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crossref-it.info - AS/A2 English Literature Study Guides - texts in context.

 

Alchemy

What is alchemy? 

The aims of the alchemist

Alchemy is a very ancient practice that originally developed in pursuit of three goals:

Alchemy developed well beyond these fundamental aims and also included features that were not scientific, but were also mystical and spiritual. 

The history and spread of alchemy

The origins of alchemy seem to lie in ancient Egypt over 4000 years ago. There is evidence of the practice in temple carvings and it is also known that the Greeks used Egyptian manuscripts in their study of alchemy.  

It was also practised in India from about 1200 BCE, in the Byzantine Empire and in the Islamic world between about 700 and 1400 CE, before arriving in Europe in the Middle Ages, from about 1300 CE onwards.  

More on the etymology of 'alchemy': The word ‘alchemy’ came into English from the Old French alquimie, deriving from the medieval Latin word alchimia. In Arabic the word was al-kimia, a combination of Greek and Arabic elements.     
  • al = Arabic for ‘the’, the definite article
  • chumaeia = Ancient Greek for ‘mixture’, referring to the experiments carried out in pursuit of the goals of alchemy

Alchemy and science 

Alchemy and medieval science

Aristotelian science saw the world as having been created from ‘prima material’ – primal matter which was originally chaotic and formless. From this matter emerged the four elements, each of which was seen as having two qualities, one primary and one secondary. These were:

By removing a quality from each of two elements it was possible to produce a third; for instance, fire and water with dry and cold removed produced air. It was on these theories of dissolving, separating, reconstituting and recombining that alchemists based their experiments. These theories were challenged in the Middle Ages when Islamic alchemists discovered new elements, including mercury and sulphur.

Alchemy, technology and the development of modern science

Ancient alchemy is thought to have made contributions to the technology of crafts and manufactures:

Some of the techniques that were developed have almost certainly survived into modern times.

Alchemists would also have needed to call on the skills of craft-workers such as glass-makers and metal-workers to make the vessels and implements they required to conduct their experiments. These tools / objects were the earliest versions of some of the equipment still used in modern laboratories.

Alchemist to chemist

Alchemy can be seen as the forerunner of modern chemistry. Alchemists:

Historically, alchemy and what is thought of as modern science overlapped:

Alchemy: science, heresy or trickery?

The spiritual dimensions of alchemy

Alchemy included spiritual aspects concerning the impact on individual alchemists of their study and experiments. Since alchemical knowledge was believed to be the gift of the gods, individuals who devoted themselves to its study could hope to achieve a spiritual or metaphysical transformation, just as their experiments were aimed at achieving physical transformations. In this sense, their experiments became metaphors for their own spiritual purification.

Attitudes to alchemy

The reputation of alchemy has varied since it was introduced into Europe in the Middle Ages. Alchemists might:

In Christian Europe, there was much suspicion of art practised in semi-secrecy, using a complex system of codes and symbols, which were readily associated with witchcraft and black magic. The fact that alchemy was based on methods and ideas from pre-Christian and pagan cultures also damaged its reputation.

Church teaching

The Church often took measures against alchemy: although priests were frequently practising alchemists, this was regarded as a serious threat to Church authority. Pope John XXII (1316-34) issued a Papal Bull against alchemy and Cistercian monks were forbidden from the practice. In 1403, King Henry IV (1399-1413) banned alchemy in England. By contrast, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1576-1612), whose court was in Prague, supported the work of alchemists and many rulers relied on the advice of the closely related art of astrology.

Duping the people

Fairground traders often based their tricks and frauds on alchemy, selling worthless elixirs and remedies and claiming to change low value coins into gold or silver. Conjuror’s tricks – making objects appear, disappear or change into something else – also sometimes originated in alchemical ideas.

Alchemy in literature: characters and language

Alchemy appears in literature in two important ways:

Literary alchemists

Impact on the language

Elsewhere in literature, from the Middle Ages onwards, the language of alchemy is often used as a means of defining characters and the ways in which they behave. The theory of the humours draws, like alchemy, on the four basic elements combined with a variety of qualities to explain human behaviour. More generally, the use of terms such as:

draw on the alchemical tradition.

An image or form of comparison where one thing is said actually to be another - e.g. 'fleecy clouds'.
Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.
Term applied to those who are not Christian, particularly followers of the classical religion of Greece and Rome and of the pre-Christian religions of Europe.
1. Term for a worshipping community of Christians. 2. The building in which Christians traditionally meet for worship. 3. The worldwide community of Christian believers.
A person whose role is to carry out religious functions.
The supreme governor of the Roman Catholic Church who has his headquarters in Rome, in Vatican City. In certain circumstances, his doctrinal utterances are deemed infallible.
Edicts from the Pope which define Roman Catholic doctrine.
A person whose role is to carry out religious functions.
Also known as Satan or Lucifer, the Bible depicts him as the chief of the fallen angels and demons, the arch enemy of God who mounts a significant, but ultimately futile, challenge to God's authority.
A genre which ridicules some one or something. It can be poetry, drama or fiction.