ALCHEMEAST
HTTPS://ALCHEMEAST.EU/
Acronym: AlchemEast
The AlchemEast project is devoted to the study of alchemical theory and practice as it appeared and developed in distinct, albeit contiguous (both chronologically and geographically) areas: Graeco-Roman Egypt, Byzantium, and the Near East, from ancient Babylonian times to the early Islamic period. This project combines innovative textual investigations with experimental replications of ancient alchemical procedures. It uses sets of historically and philologically informed laboratory replications in order to reconstruct the actual practice of ancient alchemists, and it studies the texts and literary forms in which this practice was conceptualized and transmitted. It proposes new models for textual criticism in order to capture the fluidity of the transmission of ancient alchemical writings.
AlchemEast is designed to write the so far untold first chapters of the history of ancient alchemy. In fact, medieval scholars of Western Europe did not invent alchemy from scratch, but they reshaped an existing millennium-old tradition. AlchemEast will focus on the two and a half millennia that precede the conventional medieval origins of alchemy; it will look backwards and explore:
the Babylonian proto-alchemy,
the origins of alchemy in the Graeco-Roman Egypt,
its reception in the Byzantine handbooks,
the different forms in which Syriac and Arabic scholars repackaged the earlier tradition.
AlchemEast’s Chronological Framework (1500 BCE – 1000 AD)
AlchemEast will move the origins of alchemy back in time by looking east. Up to now, the Eastern alchemical tradition has only been superficially investigated. Even these few attempts were often led astray by out-of-date historical paradigms. Medieval and early modern alchemy has been often labelled as a ‘pseudo-science’ and described as a set of foolish attempts to transform base metals into gold.
AlchemEast will dismantle this pejorative paradigm. Ancient alchemy, in fact, went far beyond the making of gold, since it included a wide spectrum of techniques for manipulating row materials in order to produce dyed metals, artificial gemstones, coloured glass, purple textiles, and a variety of chemical compounds. The project will fully explore these techniques and investigate how they were described and conceptualized in dialogue with contiguous areas of expertise.
AlchemEast’s Geographical Framework
Particular attention will be devoted to the intersections between alchemy and medicine as well as alchemy and natural philosophy. Both alchemy and medicine, for instance, developed specific criteria for the classification of substances and their properties; ancient alchemical compendia include sections from the works of important physicians, who are even presented as distinguished alchemists in some instances. The explanations of specific dyeing procedures and the transformations that they were expected to produce were often developed in the framework of specific theories of matter. Moreover, alchemists sought to produce materials that were ontologically equivalent to the natural substances, suppressing the contrast between the realms of natural and artificial. These transformations were even conceptualized as a possible way of perfecting the work of nature in a dynamic interaction of alchemy with Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, and Hermeticism. Alchemical practices were therefore embedded in networks of theoretical assumptions, beliefs, and philosophical commitments, which were historically influenced by different milieux.
In order to fully reconstruct these networks, we will carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. We will produce reliable editions of so far unstudied alchemical sources in Akkadian, Greek, Syriac and Arabic. We will write a new history of alchemical ideas and practices in Antiquity, in order to provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. We will carry out philologically informed replications of ancient alchemical processes in order to restore the operational basis of ancient alchemy and anchor ancient alchemical texts in their chemical reality.
The project will thus offer a radically new vision of ancient alchemy as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of science more broadly.
