ldquoMedicina in the Alchemical Writings Attributed to

Raymond Lull (14thndash17th Centuries)rdquo in Alchemy and Chemistry in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

ed P Rattansi and A Clericuzio (Dordrecht Kluwer 1994) 1ndash15 M Pereira ldquoMater Medicinarum English

Physicians and the Alchemical Elixir in the Fifteenth Centuryrdquo in Medicine from the Black Death to the French

Disease ed R French J Arrizabalaga A Cunningham and L Garcia-Ballester (Aldershot Ashgate 1998)

26ndash5259 J Agrimi and C Crisciani Les ldquoConsiliardquo Meacutedicaux trans C Viola (Turnhout Brepols 1994) C Crisciani

Lrsquoarte del sole e della luna alchimia e filosofia nel medioevo ed C Crisciani and M Pereira (Spoleto Centro

Italiano di Studi sullrsquoAlto Medioevo 1996) C Crisciani Il Papa e lrsquoalchimia Felice V Guglielmo Fabri e

lrsquoelixir (Rome Viella 2002) C Crisciani and A Paravicini Bagliani ed Alchemia e medicina nel Medioevo

(Tavarnuzze Florence Sismel 2003)60 A Calvet ldquoLe De vita philosophorum du pseudo-Arnauld de Villeneuve Texte du manuscrit BN lat 7817

rdquo Chrysopoeia IV (1990ndash1991) 36ndash79 A Calvet ldquoMutations de lrsquoalchimie meacutedicale au XVe siegravecle A propos

des textes authentiques et apocryphes drsquoArnaud de Villeneuverdquo Micrologus 3 (1995) 185ndash209 A Calvet ldquoLe

De secretis naturaelig du pseudo-Arnaud-de Villeneuverdquo Chrysopoeia Cinq traiteacutes alchimiques meacutedieacutevaux VI

(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try


philosophorum61 the Summa perfectionis62 and among lesser-known manuscripts

Constantine of Pisarsquos Liber secretorum alchimie63 Although already cited above Leah

DeVunrsquos monograph on John of Rupescissa may be noted again here as a contextual

approach to medieval apocalyptic literature centred on the figure of a friar who

should also be considered from the standpoint of the history of pharmacology64

The alchemyndashmedicine binome often evokes a third concept Paracelsianism This

research area continues to be very fruitful as demonstrated by a number of recent

publications focused on Spain and France65 Among the latter Didier Kahnrsquos

authoritative volume on Paracelsianism in France presents a detailed and colourful

picture of the debates among Paracelsians and also between them and their

adversaries within France and beyond66 Like Kahn present and future scholars of

Paracelsianism will no doubt benefit from Wilhelm Kuumlhlmann and Joachim Tellersquos

colossal compilation of critical editions commentaries and much more in their

Corpus Paracelsisticum67

Material culture and alchemical practice

The focus on alchemical microhistories the wave of interest in business connections

and the eagerness to resituate alchemy within the history of modern science have

provided a fertile ground for studies that concentrate on the practical aspects

of laboratory activities These works are concerned not only with the reconstruction

of laboratories and experiments but also crucially with how these related to

observations and more theoretical abstractions68 The spiritual and philosophical

dimensions of alchemy are therefore not disregarded rather they are complemented

by hard data in the form of the instruments reagents and experiments that

ultimately fed theories of matter Yet as will be shown below there is still a slant in

practice-oriented studies towards the metallurgical aspects of alchemy that leaves

much room for research on the practical aspects of iatrochemistry

61 J Telle trans L Claren and J Huber ed Rosarium Philosophorum Ein alchemisches Florilegium des

Spaumltmittelalters (Faksimilie der illustrierten Erstausgabe Frankfurt 1550) 2 vols (Weinheim VCH Verlagsge-

sellschaft 1992)62 W R Newman ed The Summa Perfectionis of Pseudo-Geber A Critical Edition Translation and Study

(Leiden Brill 1991)63 Constantine of Pisa The Book of the Secrets of Alchemy Introduction Critical Edition Translation and

Commentary ed B Obrist (Leiden Brill 1990)64 DeVun Prophecy65 In Spain see M Loacutepez Peacuterez ldquoLa influencia de la alquimia medieval hispana en la Europa modernardquo Asclepio

LIV no 2 (2002) 211ndash29 M Loacutepez Peacuterez Asclepio Renovado Alquimia y Medicina en la Espantildea Moderna

(1500ndash1700) (Madrid Corona Borealis 2003) and M Rey Bueno ldquoLos paracelsistas espantildeoles medicina

quiacutemica en la Espantildea modernardquo in Maacutes allaacute de la Leyenda Negra Espantildea y la Revolucioacuten Cientiacutefica ed V

