Firenze University Press

www.fupress.com/substantia

Gold and silver: perfection of metals in

medieval and early modern alchemy
Citation: F. Abbri (2019) Gold and sil-
ver: perfection of metals in medieval
and early modern alchemy. Substantia
3(1) Suppl.: 39-44. doi: 10.13128/Sub- Ferdinando Abbri
stantia-603
DSFUCI –Università di Siena, viale L. Cittadini 33, Il Pionta, Arezzo, Italy
Copyright: © 2019 F. Abbri. This is E-mail: [email protected]
an open access, peer-reviewed article
published by Firenze University Press
(http://www.fupress.com/substantia) Abstract. For a long time alchemy has been considered a sort of intellectual and histo-
and distributed under the terms of the riographical enigma, a locus classicus of the debates and controversies on the origin of
Creative Commons Attribution License, modern chemistry. The present historiography of science has produced new approach-
which permits unrestricted use, distri- es to the history of alchemy, and the alchemists’ roles have been clarified as regards the
bution, and reproduction in any medi-
vicissitudes of Western and Eastern cultures. The paper aims at presenting a synthetic
um, provided the original author and
source are credited. profile of the Western alchemy. The focus is on the question of the transmutation of
metals, and the relationships among alchemists, chymists and artisans (goldsmiths, sil-
Data Availability Statement: All rel- versmiths) are stressed. One wants to emphasise the specificity of the history of alche-
evant data are within the paper and its my, without any priority concern about the origins of chemistry.
Supporting Information files.

Competing Interests: The Author(s)

Keywords. History of alchemy, precious metals, transmutation of metals.
declare(s) no conflict of interest.

INTRODUCTION

For a long time alchemy has represented a sort of intellectual enigma, a

critical difficulty for the philosophical and scientific historiography because
of the relationships between alchemy and modern chemistry, which have
strongly influenced the reconstructions of the origin of chemistry as a specif-
ic and institutionalised discipline. The positivistic tradition constructed and
conceptualized alchemy as a form of proto-chemistry, and emphasised the
difference between the empirical contents of the alchemical writings which
were to be preserved, and the mystic, Hermetic, metaphysical dimension
which was to be dropped out owing to its unscientific features. This approach
deserves to be praised because it called the attention to the historical rele-
vance of the alchemical writings, to the necessity of their analysis, study and
edition. In 1887-1888 Marcelin Berthelot and Charles-Émile Ruelle published
the three volume Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, that has been a cru-
cial source for almost a century.1
Today Berthelot’s approach appears to be unsound because it is obso-
lete: a suitable historical perspective is to be based on the study of alchemy
as a specific, centuries-old form of knowledge, and one must forget or put
aside the question of the presumed transmutation of alchemy into chemistry.
Without denying the existence of some interactions among alchemy, chymis-

Substantia. An International Journal of the History of Chemistry 3(1) Suppl.: 39-44, 2019
ISSN 1827-9643 (online) | DOI: 10.13128/Substantia-603
40 Ferdinando Abbri