Near Eastern origins of Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy - MPIGW 2014
Article (PDF Available) · November 2014
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328809940_Near_Eastern_origins_of_Graeco-Egyptian_Alchemy_-_MPIGW_2014
Maddalena Rumor
Case Western Reserve University
Matteo Martelli
Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium
Michèle Mertens
University of Liège
The main concern of this paper will be with the problems raised by
the reception of ancient alchemy in Byzantium. After a brief
introduction, I will start from the study of a pre-Byzantine author,
Zosimos of Panopolis, and deal with the following questions : How,
from a purely material viewpoint, were Zosimos’ writings handed
down during the Byzantine period? Did Byzantine alchemists have
access to his works and did they resort to them? Was Zosimos
known outside the alchemical Corpus; in other words,
did GraecoEgyptian alchemists exert any kind of influence outside strictly
alchemical circles? When and how was the alchemical Corpus put
together? In a more general way, what evidence do we have,
whether in the Corpus itself or in non-alchemical literature, that
alchemy was practised in Byzantium? Answers (or at least partial
answers) to these questions should help us to understand and define
to some extent the place held by the ‘sacred art’ in Byzantium
Matteo Martelli (2017) Translating Ancient Alchemy: Fragments of Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Arabic Compendia, Ambix, 64:4, 326-342, DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2017.1412137 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2017.1412137
Episode 86: Matteo Martelli on the Pseudo-Democritus
Download audio file (mp3)
The author known as Democritus wrote four books some time in the first century CE: one book on gold, one on silver, one on gemstones, and one on dying techniques. These became one of the seminal documents of the alchemical tradition. None of them survives in its entirety, but we have extensive fragments, which allow us to see, to some degree, what the Pseudo-Democritus was up to. His works became one of the most important canonical sources for later alchemists, and he became a legendary figure.
We discuss how our Democritus became confused with Democritus of Abdera, the famous atomist philosopher of the fifth century BCE. We then look at two other important figures of the very early alchemical tradition, Bolus of Mendes (an Egyptian who lived some time probably in the second century BCE who wrote works on natural sympathies and antipathies and on artificial substances (χειρόκμητα)), and Ostanes, legendary Persian sage and alleged teacher of Democritus, both of whom represent earlier forays into natural science which fed into Democritus’ alchemical work.
Finally, Professor Martelli expands on the alchemical theory found in the Four Books: the concept of Nature is central, but is a multivalent and subtle category with several distinct usages. The four qualities (hot, cold, wet, and dry) are present as basic states of nature, following the Hippocratic and Aristotelean traditions, bringing about sympathies and antipathies in natural substances. We finish with a discussion of the anecdote wherein Democritus’ teacher dies without revealing the final secret of alchemy to him. Democritus then raises his spirit to question him, and learns that the secret has been hidden in an Egyptian temple, though its exact whereabouts remain obscure. Luckily, however, the temple collapses, revealing the message hidden within a pillar:
Nature delights in Nature. Nature overcomes Nature. Nature rules Nature.
Interview Bio:
Matteo Martelli is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Communication at the oldest university in the world, the University of Bologna. He has published widely on alchemy, specialising in early alchemy in particular, and heads the ERC research-project AlchemEast: Alchemy in the Making: From Ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE -1000 AD).
AlchemEast will move the origins of alchemy back in time by looking east. Up to now, the Eastern alchemical tradition has only been superficially investigated. Even these few attempts were often led astray by out-of-date historical paradigms. Medieval and early modern alchemy has been often labelled as a ‘pseudo-science’ and described as a set of foolish attempts to transform base metals into gold.
AlchemEast will dismantle this pejorative paradigm. Ancient alchemy, in fact, went far beyond the making of gold, since it included a wide spectrum of techniques for manipulating row materials in order to produce dyed metals, artificial gemstones, coloured glass, purple textiles, and a variety of chemical compounds. The project will fully explore these techniques and investigate how they were described and conceptualized in dialogue with contiguous areas of expertise.
AlchemEast’s Geographical FrameworkParticular attention will be devoted to the intersections between alchemy and medicine as well as alchemy and natural philosophy. Both alchemy and medicine, for instance, developed specific criteria for the classification of substances and their properties; ancient alchemical compendia include sections from the works of important physicians, who are even presented as distinguished alchemists in some instances. The explanations of specific dyeing procedures and the transformations that they were expected to produce were often developed in the framework of specific theories of matter. Moreover, alchemists sought to produce materials that were ontologically equivalent to the natural substances, suppressing the contrast between the realms of natural and artificial. These transformations were even conceptualized as a possible way of perfecting the work of nature in a dynamic interaction of alchemy with Gnosticism, Neo-Platonism, and Hermeticism. Alchemical practices were therefore embedded in networks of theoretical assumptions, beliefs, and philosophical commitments, which were historically influenced by different milieux.