Navarro Brotoacutens and W Eamon (Madrid CSIC 2007) 41ndash56 In France see H Baudry Contribution agrave

lrsquoeacutetude du paracelsisme en France au XVIe siegravecle (1560ndash1580) De la naissance du mouvement aux anneacutees de

maturiteacute Le Demosterion de Roche Le Baillif (1578) Eacutetudes et essais sur la Renaissance LX (Paris Honoreacute

Champion 2005) Roch Le Baillif ldquoLe Demosterionrdquo in Textes de la Renaissance 93 ed H Baudry

(Paris Honoreacute Champion 2005) and D Kahn Alchimie et Paracelsisme en France (1567ndash1625) Cahiers

drsquoHumanisme et Renaissance 80 (Geneva Librairie Droz 2007)66 Kahn Alchimie et Paracelsisme67 Wilhelm Kuumlhlmann and Joachim Telle ed Corpus Paracelsisticum Dokumente fruumlhneuzeitlicher

Naturphilosophie in Deutschland 2 vols (Tuumlbingen Max Niemeyer 2001 and 2004)68 See essays in Holmes and Levere Instruments and Experimentation

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

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and

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mis

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Some authors have capitalised on the rich seam of information provided by extant

laboratory notebooks69 Others most notably Vladimiacuter Karpenko have relied on

their knowledge of modern metallurgy to try to propose actual material foundations

for the classification of metals and purported transmutations recorded in historical

sources70 A third research avenue into the materials of alchemy has been the direct

study of the materials themselves in the form of archaeological remains

Paying attention to instrumentation whether as historical depictions or extant

artefacts in museum collections is not a new approach in itself To name but two

classic examples both Marcellin Berthelot71 and James R Partington72 make use of

these types of source An overlap in sources and interests should also go some way

to explain the well-rooted connections between the Society for the History of

Alchemy and Chemistry and the Science Museum in London among other museums73

It can be argued however that the study of the material culture of the laboratory has

experienced an exponential growth over the last fifteen years In 2000 Robert Anderson

published a seminal paper highlighting the fact that ldquolittle or nothingrdquo had appeared

on scholarly works regarding chemical laboratory equipment74 Using distillation

equipment as a case in point he demonstrated that more archaeological remains were

available to the chemistry historian than one might have at first suspected and that

their informative potential was complementary rather than redundant in relation to

that of written sources As a somewhat parallel development archaeologists have

continued to excavate more or less complete assemblages from chymical laboratories75

These allow high-resolution studies that akin to the microhistories mentioned above

contribute accurate snapshots of the history of chymistry

Especially promising within the archaeology of chymistry mdash although I should here

confess the bias of a personal preference mdash is the application of scientific techniques

to reveal details of the manufacture place of production properties and utilisation

69 Weyer Graf Wolfgang II von Hohenlohe Newman and Principe Alchemy Tried in the fire On note-taking

by a medical alchemist see A Timmermann ldquoDoctorrsquos Order An Early Modern Doctorrsquos Alchemical

Notebooksrdquo Early Science and Medicine 13 no 1 (2008) 25ndash5270 V Karpenko ldquoCoins and Medals Made of Alchemical Metalrdquo Ambix 35 no 2 (1988) 65ndash76 V Karpenko

ldquoThe Chemistry and Metallurgy of Transmutationrdquo Ambix 39 no 2 (1992) 47ndash62 V Karpenko ldquoSystems

of Metals in Alchemyrdquo Ambix 50 no 2 (2003) 208ndash30 V Karpenko ldquoNot all that Glitters is Goldrdquo

ldquoWitnesses of a Dream Alchemical Coins and Medalsrdquo in Mystical Metal of Gold Essays on Alchemy and

Renaissance Culture ed S J Linden (Brooklyn NY AMS Press 2007)71 M Berthelot Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs 3 vols (Paris G Steinhel 1887ndash1888)72 J R Partington A History of Chemistry 4 vols (London Macmillan 1961ndash1970)73 See W Brockrsquos contribution to this issue (Ambix 58 no 3 (2011) 191ndash214)74 R Anderson ldquoThe Archaeology of Chemistryrdquo in Holmes and Levere Instruments and Experimentation 5ndash3475 Only some of the more impressive sites and relevant publications can be cited here I Rouaze ldquoUn atelier de

distillation du Moyen Agerdquo Antiquiteacutes Nationales nouvelle seacuterie 22 (1989) 159ndash271 S von Osten Das

Alchemistenlaboratorium von Oberstockstall Ein Fundkomplex des 16 Jahrhunderts aus Niederoumlsterreich

(Innsbruck Universitaumltsverlag Wagner 1998) R W Soukup and H Mayer Alchemistisches Gold Paracelsis-

tische Pharmaka Laboratoriumstechnik im 16 Jahrhundert (Vienna Boumlhlau 1997) P Kamber P Kurzmann

and Y Gerber ldquoDer Gelbschmied und Alchemist()vom Ringelhofrdquo Archaumlologische Bodenforschung des