try and chemistry, one must emphasise that the adven- this class could not afford the original and natural ones.
turous events of alchemy, the historical facts concerning These activities of imitation explain why the first
the various alchemical traditions are largely different alchemical texts, written in Greek on papyrus, contain
from those of the history of early modern chemistry. about 250 workshop recipes. The Leiden and Stockholm
Papyri date from the third century A.D. and present rec-
ipes relating to gold, to silver, to precious stones and to
ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL ALCHEMY textile dyes. In 1981 Robert Halleux edited a new version
of the original texts of the Leiden and Stockholm Papyri
The entry on “Alchemy” of the New Dictionary of in a new collection dedicated to Les Alchimistes Grecs.5
the History of Ideas (2005) is divided into two sections Pseudo-Democritus’s alchemical writings have been
devoted respectively to China and to Europe and the recently published by Matteo Martelli in two critical edi-
Middle East in order to enlighten the historical and con- tions, both in Italian and in English, and these editions
ceptual relevance of Chinese and Western alchemy. 2 confirm the four main sections of the Greek-Egyptian
Thanks to Joseph Needham and his school the histo- Chemeia: production of gold, of silver, of artificial gems,
ry of the Chinese science represents a substantial chapter which included making and working glass, and col-
of the present history of science, and the volume 5 (two ouring wool with artificial purple.6 To Martelli we owe
parts, 1974-1976) of their multivolume Science and Civi- some outstanding contributions to the knowledge of the
lisation in China contains a very detailed reconstruction ancient Greek alchemy.7 In the context of the Greek-Byz-
of Chinese alchemy.3 Alchemical conceptions and prac- antine alchemy the chemeia was specified as chrysopoeia
tices were truly present in the Chinese empire, and Chi- (the art of making gold) and as argyropoeia (the art of
nese alchemy developed during twenty centuries of doc- making silver).
umented history, and can be divided into two branch- Alchemy was born as a set of practices but became
es: external alchemy, that is the preparation of elixir more and more sophisticated from a philosophical
through the manipulation of substances, and internal point of view. Alchemy acquired a complex whole of
alchemy (inner elixir) aimed at the spiritual perfec- philosophical ideas and conceptions as regards matter
tion of the alchemist. In 2005 Fabrizio Pregadio has and cosmos; Eastern and Greek philosophies became
published a volume entitled Great Clarity. Daoism and the theoretical base which guided the operations and
Alchemy in Early Medieval China in which he states that the experiments, and shaped alchemical language that
the crucible was the main tool of the Chinese alchemist turned into a difficult and allegorical jargon. Thanks to
from a symbolic, ritual and technical point of view,4 and various philosophical and religious concepts, alchemy
such a statement confirms the multifarious dimensions was transformed into a true philosophy of nature which
of the alchemical quest for knowledge. was destined to play an important role in western cul-
In the Western and Mediterranean contexts alchemy ture until the Eighteenth century. Some particular ver-
had practical origins in Hellenistic Egypt, during the sions of Platonism, of Stoicism, of Hermetic Gnosticism
ruling of the last Ptolemaic Pharaohs and the beginnings and a few aspects of Aristotle’s theory of the elements
of the Roman domination, and was codified between the are traceable in the alchemical thought which presented
first and the fourth century A.D. in Alexandria of Egypt. itself as something new, specific, well defined in the vari-
The chemeia was originally constituted of practices of ous historical and cultural contexts.
artisans and of recipes aimed at the preparation and The corpus of the Greek alchemical writings is
imitation of natural substances. In Alexandria the first composed by anonymous tracts or by pseudonymous
alchemists were devoted to the working of metals, with a tracts ascribed to mythical or famous authors. Zosimos
particular attention to gold and silver, and to the prepa- of Panopolis in Egypt (about 300 A.D.) was the first
ration of artificial, precious stones (pearls and emeralds), alchemist to sign some systematic treatises of alchemy
and to the colouring cloth using cheaper imitations of in which the platonic aspects are coloured by a strong
the expensive, imperial natural purple. Their activities Hermetic dimension. However, in Zosimos’s writings
consisted in the imitation of natural, precious substanc- an outstanding role is attributed to instruments, and his
es and of purple cloths, in colouring silver to look like Hypomnemata open with some statements perì organon
gold, or copper to look like silver, therefore they were a kai kaminon. In her new edition of Zosimos’s Mémoires
kind of bijoutiers. In Alexandria a middle class probably Authentiques (2002) Michèle Mertens considers the
existed which aspired to a way of life similar to that of manuscripts, the preceding editions – Berthelot’s and
the Greek and Roman nobility, and needed some imita- Ruelle’s one is qualified as “très mediocre” – the stud-
tions of gems, of precious stones, and of purple because ies on Zosimo. In her detailed introduction Mertens
Gold and silver: perfection of metals in medieval and early modern alchemy 41