In order to fully reconstruct these networks, we will carry out a comparative investigation of cuneiform tablets as well as a vast corpus of Greek, Syriac and Arabic writings. We will produce reliable editions of so far unstudied alchemical sources in Akkadian, Greek, Syriac and Arabic. We will write a new history of alchemical ideas and practices in Antiquity, in order to provide an integrative, longue durée perspective on the many different phases of ancient alchemy. We will carry out philologically informed replications of ancient alchemical processes in order to restore the operational basis of ancient alchemy and anchor ancient alchemical texts in their chemical reality.
The project will thus offer a radically new vision of ancient alchemy as a dynamic and diversified art that developed across different technical and scholastic traditions. This new representation will allow us to connect ancient alchemy with medieval and early modern alchemy and thus fully reintegrate ancient alchemy in the history of pre-modern alchemy as well as in the history of science more broadly.
Near Eastern origins of Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy - MPIGW 2014
Article (PDF Available) · November 2014
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328809940_Near_Eastern_origins_of_Graeco-Egyptian_Alchemy_-_MPIGW_2014
Maddalena Rumor
Case Western Reserve University
Matteo Martelli
Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Byzantium
Michèle Mertens
University of Liège
The main concern of this paper will be with the problems raised by
the reception of ancient alchemy in Byzantium. After a brief
introduction, I will start from the study of a pre-Byzantine author,
Zosimos of Panopolis, and deal with the following questions : How,
from a purely material viewpoint, were Zosimos’ writings handed
down during the Byzantine period? Did Byzantine alchemists have
access to his works and did they resort to them? Was Zosimos
known outside the alchemical Corpus; in other words,
did GraecoEgyptian alchemists exert any kind of influence outside strictly
alchemical circles? When and how was the alchemical Corpus put
together? In a more general way, what evidence do we have,
whether in the Corpus itself or in non-alchemical literature, that
alchemy was practised in Byzantium? Answers (or at least partial
answers) to these questions should help us to understand and define
to some extent the place held by the ‘sacred art’ in Byzantium
Matteo Martelli (2017) Translating Ancient Alchemy: Fragments of Graeco-Egyptian Alchemy in Arabic Compendia, Ambix, 64:4, 326-342, DOI: 10.1080/00026980.2017.1412137 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00026980.2017.1412137
Episode 86: Matteo Martelli on the Pseudo-Democritus
Download audio file (mp3)
The author known as Democritus wrote four books some time in the first century CE: one book on gold, one on silver, one on gemstones, and one on dying techniques. These became one of the seminal documents of the alchemical tradition. None of them survives in its entirety, but we have extensive fragments, which allow us to see, to some degree, what the Pseudo-Democritus was up to. His works became one of the most important canonical sources for later alchemists, and he became a legendary figure.
We discuss how our Democritus became confused with Democritus of Abdera, the famous atomist philosopher of the fifth century BCE. We then look at two other important figures of the very early alchemical tradition, Bolus of Mendes (an Egyptian who lived some time probably in the second century BCE who wrote works on natural sympathies and antipathies and on artificial substances (χειρόκμητα)), and Ostanes, legendary Persian sage and alleged teacher of Democritus, both of whom represent earlier forays into natural science which fed into Democritus’ alchemical work.