Kantons Basel-Stadt mdash Jahresbericht 1998 (1998) 151ndash99 J A Bennett S A Jonhston and A V Simcock

Solomonrsquos House in Oxford New Finds from the First Museum (Oxford Museum of the History of Science

2000) G Hull (with contributions by P Blinkhorn P Cannon S Hamilton-Dyler C Salter and B White)

ldquoThe Excavation and Analysis of an 18th-Century Deposit of Anatomical Remains and Chemical Apparatus

from the Rear of the First Ashmolean Museum (now Museum of the History of Science) Broad Street

Oxfordrdquo Post-Medieval Archaeology 37 (2003) 1ndash28 K Friedl ldquoDie Probierstube eines Alchemisten im 16

Jahrhundert unterhalb der Loreto-Kapellerdquo Reib Eisen Das Kulturmagazin aus Kapfenberg 23 (2006)

191ndash95

Pub

lishe

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Man

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hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try


of laboratory instruments These are sometimes supplemented by the experimental

replication of ancient reactions The broad field of archaeological science or archae-

ometry has a long history and some analyses of laboratory equipment or related

materials such as metallurgical slag and glass are scattered in the literature Only

more recently however has there been a more systematic attempt at integrating the

work of specialists who have largely been unaware of each other mdash namely

archaeometrists and science historians When writing about alembics Anderson stated

that ldquoit is exceedingly difficult mdash in fact nearly impossible mdash to determine who

made them and where they were maderdquo76 In fact the chemical and mineralogical

analysis of laboratory instruments can answer these and other questions Focusing

on the other key instrument of the chymical laboratory mdash the crucible mdash a recent

project has unveiled a large-scale international market of reaction vessels that were

manufactured by German makers and sold across the early modern Atlantic world77

At the other end of the spectrum the ash cupels essential for assaying were generally

made by the users themselves and their variability demonstrates different learning

traditions and understandings of the properties of materials78 Besides unveiling

hitherto unknown international connections between potters alchemists assayers

and metallurgists this work has illustrated how artificial materials and instruments

were developed in response to technical needs sometimes much earlier than written

sources would attest to the point that it can be argued that chemical discoveries mdash

and related theorisation mdash would not have taken place without them79 The study of

material culture has also revealed some makersrsquo marks possibly combining alchemical

and freemasonry imagery that appear in a plethora of early modern artefacts80

Turning to the practical activities of specific laboratories archaeological science

has begun to clarify the chymical processes carried out at a variety of sites such as

the famous laboratory discovered in the chapel of the manor house in Oberstockstall

Austria81 Robert Plotrsquos Ashmolean laboratory in Oxford UK82 and the experiments

in search of mineral wealth performed under the encouragement of British

76 Anderson ldquoThe Archaeology of Chemistryrdquo 577 M Martinoacuten-Torres ldquoThe Tools of the Chymist Archaeological and Scientific Analyses of Early Modern

Laboratoriesrdquo in Principe Chymists and Chymistry 149ndash63 M Martinoacuten-Torres and Th Rehren ldquoPost-

Medieval Crucible Production and Distribution A Study of Materials and Materialitiesrdquo Archaeometry 51

(2009) 49ndash7478 M Martinoacuten-Torres Th Rehren N Thomas and A Mongiatti ldquoIdentifying Materials Recipes and Choices

Some Suggestions for the Study of Archaeological Cupelsrdquo in Archaeometallurgy in Europe 2007 (Milano

Associazione Italiana di Metallurgia 2009) 435ndash4579 Martinoacuten-Torres and Rehren ldquoAlchemy Chemistry and Metallurgyrdquo M Martinoacuten-Torres Th Rehren and

I C Freestone ldquoMullite and the Mystery of Hessian Waresrdquo Nature 444 (2006) 437ndash38 M Martinoacuten-Torres

I C Freestone A Hunt and Th Rehren ldquoMass-produced Mullite Crucibles in Medieval Europe Manufacture

and Material Propertiesrdquo Journal of the American Ceramic Society 91 (2008) 2071ndash74 M Martinoacuten-Torres

ldquoLos oriacutegenes alquiacutemicos de la quiacutemica moderna una perspectiva arqueoloacutegicardquo Anales de Quiacutemica 104 no

4 (2008) 310ndash1780 M Martinoacuten-Torres ldquoOf Marks Prints Pots and Becherovka Freemasonsrsquo Branding in Early Modern

Europerdquo in Cultures of Commodity Branding ed A Bevan and D Wengrow (Walnut Creek Cal Left Coast

Press 2010) 213ndash3381 See references in n 75 and A Mongiatti ldquoAssaying and Smelting Noble Metals in Sixteenth-Century Austria