presents a technical introduction devoted to the appa- ical writings, and alchemy attracted the attention of
reillage de Zosimo, to his alchemical instruments and famous scholars and philosophers: Albertus Magnus and
apparatuses.8 The Byzantine Manuscripts contain many Roger Bacon contributed to the development of alchemy
drawings of apparatuses, and Berthelot had tried to in Europe. The art of distillation became a central sub-
reconstruct their structure and their presumed work- ject of research: the utilization of minerals, concentrated
ing. The progressive increase of the philosophical and acids, alcohol, and some new techniques of distillation,
mystical dimension in the alchemical literature did which allowed to obtain many distillates and the cel-
not involve an undervaluation of the experimental and ebrated quintessence, modified in a substantial and dra-
practical aspects. In the Byzantine collections of Greek matic measure the practices of the alchemists. Thanks to
Alchemical Manuscripts, the book on the production the research of Chiara Crisciani and Michela Pereira, we
of gold, ascribed to Democritus, has a short introduc- can now consider the XIV century as the apogee of the
tion devoted to the imitation of purple, and is entitled Latin alchemy: Arnaldo of Villanova’s, pseudo-Ramon
Physikà kaì mystikà, that is Natural and Secret Things, Lull’s, John of Rupescissa’s alchemical works testify to
according to Lawrence Principe’s suitable translation.9 the impressing philosophical level reached by alchemy.
In the Middle Age Greek alchemy was preserved Alchemy was a true philosophy of nature, based on some
by Byzantine culture and from the VII to the XI cen- outstanding experimental practices, which was focused
tury the alchemical canon was constructed by Byz- on the production of the elixir, on the transmutation of
antine scholars through selections and collections of metals into silver and gold1, and on the use of mercury
texts. Emperors, monks, theologians and scholars were in various experiments and chymical processes.11
interested in alchemy, and focused their attention on It is worth noting that during its long history alche-
the making of gold and of precious metals, therefore my evolved but maintained a strong core of knowledge:
the Byzantine intelligentsia selected a specific type of in medieval and modern texts it is possible find recipes
alchemical tracts which were included in Greek-Byzan- and experimental practices which are identical to those
tine collections, and such collections were translated contained in the Greek papyri of Egyptian origins.
into Syriac and Arabic. Starting with the VIII century
some Arabic alchemical texts were produced in the
context of an extraordinary flourishing of the Arabic RENAISSANCE AND EARLY MODERN ALCHEMY
culture. From the Syriac kīmīyā Arabs coined the term
al-kīmyā which was very successful and was steadfastly During the Renaissance and the early modern Era
used during the whole Middle Age and the Modern Age. alchemy had a strong influence on various fields, from
Owing to the expansion of the Arabic empire and the cosmology to natural philosophy, from religion to the
spreading of the Arabic as a new common language, in vision of human history, from pharmacy to mineralogy,
the Islamic world it took place an assimilation of knowl- from metallurgy to medicine. Alchemical texts started
edge from the Greek, Persian and Iranian sources. In being printed with some series of imagines that are still
Islam, alchemical writings show the influences from today a resource in order to understand the universe of
Egyptian, Syriac, Sabean cultures, too. symbols which nourishes the human psyche. The Sun
Alchemy strongly rooted in the context of the Ara- and the Moon represented Gold and Silver, and these
bic scientific research, and a Latin manuscript, called the noble metals were also portrayed as the King and the
Morienus, was translated from Arabic in 1182 as De com- Queen in order to emphasise their primary role in the
positione alchemiae, and can be considered as the starting processes of transformation. The alchemical and astro-
moment of the penetration of the Arabic alchemy into logical symbols of the sun and of the moon were also
the Latin world: writings ascribed to Jābir ibn Hayyān, used during the XVIII century in the Tables of Affinities
alias Geber were the most famous texts of the medieval to paint gold and silver. Metals were considered mixed
alchemy. The Islamic alchemy is characterized by various substances, and like living creatures they were born
aspects, but the alchemical research was focused on the and grew in the subterranean world: nature had a spe-
making of gold, using mercury and sulphur, and on the cific operating time for the maturation of metals in her
production of an elixir (al-`iksīr) which, when combined wombs, and metals composed a sort of ascending lad-
with some vile metals, could transform them into gold or der to the top of which there were silver and gold. Late
silver, and even it could be used as a true elixir, able to medieval alchemist aimed at modifying the times of
guarantee a long life or immortality.10 nature, cooperating with nature, but also surpassing her
During the XII century the translations from Arabic
into Latin composed a very important corpus of alchem- 1 This transmutation was also a process of spiritual progress of the