Finally, Professor Martelli expands on the alchemical theory found in the Four Books: the concept of Nature is central, but is a multivalent and subtle category with several distinct usages. The four qualities (hot, cold, wet, and dry) are present as basic states of nature, following the Hippocratic and Aristotelean traditions, bringing about sympathies and antipathies in natural substances. We finish with a discussion of the anecdote wherein Democritus’ teacher dies without revealing the final secret of alchemy to him. Democritus then raises his spirit to question him, and learns that the secret has been hidden in an Egyptian temple, though its exact whereabouts remain obscure. Luckily, however, the temple collapses, revealing the message hidden within a pillar:
Nature delights in Nature. Nature overcomes Nature. Nature rules Nature.
Interview Bio:
Matteo Martelli is Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Communication at the oldest university in the world, the University of Bologna. He has published widely on alchemy, specialising in early alchemy in particular, and heads the ERC research-project AlchemEast: Alchemy in the Making: From Ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE -1000 AD).
Recommended Reading:
Check out Matteo Martelli’s many fascinating publications on ancient alchemy, some of which can be found on his Academia page. Also check out the ambitious AlchemEast project,’ of which he is the director, which is putting our understanding of the ‘lost centuries’ of alchemy on a much firmer footing, and keep your eye on the publishing project, Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry, from which we expect great things.
Joseph Bidez and Franz Cumont. Les mages hellénisés: Zoroastre, Ostanès et Hystaspe d’après la tradition grecque. Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1938.
Robert Halleux and Henri-Dominique Saffrey. Les alchimistes Grecs. Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1981.
Jackson P. Hershbell. ‘Democritus and the Beginnings of Greek Alchemy’. Ambix, 34: 5–20, 1987.
Jack Lindsay. The Origins of Alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt. Barnes & Noble, New York, 1970.
Matteo Martelli. ‘“Divine Water” in the Alchemical Writings of Pseudo-Democritus’. Ambix, 56(1):5–22, 2009.
Idem. ‘Greek Alchemists at Work: ‘Alchemical Laboratory’ in the Greco-Roman Egypt’. Nuncius, 26:271–311, 2011.
Idem. The Four Books of Pseudo-Democritus. Sources of Alchemy and Chemistry: Sir Robert Mond Studies in the History of Early Chemistry Volume 1. Maney Publishing, Leeds, 2013.
F.S. Taylor. ‘A Survey of Greek Alchemy’. Journal of Hellenic Studies, 50:109–139, 1930.
Https://shwep.net/podcast/matteo-martelli-on-the-pseudo-democritus/
THE RECIPES PROJECT
Food, Magic, Art, Science, and About
Editorial Team
Credits
POSTED ON 31/10/2018 BY LISA SMITH
Alchemical Recipes in the AlchemEast Projet
The same procedure is described in ancient alchemical texts as well. The Graeco-Egyptian alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis (3rd-4th century AD) credits legendary figures, such as Maria the Jewess or Chymes, the eponymous hero of alchemy (called chymeia in Antiquity), with the use of similar technique for grinding cinnabar with vinegar in a lead or tin mortar.[3] Different metals were therefore used. In the lab, we actually tried to use tin rather than copper powder, thus obtaining a shiny mercury-tin amalgam.
THE RECIPES PROJECT
Food, Magic, Art, Science, and About
Editorial Team
Credits
POSTED ON 31/10/2018 BY LISA SMITH
Alchemical Recipes in the AlchemEast Projet
By Matteo Martelli
What makes a recipe alchemical? Its inclusion in an alchemical treatise, one might suggest. Indeed, naïve as it may sound, such a simple answer opens an interesting perspective from which to look at the ancient alchemical traditionThe arliest alchemical writings produced in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1st-2nd c. AD) include recipes that describe a variety of techniques for dyeing and manipulating the natural world – a spectrum of practices that goes far beyond simple attempts to produce gold out of ‘vile’ metals. Some of these techniques, ancient authors claim, were inherited from the Egyptian or Babylonian tradition; others reached Byzantium or Baghdad, often through translations of Greek texts into Syriac and Arabic.