A Comparative Analytical Study (PhD Thesis University College London 2009)82 M Martinoacuten-Torres ldquoInside Solomonrsquos House An Archaeological Study of the Old Ashmolean Chymical

Laboratorory in Oxfordrdquo Ambix (forthcoming)

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lishe

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iety

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tory

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lche

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try


entrepreneurs in Jamestown Virginia83 Besides the analysis and processing of noble

metals these workshops engaged in experimentation with glass zinc and brass

among other materials further emphasising the need to diversify our research foci

Furthermore as practical experiments allow inferences about the underlying knowl-

edge and perception of materials it is possible to connect chymical practice with

theories in specific contexts

Primary sources and digital resources

The advent of the archaeology of alchemy notwithstanding written sources will

rightfully remain as the main staple for scholars of early alchemy and chemistry I

will not attempt to collate here the many critical editions of primary sources that have

continued to appear in the last couple of decades but those who spend long days in

libraries and archives deserve credit and admiration as key enablers of the trends

discussed in this paper The variety of skills and sheer hard labour that go into tran-

scribing translating and editing these foundational stones for all other historiography

cannot be overstated A review of recent developments in our field however cannot

omit a mention to the revolution entailed by the internet

Readers of Ambix recently had the occasion to celebrate the fact that all of the

back issues had been digitised and made available online This journal thus embraced

a trend across academia to take advantage of the ease and speed of access made

possible by the net The availability of PDFs of academic articles is supplemented by

a much greater (virtual) interaction between scholars and more informal blogs and

discussion fora that permit almost immediate dissemination and discussion of

research outputs as they develop Of specific relevance to this field are a plethora

of projects that are making early books and primary sources available to anyone with

a computer mdash or in some instances a computer and an institutional subscription

Besides more generic enterprises such as the Gutenberg Project84 the multipartner

Early English Books Online85 Columbiarsquos Digital Scriptorium86 Hagenrsquos Early

Modern Thought Online87 and the myriad of texts and images channelled

online through the University of Pennsylvania Libraries88 I should mention the online

journal Azogue89 which is doing so much for the history of alchemy in Spain as well

a number of portals concentrating on the writings of individuals such as Ramon

Llull90 Francis Bacon91 Paracelsus92 Robert Boyle93 Isaac Newton94 and Simon

83 M Martinoacuten-Torres and Th Rehren ldquoTrials and Errors in Search of Mineral Wealth Metallurgical

Experiments in Early Colonial Jamestownrdquo Rittenhouse 21 (2007) 82ndash9784 httpwwwgutenbergorg85 httpeebochadwyckcomhome86 httpscriptoriumcolumbiaedu87 httpemtofernuni-hagendeemto88 Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Image httpscetilibraryupennedu89 Azogue Revista Electroacutenica Dedicada al Estudio Histoacuterico-Criacutetico de la Alquimia wwwrevistaazoguecom90 Ramon Llull Database httporbitabibubesramon91 Francis Bacon Correspondence Project httpwwwlivesandlettersacukbaconbaconindexhtml92 Zurich Paracelsus Project httpwwwparacelsusuzhch93 The Workdiaries of Robert Boyle httpwwwlivesandlettersacukwdindexhtml94 The Newton Project httpwwwnewtonprojectsussexacuk The Chymistry of Isaac Newton httpwww

chymistryorg

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lche

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try


Forman and Richard Napier95 This is in addition to the vast number of scattered

primary sources that can be traced to different websites by simply typing terms of

interest into Google A special mention is due to Adam McLeanrsquos Alchemy Website

which is largely a single-handed effort and arguably the longest-lived alchemy-related

resource online96 Even though its structure and some of its contents are not

strictly academic this website provides an astonishing wealth of starting points and

resources for researchers and the public alike and contributes to maintaining

some sense of rigour in the midst of the pseudo-alchemical New Age esotericism and

neo-romantic gibberish that inundates the internet

Many younger researchers still feel that publishing ldquothe bookrdquo is a necessary rite

of passage to establish themselves in the field Current systems for assessment of

research output at British universities also favour the printed book mdash as do

many academics Without disdaining traditional books a key challenge for future

academics in alchemy and beyond will be the development of equivalent peer-review

systems that help to tease out the quality and reliability of online resources and also

award the academic credit due to those behind them

The next twenty years

The above pages have presented some partial and personal highlights selected from

the multitude of exciting developments in the recent historiography of alchemy

Further historiographical strands could have been addressed including novel

approaches to Jewish and Islamic alchemy97 advances in our understanding of

alchemical Hermeticism and symbolism98 the very relevant artndashnature debate99

95 The Casebooks Project httpwwwhpscamacukcasebooks96 The Alchemy Web Site httpwwwalchemywebsitecom97 G Ferrario ldquoOrigins and Transmission of the Liber de aluminibus et salibusrdquo in Principe Chymists and

