Bull.lnd.llIsl.l-li.\·I.Med. Vol. XXIX - 1999 pp 63 (070

EUROPEAN ALCHEMY:SOME TRADITIONAL BELIEFS

VLADIMIR KARPENKO*

ABSTRACT

Three important doctrines of European alchemy are discussed: the EmeraldTable of Hermes, the idea of transmutation, and the Elixir of Life. The analysis ofthese problems is focused on the 16th century, the epoch of the high flourish ofalchemy in Renaissance Europe. As typical examples two works are chosen: thetreatises of Jean-Pierre Fabre (1588-1658) and Alexander von Suchten (? 1520 - ?1590). The arguments of these authors illustrate the ways how alchemists tried todefend their position in face of repeated failures. Just the 16th century stood inthe sign of dramatic development of crafts, but, simulataneously, of growing interestin alchemy.

The invention of the printing press byJohannes Gensfleisch (he is known asGuttenberg,? 1400 - 1468) in 1436 was oncrucial changes that occurred on theEuropean continent, because it dramaticallyincreased the spread of information. Therewas no more necessary to rewrite tediouslyold manuscripts, but, instead, many copiesof books were produced in a short time.The first prints were predominantly of areligious content, but very early alchemicalworks followed (I). This technicalinnovation thus contributed, among otherinfluences, to growing interest in alchemy.This development became apparent in thesubsequent century, and found its highestflourish in the Rudolfian era, the reign ofthe Austrain Emperor Rudolf II (1576 -161 I). Latin was the language preferredin the books of that time, but books inGerman represented only slightly lessproportion of all alchemical books printedin this century. They were either translatedfrom other languages or written by a

German speaking author. This factdocuments lively interest in alchemyespecially in the Central Europe, whereGerman language prevailed. The aim ofth is paper is to touch a few points ofEuropean alchemy of the 16th century.Two sources will be used for thisdiscussion, both written by physicians whowere alchemists. The author of the firstone was Frenchman Pierre-Jean Fabre(1588-1658); in this paper, however, thelater German edition of his book (2) is usedwith comments by the German alchemistConrad Horlacher (16? - 17?). The otherone was written by German Alexander vonSuchten (? 1520-? 1590) (3). A fewexamples from these books will illustratethe approach of alchemists to some keypoints of their science.The Emerald Table of Hermes:

This nebulous text accompaniedalchemy for centuries being considered anessence of the whole knowledge thisscience achieved. We will not discuss the

• Associate Professor, Dept.of'Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, Charles University,Albertov 2030 128 40 Prague 2, Czech Republic.

6-1

full text, the English translation of whichwas published repeatedly (see for exampleHolmyard (4). The attention will be paidto one sentence that was extraordinarilyimportant, because it reflected the worldof ideas of alchemists:"Thai which is above is like 10 what isbelow. and that which is below is like towhich is above, 10 accomplish the miraclesofon« thing. "

Th is rather vague formulation is nowaccepted as the reflection of alchemicalbelief in unity of macro - and microcosm.In other words, our world was considereda reflection ofthe whole Universe, but thissentence allowed for more interpretations.Thus, the alchern ist' s laboratory cou Id bea microcosm per se, where processes werereflected and performed that occurred asnatural in macrocosm. In the first place itwas "ripening" of metals, from their baselorm to gold, a process supposed to occurspontaneously in nature -macrocosm. Butas microcosm even human being wassometimes considered, reflecting by hissoil: existence <IS <I living being the life ofmacrocosm.

Hortulanus (5), one of the earlycommentators, explained the cited sentenceas follows (6): "And this is the same assaytns; that the stone is divided into twoprincipal paris bv the magistery. info asuperior part thai ascends above and into(/1I11I!cr{()/, pun II·fIlCh remains belowfixedand clear

l lortulanus further explained that theinferior part is earth. the superior part isthe spirit. It is their union that makesmiracles. The analysis of his comment isnot easy. From the point of view of thelaboratory activity, it reflected the volatile(spirit), and nonvolatile (earth) substancesobserved during experiments.