This long-lasting tradition is as fluid as the boundaries of ancient alchemy. By mapping the specific practices and recipes detailed in each alchemical work, it will be possible to investigate changing ideas of alchemy over time as well as how these ideas responded to specific technological settings. On top of that, it will also be possible to follow the trajectories of single recipes which moved across works written in different languages or pertaining to different disciplines, such as medicine or natural philosophy.
What makes a recipe alchemical? Its inclusion in an alchemical treatise, one might suggest. Indeed, naïve as it may sound, such a simple answer opens an interesting perspective from which to look at the ancient alchemical traditionThe arliest alchemical writings produced in Graeco-Roman Egypt (1st-2nd c. AD) include recipes that describe a variety of techniques for dyeing and manipulating the natural world – a spectrum of practices that goes far beyond simple attempts to produce gold out of ‘vile’ metals. Some of these techniques, ancient authors claim, were inherited from the Egyptian or Babylonian tradition; others reached Byzantium or Baghdad, often through translations of Greek texts into Syriac and Arabic.
This long-lasting tradition is as fluid as the boundaries of ancient alchemy. By mapping the specific practices and recipes detailed in each alchemical work, it will be possible to investigate changing ideas of alchemy over time as well as how these ideas responded to specific technological settings. On top of that, it will also be possible to follow the trajectories of single recipes which moved across works written in different languages or pertaining to different disciplines, such as medicine or natural philosophy.
Cinnabar (from the Monte Amiata mine, Tuscany) and metallic mercury
But let’s take an example from a set of texts that are being investigated in the framework of the ERC project AlchemEast, acronym for “Alchemy in the Making From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD)”. Ancient natural philosophers and physicians recorded specific techniques for extracting mercury from cinnabar, its natural ore.
In his book On stones, Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle as head of the Lyceum, explained that it is possible to produce mercury by grinding cinnabar with vinegar in a copper mortar with a copper pestle.[1] The same procedure is described by Pliny the Elder, in book 32 of his Natural History, where the medical uses of minerals – mercury included! – are illustrated (NH 32.123).
Modern chemists noticed that these accounts actually described a mechano-chemical reaction between copper and cinnabar, a mercury sulfide: copper would react with sulfur, thus liberating free metallic mercury (chemically speaking, a redox reaction).[2] With the assistance of Lucia Maini and Massimo Gandolfi, two chemists of the AlchemEast team, we did replicate the technique with some adjustments. Rather than using a copper mortar – which proved to be very difficult to find in the shops that supply chemical labs today! – we decided to use a ceramic mortar where to grind pure cinnabar, acetic acid and copper powder.
But let’s take an example from a set of texts that are being investigated in the framework of the ERC project AlchemEast, acronym for “Alchemy in the Making From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD)”. Ancient natural philosophers and physicians recorded specific techniques for extracting mercury from cinnabar, its natural ore.
In his book On stones, Theophrastus, successor of Aristotle as head of the Lyceum, explained that it is possible to produce mercury by grinding cinnabar with vinegar in a copper mortar with a copper pestle.[1] The same procedure is described by Pliny the Elder, in book 32 of his Natural History, where the medical uses of minerals – mercury included! – are illustrated (NH 32.123).
Modern chemists noticed that these accounts actually described a mechano-chemical reaction between copper and cinnabar, a mercury sulfide: copper would react with sulfur, thus liberating free metallic mercury (chemically speaking, a redox reaction).[2] With the assistance of Lucia Maini and Massimo Gandolfi, two chemists of the AlchemEast team, we did replicate the technique with some adjustments. Rather than using a copper mortar – which proved to be very difficult to find in the shops that supply chemical labs today! – we decided to use a ceramic mortar where to grind pure cinnabar, acetic acid and copper powder.
Pure cinnabar, acetic acid and copper powder in a ceramic mortar
After grinding the mixture for a while, we were actually able to produce a layer of blackish powder (a mixture of metacinnabar and copper sulfide) on which a few drops of ‘dirty’ mercury were moving.