Chymistry 137ndash48 G Ferrario ldquoAn Arabic Dictionary of Technical Alchemical Terms MS Sprenger 1908 of

the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (fols 3rndash6r)rdquo Ambix 56 no 1 (2009) 36ndash48 G Ferrario ldquoThe Jews and

Alchemy Notes for a Problematic Approachrdquo in Loacutepez Peacuterez Kahn and Rey Bueno Chymia Science and

Nature 19ndash29 S Moureau ldquoSome Considerations Concerning the Alchemy of the De anima in arte alchemi-

ae of Pseudo-Avicennardquo Ambix 56 no 1 (2009) 49ndash56 S Moureau ldquoQuestions of Methodology about

Pseudo-Avicennarsquos De anima in arte alchemiae Identification of a Latin Translation and Method of Editionrdquo

in Loacutepez Peacuterez Kahn and Rey Bueno Chymia Science and Nature 1ndash1898 Especially on Khunrath see P J Forshaw ldquoAlchemy in the Amphitheatre Some Consideration of the

Alchemical Content of the Engravings in Heinrich Khunrathrsquos Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom (1609)rdquo in

Art and Alchemy ed J Wamberg (Copenhagen Museum Tusculanum Press 2005) 154ndash76 P J Forshaw

ldquoCurious Knowledge and Wonder-working Wisdom in the Occult Works of Heinrich Khunrathrdquo in Curios-

ity and Wonder from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment ed R J W Evans and A Marr (Aldershot

Ashgate 2006) 107ndash29 P J Forshaw ldquoSubliming Spirits Physical-chemistry and Theo-alchemy in the Works

of Heinrich Khunrath (1560ndash1605)rdquo in Linden Mystical Metal of Gold 255ndash75 and P J Forshaw

ldquoOratorim-Auditorium-Laboratorium Early Modern Improvisations on Cabala Music and Alchemyrdquo Aries

10 no 2 (2010) 169ndash95 More generally note Early Science and Medicine 5 no 2 (2000) devoted to alchemy

and hermeticism99 See B Obrist ldquoArt et nature dans lrsquoalchimie meacutedieacutevalerdquo Revue drsquoHistoire des Sciences 49 (1996) 215ndash86

B Bensaude-Vincent and W R Newman ed Promethean Ambitions The Artificial and the Natural an

Evolving Polarity (Cambridge Mass MIT Press 2007) especially the editorsrsquo Introduction and S Weeks

ldquoFrancis Bacon and the ArtndashNature Distinctionrdquo Ambix 54 no 2 (2007) 117ndash45

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iety

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the

His

tory

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lche

my

and

Che

mis

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studies of alchemy in art100 and literature101 and many more studies on alchemyrsquos

medical orientations than can be cited here mdash to name but a few strands Also worth

investigating systematically are contrasts in study topics and strategies mdash between

research produced in English and in other languages between Western and Eastern

alchemy and between metallurgical and medical alchemy mdash to shed light on

the extent to which differences in approach are shaped by their sources or simply by

differing research traditions

It would of course be either naiumlve or arrogant to assume that the historiography

of alchemy is stimulating today only because of the work carried out in the last

twenty years It would be particularly unforgivable to do so in a volume that

marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of a society that has done so much to bring the

history of alchemy and chemistry to its current state In fact we can only speak of

ldquorevisionismrdquo or ldquoNew Historiography of Alchemyrdquo by virtue of an ldquoOld Historiog-

raphyrdquo produced more from personal devotion and ingenuity than from institutional

support or recognition The ambitious and sometimes less reflective narratives of

pioneer historians of alchemy and chemistry continue to provide useful models that

the current generation of scholars employing critical approaches can test correct

and where necessary knock down More specifically all of the topics mentioned

here mdash from the very definition of ldquoalchemyrdquo in the East and in the West to the

informative potential of material culture and including alchemyrsquos connections with

patronage crafts medicine philosophy and esotericism or even its role in the

development of modern science mdash can to various extents be glimpsed in the work

of Lynn Thorndike E J Holmyard J R Partington F Sherwood Taylor Walter

Pagel Robert P Multhauf John Read J R Forbes C S Smith and Allen Debus

Having reviewed the state of the art we should try to envision where the

historiography of alchemy will be mdash or indeed where it should be mdash by the time

that the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry reaches the age of one

hundred years With the discipline in such a healthy state it would seem safe and

sensible to simply expect more of the same more high-resolution case studies from

different regions more critical editions of primary sources (especially online) and

more studies of alchemical practitioners and their interplay with their technological

and intellectual settings However with the excitement of what seems to be a new

age comes a new set of important challenges

One of the greatest risks in the current and future historiography of alchemy may

be paradoxically its disgregation As we grow more and more wary of the grand

narratives and generalisations of previous scholarship and focus instead on detailed

microhistories we risk drifting into a myriad of isolated case studies without an