Bull.tnd.lnst.Hist.Med. Vol.XXIX - 1999

The Emerald Table remainedinfluential over centuries, and, as saidabove, its interpretation varied. We can addnow the version proposed by Fabre (7).When discussing "seed of metals"out ofwhich all metals were supposed to grow,he referred to Hermes "the very greatexpert of nature" as to the supremeauthority. Then, the Emerald Tableattributed to Hermes was an unshakableauthority to Fabre. He used just thesentence cited from the Table to supportthe alleged existence of seeds of metals.According to Fabre, all living creatures, beit animals or plants, produce seeds tomultiply themselves. These creatures areon the surface of earth, in other words"above." On the other hand, however, theEmerald Table says that "what is above islike to what is helow. .... Likewise, to be inaccord with the statement of the Table,there must thus exist seeds of matter that isbelow the earth's surface. Metals, likeliving creatures, must grow from seeds, too.Fabre's argumentation is a further examplehow the Emerald Table could be used tosupport ora key idea of alchemy. It was intime when, in spite of centuries-longefforts, no seeds of metals were revealed.Fabre, like many of his contemporaries,looked for support in the old text thatallowed for various explanations. Yet itwas the text that we can denote almost assacred to alchern ists.Transmutation:

In Fabre's time a Ic h e m y alreadyproceeded through centuries of failures -nobody made gold by transmutation ofbase metals (except fraudulent alchemists,of course). By that time we can find moreoften chapters in alchemical works that dealexclusively with the question whethertransmutation is a possible process. Or,

European Alchemy - Karpenko

more correctly - alchemists believed in itspossibility, but in these chapters argumentswere collected in favor of this claim.Sometimes they were alleged eyewitnessesof successful transmutations, as forexample Testimonia by Helvetius, or vanHelmont (8). In other cases there appearedanother kind of argumentation based onobservation explained so that it speaks fortransmutation.

The problem of transmutation deservesbroader discussion that would be beyondscope of this short contribution. Strictlyspeaking, scientists of the past should bedivided in two groups: the first formedbelievers in transmutation, the secondgroup were their opponents. Whatconcerns the latter group, it should beremembered that already lbn Sina (980-1037) was convinced that alchemists canonly imitate precious metals, but cannotmake them artificially from base metals (9).

They were, nevertheless, just chemicaland metallurgical observations that,interpreted on the then existing level ofknowledge, could have made falseimpression that base metal changed intoprecious one. There are more examples ofthis confusion: cupellation (10), whiteningof copper by compounds of arsenic (II),-or a quite simple deposition of metalliccopper on an iron surface from the solutionof cupric ions (12). These three examplesbelong among typical argumentsalchemists used to support the possibilityof tranmutation.

Yet, transmutation was discussed alsofrom other standpoint. The question wasopen which kind of process can beconsidered a transmutation. This was notunimportant, because the question stood,whether it is only a metal that can betransmuted. ln the 13th century, Al-Iraqui

65

wrote (13) :"We say and maintain that two species

of natural things which differ radically andessentially cannot be changed andconverted one into the other by the Art(alchemy), as for example man and thehorse. But these six bodies (metals) canbe mutually converted ..;"

This formulation, however, limitedsignificantly the argumentation for thebenefit of transmutation, and in EuropeanRenaissance the process of transmutationis defined within substantially broaderlimits. Fabre's comment on this problemcan be used as a typical example (14) :

"And what I am working aboutfurther ... what all humans found inthemselves every day already 1000 yearsago / and will find forever: That is to saythe change of all foods and all humiditiesbelonging among drinks / either fully intored human blood! or, partly, in breast-feeding mothers ... in snow-white sweetmilk. Is not from this (example) of almostendless change of so many foods and sonumerous drinks / also apparent (thechange) of metals into other beings(metallic) / ye, the orginial art and colorof the red and white stone producing goldand silver?"