alchemist.
42 Ferdinando Abbri

in the production of the noble metals. Transmutations wandlung, namely transformation.17 The catalogue of
were not dreams or fantastic enterprises but were a true this exhibition contains chapters on the history of alche-
project of acceleration of the natural times, based on my and thematic chapters aimed at illustrating the ties
man’s ability to perform, because in its origins alchemy between alchemy and arts. In many seventeenth century
was also the art of making. In Johannes de Monte-Sny- pictures it is usual to find representation of alchemi-
der’s Metamorphosis Planetarum, published in German cal laboratories and some very diversified images of
in 1663, it is possible to read about the metamorphosis the alchemist. In his mammoth history of the macro-
of plants and of bodies which are guided by the Sun and cosm and of the microcosm (1617-1624),18 which is rich
the Moon. This text also considers the transformations of amazing plates, the English physician and philoso-
of metals because mercury and sulphur bind man to the pher Robert Fludd (1574-1637) presented a mirror of
philosophical gold, that is, to the highest principle. the whole nature and the image of art together with a
During the Renaissance many collections of alchem- description of the human arts. These arts were alchemy
ical books were published: in 1572 the printer Petrus as regards the mineral world, agriculture as regards the
Perna published in Basle a collection focused on the Tur- vegetable one, and medicine as to the animal one. Every
ba Philosophorum entitled Auriferae Artis, quam Chemi- part of the cosmos is tied to the other parts and these
am vocant which was reprinted in 1593 in an enlarged connections produce a complex and linked cosmological
edition of two volumes.12 The Turba philosophorum is a whole. Among the various connections one can isolate
Islamic treatise in which the alchemical doctrines are those between Saturn and lead, Sun and Man, Moon and
exposed in a sort of congress of the pre-Socratic phi- Woman, but in the underworld Sun and Moon are con-
losophers that is presided by Pythagoras. In 1546 Janus nected with gold and silver.
Lacinius Therapus had published in Venice a collection In Malachias Geiger’s Microcosmus (1651) the sym-
of theoretical, alchemical works, the first part of which bol of the potable gold “chimice praeparati” presents a
contains the Pretiosa Margarita Novella of Petrus Bonus true image of the macrocosm and of the microcosm in
of Ferrara, one of the most important alchemical treatise which the human figures of the sun and of the moon are
of the XIV century. 13 entering in the alchemist’s laboratory, and this image
In her important book on Alchimia. I testi della confirms that alchemy was both a philosophical cosmol-
tradizionale occidentale Michela Pereira reconstructs the ogy and a series of laboratory practices.
histories of alchemy from the Greek world to the Mod- The search for the philosophical stone to be used
ern age, and the chapters of this huge book devoted to in the transmutation of metals in gold was still a topi-
early modern philosophical and religious contexts clari- cal argument in late Seventeenth century because Robert
fy the substantial impact of alchemy, in its various forms Boyle (1627-1691), the supposed father of modern chem-
and declinations, on modern culture.14 In the age of the istry, was highly interested in the research of this stone
Scientific Revolution alchemical texts were firmly rooted and of the secret of the alchemical transmutations.19
in the European cultural landscape. This presence has During his life Isaac Newton (1642-1727) devoted much
caused many historiographical controversies concerning more time to alchemy, theology and sacred history than
alchemy, the Paracelsian tradition, chymistry and chem- to mathematics and physics.20
istry, and so on. Here, I cannot resume these debates but I do not want to emphasise too much the symbolic
I only want to emphasise that a description of the gen- features of the metallurgical alchemy in the early mod-
esis of modern science cannot ignore the question of ern age, and in the final part of my presentation I want
alchemy. Andreas Libavius defended alchemy as an art to call the attention to the ties between artisans and
against the Paracelsians,15 and in 1602 Gaston Duclo alchemists, to the relationships among some able gold-
published his Apologia Chrysopoeiae et Argyropoeiae smiths, silversmiths, alchemists and chymists in XVII
adversus Thomam Erastum, that contains a defence of century Europe. In 2007 Vladimír Karpenko published
the arts of making gold and silver against Thomas Eras- a paper on alchemical coins and medals, 21 but we owe
tus, a professor of medicine in Heidelberg.16 The contro- to Lawrence M. Principe’s research some outstanding
versies about alchemy remained alive and vivid from the clarifications about the different social contexts of inter-
Renaissance to the Age of Enlightenment. est in precious metals. Principe has cast light upon the
The exhibitions devoted to alchemy in its relation- relationships between artisans and natural philosophers,
ships with the figurative arts are frequent in the insti- between jewellers and scholars, and has defined the vari-
tutional contexts of Europe and North America. For ous places and contexts in which the alchemical practic-
example, the exhibition of 2004 on Kunst und Alchemy es were present in modern age.22 The types of chymical
at Düsseldorf, was focused on the mystery of the Ver- discourses were numberless, but one needs to emphasise
Gold and silver: perfection of metals in medieval and early modern alchemy 43