100 For example A Adams and S J Linden ed Emblems and Alchemy (Glasgow Glasgow Emblem Studies

1998) and L M Principe and L DeWitt Transmutations Alchemy in Art Selected Works from the Eddleman

and Fisher Collections at the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia Penn Chemical Heritage

Foundation 2002)101 S J Linden Darke Hierogliphicks Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration (Lexing-

ton Ken The University Press of Kentucky 1996) D Kahn ldquoAlchemical Poetry in Medieval and Early

Modern Europe A Preliminary Survey and Synthesis Part I mdash Preliminary Surveyrdquo Ambix 57 no 3 (2010)

249ndash74 D Kahn ldquoAlchemical Poetry in Medieval and Early Modern Europe A Preliminary Survey and

Synthesis Part II mdash Synthesisrdquo Ambix 58 no 1 (2011) 62ndash77

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iety

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tory

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lche

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exploration of their mutual relevance102 Like historical novels such localised

histories are often beautifully written they can engage real stories of human

ambition struggle and discovery However if our discipline is to retain its dynamism

and significance we ought to use these case studies to keep posing and addressing

wider questions that cut across temporal geographical and specialist boundaries

This is the only way to keep the work of historians of alchemy relevant to one

other and crucially to many sister disciplines Although I do not wish to dictate

approaches we can spot some larger topics in the trends discussed above the

historical definition of alchemy and chemistry as self-identified disciplines the

marginalisation of transmutational alchemy as a fringe occupation and its distortion

into secret and hermetical societies the transfer and adaptation of alchemical

knowledge from East to West patronage fraud and the status of alchemy between

the mechanical and liberal arts alchemical experimentation with minerals metals and

glass beyond chrysopoeia the feedback between laboratory practice and medical

alchemy and the role of alchemy in the Scientific Revolution Thankfully the list is

potentially very long mdash but it should not be endless If there are as many topics as

there are researchers there is a danger of diluting the power of the history of alchemy

too much103

A more practical challenge is inherent in the seemingly bipolar sets of skills

required to conduct research on the history of alchemy If we are to explain the

historical interplay between alchemical theory and practice we can only do so by

combining at the very least historical research with scientific knowledge There is

no alternative to this The history of alchemy will have to move from the individual

scholarship that still predominates to more structured multidisciplinary efforts

involving historians and chemists and also potentially philologists palaeographers

art historians archaeologists materials scientists geologists metallurgists and

physicians As ldquohistorian of alchemyrdquo emerges as a profession in its own right we

should ensure that relevant university curricula include training in both history and

science Otherwise the real substance of historical alchemy will be lost in the gaps

between academic specialisation It is sometimes frustrating to find historians of

alchemy classified according to whether they work primarily on for example

practical alchemy debates on transmutation alchemical symbolism or chymiatria

102 Similar concerns have been expressed in Principe ldquoA Revolution Nobody Noticedrdquo103 The progressive fragmentation of the history of alchemy into a diversity of focalised studies may also be

favoured by the particular status of present-day alchemy (and self-styled alchemists) when compared with

historical alchemy In the field of chemistry there has been a progressive ldquoloss of identityrdquo of the discipline

its public reputation is damaged by spurious associations with chemical weapons pollution and infamous

pharmaceutical companies the number of graduates continues to decrease and its actual remit of operation

is engulfed by biomedical science materials science and nanotechnology This has had implications for

the historiography of chemistry with some scholars adopting the questionable approach of using historical

perspectives to restore the status and reputation of chemistryrsquos present-day manifestation mdash thus indirectly

creating a more cohesive historiographical body The history of alchemy has not been conditioned in this way

as the connections between pre-1800 alchemy and present-day alchemy are rather tenuous and few mdash if any

mdash historians of alchemy would express concern for the reputation of todayrsquos alchemy This freedom should

not stop researchers from trying to identify research priorities On modern perceptions of chemistry see

P Morris ldquoChemistry in the 21st Century Death or Transformationrdquo in Bertomeu-Saacutenchez Burns and

Van Tiggelen Neighbours and Territories 329ndash334 and B Bensaude-Vincent and J Simon Chemistry The

Impure Science (London Imperial College Press 2008)