Fabre was not the only alchemist whoexplained natural metabolic processes astransmutations and he even compared thecolor of blood and milk with the red andwhite elixirs. Important is the fact that toFabre any change of matter wastransmutation and, therefore, he couldattain much firmer position inargumentation against his opponents. Justbecause he extended the' idea oftransmutation on living matter he couldconclude that, if transmutation works in aliving matter, it should be the same with

66

metals. We should not forget that inalchemical speculations metals boreattributes of life - they could be killed andsubsequently reborn, they had body, soul,and spirit.

This way of reasoning becameappeared more often in Renaissancealchemy as illustrated on the famous vanHelmont's experiment (15). This scientistkept a willow tree for ten years watering itonly with rain or distilled water. Over thistime he collected all dry leaves. Eventuallyhe compared the weight of the tree, leaves,and earth in the pot with the weight at thebeginning of his experiment. The increasein weight he explained as transmutation ofwater' into wood.

Trese, in Fabre's case observations, invan Helmont's case experiment,represented an autonomous approach to thequestion of transmutation. This processwas looked upon as any change in generaland, therefore, it should be valid for metalsas well. The task of an alchemist was torealize this change in his laboratory.The Elixir of Life:

European alchemists working inlaboratories focused their attentionpredominantly on transmutation of metals.The Philosopher's Stone was thusconsidered an agent that, added in a smallquantity, could change a huge amount of abase metal into silver or gold. There wereno exceptional cases when authors gave this"transmuting ratio." The other virtues ofthis mysterious substance were mentionedonly sometimes. One of them was theeffect of the Stone on human life, but herewe can repeatedly find confusion, when thissubstance is called the Stone, if it shouldexert effect on metals, or Elixir, if it shouldinfluence human life.

Here, striking difference between

Bull. Ind.lnst. Hist.Med. Vol..XXIX - 1999

Chinese and European alchemy becomesapparent - Chinese alchern ists tried to attainimmortality as their ultimate goal, orprolongation of life at least. Ko Hung'sencyclopedia (16) describes many way howto succeed in these attempts. The situationof European alchemy was rather delicatein this point due to the ruling Christianreligion. According to Christian doctrineGod himself decided about all - life, death,illmess. Any attempt to change this stateof things would be a serious sin, anintervention into God's will. In Europe,such activity could lead to the death atstake. Considered rigorously, alchemy alsocould be looked upon as this kind ofintervention, because it promisedprolongation of life, but even the promiseof alleged untold riches was suchintervention, too. Only God decided aboutmaterial state of people. The influence ofreligion should be always kept in mind inany discussion of European alchemy. Thisscience escaped the wrost procaliming itselfto be donum Dei, the gift of God (17). Onlythose selected by God could achieve thehighest knowledge.

The question of the influence of thePhilosopher's Stone remained,nevertheless, open, and was discussed inthe Renaissance as lively as before this era.Von suchten's treatise represents acharacteristic example of these speculationsas found in the chapter titled ColloquiumII (18). It deals with the Tree of Life andwith "elemental bodies from which a stonrgmedicine should be prepared that prolongshuman life. "

This chapter is written as dialoguebetween demogorgon (demiurge) who asksRamon Lully (19) about this secret. Thetext is written in a typically nebulouslanguage of alchemy so that only a few

European Alchemy - Karpenko

points can be explained. Already the firstquestion if demogorgon is, whether amedicine exits that could have preventedhim before death, and different illnesses.Lully's answer is as expected:

"Don 'I you know that God has givenan ultimate limit to everybody. .... ?" In the16th century religious thinking was verystrong; simulatenously, frightening effectof the witch-hunt should be considered.