the ties between high culture and the craftsmanship of The case of the German jewellers of the Low Coun-
the artisans. tries, reconstructed by Principe, demonstrates that the
Johann Rudolph Glauber (1604-1670) was a Ger- traditional dark, witchlike image of the alchemical and
man chymist, alchemist and pharmacist who was active of the chymical laboratories does not fit the historical
in Amsterdam. He was very attentive to the practical facts. In the Dutch context of the Gouden eeuw some
matter, technological and analytical dimensions of the fruitful exchanges between artisans and naturalists took
chymical research which he combined with the interest place, and were historically significant.
in alchemy. In 1646-47 he published a two-volumes trea-
tise in German, on the art of distillation, and in 1656-
1661 a textbook on the prosperity of Germany. In the A SHORT CONCLUSION
latter book, he argued that a systematic application of
chymical knowledge to manufacturing of goods would In Modern age alchemical texts and practices were
lead to higher prosperity in his native country. In 1658- very popular and alchemists played a crucial role in the
1659 Glauber published a treatise on the salts, but he had history of science because, quoting Tara Nummedal, “in
already published (1646) a treatise on the true potable joining the hands on manipulation of matter with more
gold, and between 1663 and 1664 he published two trea- theoretical speculations about its composition and trans-
tises on the Hermetic medicine and on the explanation formation, alchemists (like physicians) modelled the
of the true alchemical secrets.23 extraordinary potential of the union of head and hand
In Amsterdam Glauber became acquainted with the long before it became a hallmark of modern science”.26
three Grill brothers, German jewellers and silversmiths, However, alchemy was not able to become a branch
who were active in the Low Countries. Anthoni Grill, of that institutionalised research which produced mod-
an aurifaber, criticized some chymical processes used by ern science. In the map of the new knowledge created
Glauber and affirmed that the famous chymist did not by the Scientific Revolution that established the aca-
use a correct process to separate gold from silver. As a demic topics to be investigated one cannot find alchemy.
jeweller, Grill dedicated his attention to the essaying of The modern scientific discourse was often engaged to
the precious metals, and had invented a less expensive denounce the “dreams” of alchemy.
technique than those used by chymists and alchemists.
Principe has discovered some sources which point that
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