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These are all facets of the same entity and our own limitations as researchers should

be no excuse for artificially segregating them For now we have one another to rely

on for the future we should also have interdisciplinary training

The last issue to keep our eye on is not found in the historiography as such but

remains very relevant to it as it pertains to the dissemination of our work beyond

the scholarly readership of journals such as Ambix We may have Harry Potter to

thank for sparking a conspicuous wave of public interest in alchemy Be that as it

may scholars are frequently spotted contributing to television and radio programmes

popular magazines and public talks in which the history of alchemy is necessarily

simplified but still treated with rigour Adapting the output of our research to a

diverse range of target audiences including ldquolaypeoplerdquo is not only inspiring and

rewarding but crucially fulfils our duty of giving something back to those whose

heritage we study and who ultimately sponsor the work that we enjoy doing In the

medium term the key to achieving a more lasting impact may be in the engagement

of school and university teachers mdash who will in due course yield more inspired and

better trained students to our field and others The history of alchemy is unlikely to

become a core subject of secondary education Introduced as a footnote or as a

names-and-dates-loaded introductory page in chemistry textbooks it will not

stimulate many students Yet the history of alchemy impinges on such a diversity of

disciplines that it may potentially be integrated into the teaching of political and

economic history the history of science and technology the study of world religions

and even the history of art Both failed and successful alchemical experiments can be

replicated in order to teach physics and chemistry comparing ancient and modern

perceptions of what takes place within the reaction vessels At a more fundamental

level the quest for metallic transmutation or the Elixir can be used to teach students

that todayrsquos scientific facts are tomorrowrsquos myths and that science can only develop

through big hypotheses painstaking trial-and-error and serendipity

Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry for

inviting me to join the seventy-fifth anniversary celebrations and especially to two

anonymous reviewers and to Jenny Rampling for kindly helping me to fill some

of the many gaps in my knowledge of the historiography This paper was written

while I was enjoying research leave sponsored through an AHRC Fellowship (number

AHI0222281)

Notes on Contributor

Marcos Martinoacuten-Torres is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Science and Material

Culture at the Institute of Archaeology University College London He specialises in

the application of scientific techniques to the study of the origins manufacture

and utilisation of archaeological artefacts with previous and ongoing research

in Europe America Africa and China He is currently writing a book on the

archaeology of alchemy and chemistry in the early modern world Address

UCL Institute of Archaeology 31ndash34 Gordon Square London WC1H 0PY UK

Email mmartinon-torresuclacuk

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in Cambridge in September 20114 but keen scholars had plenty of opportunity

to engage in discussion around the history of alchemy in the intervening period

in 2010 alone there were workshops and conference sessions regarding alchemy in

Cambridge5 Budapest6 Aberdeen7 Paris8 Amsterdam9 Berlin10 and Lille11 to name

but a few Quantifying scholarly output in the social sciences is particularly difficult

but gross qualitative indicators can be found for example a frequency histogram of

the term ldquoalchemyrdquo in publication titles archived in JSTOR dated from 1960 to 2000

shows a steady growth (Figure 1)12 A similar trend can be seen if one browses recent

issues of journals such as Ambix and Isis or the newer journals Aries Azogue and

Early Science and Medicine Even Science has recently included a popular article

entitled ldquoThe Alchemical Revolutionrdquo13 Clearly the history of alchemy is enjoying

something of a renaissance and with the popularity of alchemy in the mass media

rising and so much academic work yet to be done this trend is unlikely to slow down

in the near future

Considering the remarkable volume of research taking place in this field the

seventy-fifth anniversary of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry

seems an appropriate occasion to take stock of some of the ongoing developments

not only to celebrate past and recent achievements but also perhaps to identify

remaining caveats and suggest pointers for future enquiry This paper presents a

modest attempt to review some of the most significant developments in the

historiography of alchemy in the last twenty years Considering the sheer richness

and complexity of the literature a thorough review would demand time expertise

and insight well beyond what this reviewer can offer Therefore this paper can

only purport to present some highlights skewed by the perspective of someone

who is most familiar with current research on late medieval and early modern

transmutational alchemy published in English Although an attempt will be made

to acknowledge some significant contributions to other research areas such as the

medical applications of alchemy and work published in European languages other

than English there is no ambition to provide an exhaustive bibliographical guide and

4 International Conference ldquoAlchemy and Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenmentrdquo 22ndash24 September

2011 University of Cambridge5 SHAC Graduate Workshop on the History of Alchemy and Chemistry University of Cambridge 8 January

20106 International workshop ldquoOn the Fringes of Alchemyrdquo Medieval Studies Department Central European

University Budapest 8ndash11 July 20107 Panel ldquoThe Practice of Medieval and Early Modern Alchemyrdquo at the BSHS Annual Conference 2010

University of Aberdeen 22ndash25 July 20108 Workshop ldquoQuestioning lsquoOccultrsquo Sciencesrdquo Universiteacute Paris 7 16 June 20109 ldquoAlchemy Between Science and Religionrdquo ESSWE Thesis Workshop University of Amsterdam 24 June

201010 Workshop ldquoScientific Objects and their Materiality in the History of Chemistryrdquo Max Planck Institute for the