After grinding the mixture for a while, we were actually able to produce a layer of blackish powder (a mixture of metacinnabar and copper sulfide) on which a few drops of ‘dirty’ mercury were moving.
Mercury “floating” on a blackish layer of residues
The same procedure is described in ancient alchemical texts as well. The Graeco-Egyptian alchemist Zosimus of Panopolis (3rd-4th century AD) credits legendary figures, such as Maria the Jewess or Chymes, the eponymous hero of alchemy (called chymeia in Antiquity), with the use of similar technique for grinding cinnabar with vinegar in a lead or tin mortar.[3] Different metals were therefore used. In the lab, we actually tried to use tin rather than copper powder, thus obtaining a shiny mercury-tin amalgam.
Mercury-tin amalgam
We may preliminarily observe how this extraction technique was a kind of transdisciplinary know-how, shared by experts in different fields. A certain degree of variation is detectable in alchemical texts, which mention various metals. Moreover, ancient alchemists believed that mercury could be extracted from any metallic (or even mineral) body: did this idea in some way depend on the empirical evidence they tried to conceptualize when treating cinnabar with a variety of metals?
This kind of questions are at the basis of the AlchemEast project, which explores ancient recipes from a double angle: as textual units that travelled over time and space; as invaluable windows on a wide spectrum of real practices and techniques. Textual criticism, replications, and historical investigations are critical keys to unlock ancient alchemical sources, from Babylonian tablets to Greek, Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. This post is only a first, tentative attempt to illustrate how we applied this method, a preliminary result of our investigation, which, needless to say, is still “in the making.” We plan to continue keeping you posted in the following months.
[1] David E. Eichholz, Theophrastus, De Lapidibus, edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 81.
[2] Lazlo Takacs, “Quicksilver from Cinnabar. The First Documented Mechanochemical Reaction?” JOM. Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 52 (2000): 12-13.
[3] Marcelin Berthelot and Charles-Émile Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (Paris: G. Steinheil, 1887-1888), vol. 2, 172. Part of Zosimus’ writings is only preserved in Syriac translation, where one finds further interesting details: cinnabar must be ground in the sun; copper filings are added to cinnabar and vinegar before grinding. The Syriac books of Zosimus will be published within the AlchemEast project.
We may preliminarily observe how this extraction technique was a kind of transdisciplinary know-how, shared by experts in different fields. A certain degree of variation is detectable in alchemical texts, which mention various metals. Moreover, ancient alchemists believed that mercury could be extracted from any metallic (or even mineral) body: did this idea in some way depend on the empirical evidence they tried to conceptualize when treating cinnabar with a variety of metals?
This kind of questions are at the basis of the AlchemEast project, which explores ancient recipes from a double angle: as textual units that travelled over time and space; as invaluable windows on a wide spectrum of real practices and techniques. Textual criticism, replications, and historical investigations are critical keys to unlock ancient alchemical sources, from Babylonian tablets to Greek, Syriac and Arabic manuscripts. This post is only a first, tentative attempt to illustrate how we applied this method, a preliminary result of our investigation, which, needless to say, is still “in the making.” We plan to continue keeping you posted in the following months.
[1] David E. Eichholz, Theophrastus, De Lapidibus, edited with Introduction, Translation and Commentary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), 81.
[2] Lazlo Takacs, “Quicksilver from Cinnabar. The First Documented Mechanochemical Reaction?” JOM. Journal of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, 52 (2000): 12-13.
[3] Marcelin Berthelot and Charles-Émile Ruelle, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs (Paris: G. Steinheil, 1887-1888), vol. 2, 172. Part of Zosimus’ writings is only preserved in Syriac translation, where one finds further interesting details: cinnabar must be ground in the sun; copper filings are added to cinnabar and vinegar before grinding. The Syriac books of Zosimus will be published within the AlchemEast project.
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