Sunday, July 19, 2020

Corinthian Bronze and the Gold of the Alchemists 
David M Jacobson 
The Centre for Rapid Design and Manufacture, 
Buckingham Chilterns University College, 
High Wycombe, HP11 2JZ, UK 
Received: 1 July 1999 
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/BF03216582.pdf

Alloys that went under the name of Corinthian Bronze were highly prized in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian era, when Corinthian Bronze was used to embellish the great gate of Herod's Temple in Jerusalem. From the ancient texts it emerges that Corinthian Bronze was the name given to a family of copper alloys with gold and silver which were depletion gilded to give them a golden or silver lustre. An important centre of production appears to have been Egypt where, by tradition, alchemy had its origins. From an analysis of the earliest alchemical texts, it is suggested that the concept of transmutation of base metals into gold arose from the depletion gilding process.

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