History of Science Berlin 24ndash26 June 201011 ldquoChimie et alchimie continuiteacutes et rupturesrdquo Seminar series on ldquoHistoire de la chimie aux XVIIe et XVIIIe

siegraveclesrdquo Universite de Lille November 2010 to May 201112 httpwwwjstororg (accessed 20 October 2010)13 S Reardon ldquoThe Alchemical Revolutionrdquo Science 332 (2011) 914ndash15

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tory

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and

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mis

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iety

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tory

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and

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mis

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tory

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and

Che

mis

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lishe

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iety

for

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His

tory

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lche

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and

Che

mis

try
































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iety

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tory

of A

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and

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mis

try














































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lishe

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(c)

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iety

for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try























1 (1941) 1ndash32

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iety

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tory

of A

lche

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and

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mis

try














































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lishe

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(c)

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iety

for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try

















































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lishe

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hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try













































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lishe

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(c)

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for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try








































239ndash52

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tory

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and

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mis

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(c)

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for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try

















































(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

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tory

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and

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mis

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(c)

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iety

for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try















































191ndash95

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and

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lche

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and

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chymistryorg

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and

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(c)

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His

tory

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and

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mis

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and

Che

mis

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too much103






























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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










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tory

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and

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mis

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(c)

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tory

of A

lche

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and

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mis

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lishe

d by

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(c)

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

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mis

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(c)

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iety

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His

tory

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lche

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and

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mis

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d by

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(c)

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

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and

Che

mis

try














































Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try























1 (1941) 1ndash32

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lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try














































Pub

lishe

d by

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ey P

ublis

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(c)

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try

















































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lishe

d by

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ublis

hing

(c)

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iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try













































Pub

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d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

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tory

of A

lche

my

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

lche

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

iety

for

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His

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of A

lche

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Che

mis

try

















































(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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of A

lche

my

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

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Pub

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

iety

for

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try































Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Che

mis

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

my

and

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try























1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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of A

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Pub

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ublis

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

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of A

lche

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

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of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try

















































(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try















































191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

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mis

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Pub

lishe

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Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try




































chymistryorg

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

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of A

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my

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Pub

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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of A

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

iety

for

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

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of A

lche

my

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mis

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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of A

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my

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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my

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mis

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1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Pub

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Soc

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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Soc

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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of A

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Che

mis

try

















































(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

lche

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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Che

mis

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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mis

try




































chymistryorg

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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my

and

Che

mis

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1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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for

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Pub

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Che

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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Che

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

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my

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Pub

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

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Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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tory

of A

lche

my

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mis

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1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Pub

lishe

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Soc

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Che

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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my

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Che

mis

try

















































(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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try




































chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

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Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try














































Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try























1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

lche

my

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Che

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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of A

lche

my

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Che

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

my

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Che

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Soc

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mis

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Soc

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my

and

Che

mis

try















































191ndash95

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

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Soc

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His

tory

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lche

my

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Che

mis

try




































chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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of A

lche

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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His

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lche

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and

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mis

try



















too much103






























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

tory

of A

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my

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1 (1941) 1ndash32

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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(c)

Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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(c)

Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

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of A

lche

my

and

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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my

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mis

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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my

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Pub

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Man

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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and

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

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Pub

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Soc

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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too much103






























Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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my

and

Che

mis

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

tory

of A

lche

my

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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Soc

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for

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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my

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

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Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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(c)

Soc

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Pub

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Man

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too much103






























Pub

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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for

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239ndash52

Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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(c)

Soc

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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(c)

Soc

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for

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Pub

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Man

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Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Pub

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too much103






























Pub

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Soc

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Che

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

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my

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239ndash52

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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Soc

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Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Pub

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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(c)

Soc

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for

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of A

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Pub

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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191ndash95

Pub

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Pub

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Pub

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Soc

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of A

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Che

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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(c)

Soc

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for

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His

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of A

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(1997ndash1999) 155ndash206

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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Soc

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Soc

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Che

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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Pub

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Pub

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Pub

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(c)

Soc

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His

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of A

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my

and

Che

mis

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

ey P

ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

the

His

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of A

lche

my

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Che

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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ublis

hing

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Soc

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for

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His

tory

of A

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my

and

Che

mis

try















































191ndash95

Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

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Soc

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His

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of A

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Pub

lishe

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Man

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Soc

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try




































chymistryorg

Pub

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Soc

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Pub

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too much103






























Pub

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ublis

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Soc

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for

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His

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of A

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Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

iety

for

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His

tory

of A

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my

and

Che

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191ndash95

Pub

lishe

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Pub

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Soc

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chymistryorg

Pub

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Man

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Pub

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Pub

lishe

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Soc

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Pub

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Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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for

the

His

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of A

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my

and

Che

mis

try





























Acknowledgements






AHI0222281)










Pub

lishe

d by

Man

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ublis

hing

(c)

Soc

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His

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of A

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chymistryorg

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Acknowledgements






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Acknowledgements






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Acknowledgements






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Acknowledgements






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Documents

Some Recent Developments in the Historiography of Alchemy