On 24 pages of this chapter we cansearch in vain for any trace of a concreterecipe how to attain a longevity (contraryto Ko Hung, for example). The explanationappers, when demogorgon insists directly:"Tholl hast said in thine booke on Nature'sSecrets (20) that this medicine should beextracted from wine ..... " Therefore, sodemogorgon, the medicine should be red,which hypothesis he supports further" .....others said (that it should be extracted)from human blood." Lully's answer is ina characteristic way alchemists wrote abouttheir literature: " thou thinkest that thescriptures of philosophers (alchemists)could be understood solely from theirpages." Then, t.ully goes on to· explainthat the secret is not in words, but behindthem. Both, wine and blood, represent onlythe color; in this particular case itsymbolizes only that red color shouldappear twice in this process. There is,however, no further mention of thisprocess, no detail, only negative answers.According to Lully, the "medicine" isneither of the vegetables, nor of mineralorigin; it does not act itself, but must betaken with food. The entire text is full ofexpressions of this kind, and, eventually,it sound grotesque when demogorgonthanks for valuable advice he was given.

67

There was nothing in von Suchten'sColloquium that could be used in medicine.This text represents one of direction ofEuropean alchemico-rnedicinal literature.

There were yet other directions. Onecan be traced back to Amald from Villnova(? 1235-1311114) who tried to usechemicals in treatment of various diseases.In this way he was actually a predecessorof iatrochemistry brought finally to life byParacelsus (1493/94 - 1541). Arnald,however, represented also the otherdirection in medicine, namely magicalapproach. He used different talismans thatshould have curing effect. In the EuropeanRenaissance this direction became veryinfluential thanks to mystics like Agrippafrom Nettesheim (1486 - 1535) (21).Eventually, the third direction was thatillustrated on the example of von Suchten'book - totally nebulous formulations.Nothing could be done on this basis, neitherdrugs, nor talismans. If talismans aredenoted as blind alee of Europeanmedicine, then the texts like von Suchterr'swere the blindest alee.

In this paper three cornerstones ofalchemy were discussed in brief: theEmerald Table, the doctrine oftransmutation, and the Elix ir of Life. Theyhave on property in common - failure. Itdoes not mean, however, that they shouldbe condemned. Simultaneously they areexcellent witnesses of human dreams, ofbelief that survived for centuries. In thetime of Fabre and von Suchten these ideascould hardly find an opponent.Remak : The original citations are initalics; the remarks of the present authorare in square brackers.

68 Bull.lnd. lnst. Hist.Med. Vol..XXIX - 1999

REFER~NCES AND NOTES[I] R.Hirsch, The Invention of Printing and the Diffusion of Alchemical and ChemicalKnowledge, Chymia 3, 115 (1957). Precised statistical data are on Internet: http://www/levity.corn/alchemy.[2] Die hell-scheinende Sonne Am Alchymistischen Firmament des Hochteutschen Horizonts.Dasist: D.PETRI JOH. FABRI, Ehmaligen Konigl. Franzosischen hochberuhmten Leib-Medici Manuscriptum, Oder Sonderbares noch niemahlen Teutsch heraus-gegebenes BuehlWelches er ehedessen an den Durchleuchtigsten Fursten und Herrn I Herrn Friedrich / Herzogin Holstein I gesendet und darinnen die dunckelste and schwereste Sachen der GoldmachendenKunst I rnit einer ungemeinen Deutlichkeit erklaret hat. Durch Conrad Horlacher / J.U. ac.Med. Doct. & Cando SS. Theol, &c. Mit sehr nutzlich und oft-bewahrten Anmerckungen /auch andern dergleichen raren Schrifften vermehret / und zum Druck befordert. Zu findenbey Wolffgang Moritz Endeer Buchhandlung in Nurnberg. Anno 1705.[3] Alexandri von Suchten I Eines wahren Philosophi und der Arzneyen DoctorisCHYMISCHE SCHRIFFTEN Aile I So viel deren vorhanden / Zum erstenmahlzusammengedruckt I mit sonderbahren Fleib von vielen Druckfehlern gesaubert / vermehretlund in zwey Theile / als die Teutschem und Lateinischen I verfasset. Franckfurt am Mayn,Verlegung Georg Wolffs I Buchh. in Hamburg I Druckts Johann Godin. Anno MDCLXXX.[4] EJ. Holmyard: Alchemy. Penguins Books Harmondsworth 1957, p.95.[5] Almost nothing is known about this alchemists who should have lived in mid-14th century;for details see W.R. Newman: Hortulanus, in Alchernie. Lexikon einer hermetischenWissenschaft, Eds. C.Priesner, K.Figala, C.H. Beck VerI., Munchen 1998, p.183.[6] T.L. Davis, The Emerald Table of Hermes Trismegistos, J.Chem.Educ. 3, 863 (1926).[7] Op. cit., Ref. [2], p.27ff.[8] F.Sherwood Taylor: The Alchemists, Paladin, Frogmore 1976, p.133ff.[9] K.Garbers, J. Weyer, Quellengeschichtliches Lesebuch zur Chemie und Alchemie derAraber im Mittelalter, Hamburg: H.Buske, 1980, p.36.[10] V.Karpenko, "Transmutation: The Roots of the Dream," J.Chem.Educ. 72 (1995)383-385.[11] Geber, Summa perfection is, in E.Darmstaedter, transl., Die Alchemie des Geber, Berlin:Springer Ver1., 1922.[12] V.Karpenko, Fe (s) + Cu (II) (aq) = Fe(lI) (aq) + Cu(s): Fifteen Centuries of Search,J.Chem.Educ. 72 (1995) 1095-1098.[13] "Kitab al-ilm al-muktasab fi zira' at adh-dhahab," Book of Knowledge AcquiredConcerning the Cultivation of Gold by Abu' l-Qasim Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Iraqi (trans!.EJ. Holmyard) Hamdard, XX (1977) 7-68.[14] Opt.cit., Ref.2, Introduction (not paginated), $ 24.[15] Johann Baptista van Helmont (1577 -.1644); details of his experiment can be found inE. J.Holmyard: Makers of Chemistry, Oxford Univ.Press, Oxford 1953, p.119 ff.[16] Alchemy, Medicine, Religion in the China of A.D. 320: The Nei P'ien of Ko Hung

European Alchemy - Karpenko 69

(Pao-p'u tzu), transl. 1.R. Ware, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge (Mass) 1966.[17] V.Karpenko, Alchemy as donum dei, HYLE 4, 63-80 (1998).[18] Opt.cit., REf. [3], p.169ff.[19] Raimundus Lullius (? 1323 - 1315/16) was a philosopher who did not believe in alchemy,but, nevertheless, numerous works on this topic apeared under his name. For details dee A.Clericuzio : Lullius, Raimundus, in Alchemie. Lexikon einer hermetischen Wissenschaft,Eds. C.Priesner, K.Figala, C.H. Beck VerI., Munchen 1998, p.224.[20J The work mentioned here is Pseudolullian treatise De secretis naturae sive QuintaEssentia, first printed in Augsburg 1518. See K.Ch. Schmieder: Geschichte der Alchemie,Halle 1832, p. 176. The allusion on wine stems from idea that th is drink was said to contain"the fifth essence" (quinta essentia), that is nothing else than alcohol.[21] Talismans are dealt with in detail in Agrippa's De occulta philosophia first printed1531, and similarly in Pseudoparacelsian Archidoxa magica from 1567.

70 Bull.lnd.lnst.Hist.Med.Vo/XXIX -1999

~~414"1 ~ fcmT ~ (fA ¥Of~(q'iaf ~,id1 ~ q)J QfI~(,""S

~, ~qH'H ~ ~ ~ 1R~-~ fif;41JI41 t I ~ 'ffi;IT ~q)J Rp~~qol ~~ cff ~ldlaiCfl1RihRo t~ fcli" "1q~0"11~ ~ ~ ~

fcmr ~ fct&llft q)J ~ ~ 17:® ~ a~I~{ofj ~ ~ ~-~ {kl~ft 31fCf)

'itl"1Q{{ ~ (~'"'tt - ~~'"'t)w.rr l@c:M"S{ cfR ~ (? ~'"'~o- ?~,",~o)~~q)J~~~tl