Women in alchemy
Several women appear in the earliest history of alchemy.
Michael Maier names Mary the Jewess, Cleopatra the Alchemist and Taphnutia as
the four women who knew how to make the philosopher's stone. Zosimos' sister Theosebia (later known as
Euthica the Arab) and Isis the Prophetess also played a role in early
alchemical texts.
The first alchemist whose name we know is said to have been
Mary the Jewess (c. 200 A.D.). Early
sources claim that Mary (or Maria) devised a number of improvements to
alchemical equipment and tools as well as novel techniques in chemistry. Her best known advances were in heating and
distillation processes. The laboratory water-bath, known eponymously
(especially in France) as the bain-marie, is said to have been invented or at
least improved by her. Essentially a
double-boiler, it was (and is) used in chemistry for processes that require
gentle heating. The tribikos (a modified distillation apparatus) and the
kerotakis (a more intricate apparatus used especially for sublimations) are two
other advancements in the process of distillation that are credited to her. The occasional claim that Mary was the first
to discover hydrochloric acid is not accepted by most authorities. Although we have no writing from Mary herself,
she is known from the early-fourth-century writings of Zosimos of Panopolis.
Due to the proliferation of pseudepigrapha and anonymous
works, it is difficult to know which of the alchemists actually women were. After
the Greco-Roman period, women's names appear less frequently in the alchemical
literature. Women vacate the history of alchemy during the medieval and
renaissance periods, aside from the fictitious account of Perenelle Flamel.
Mary Anne Atwood's A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1850) marks
their return during the nineteenth-century occult revival.
Modern historical
research
The history of alchemy has become a significant and
recognized subject of academic study. As
the language of the alchemists is analyzed, historians are becoming more aware
of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of
Western cultural history, such as the evolution of science and philosophy, the
sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities, kabbalism,
spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements. Institutions involved in this research include
The Chymistry of Isaac Newton project at Indiana University, the University of
Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO), the European Society for
the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE), and the University of Amsterdam's
Sub-department for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents. A
large collection of books on alchemy is kept in the Bibliotheca Philosophica
Hermetica in Amsterdam. A recipe found in a mid-19th-century kabbalah based
book features step by step instructions on turning copper into gold. The author
attributed this recipe to an ancient manuscript he located.
Journals which publish regularly on the topic of Alchemy
include 'Ambix', published by the Society for the History of Alchemy and
Chemistry, and 'Isis', published by The History of Science Society.
Core concepts
Western alchemical theory corresponds to the worldview of
late antiquity in which it was born. Concepts were imported from Neoplatonism
and earlier Greek cosmology. As such, the Classical elements appear in
alchemical writings, as do the seven Classical planets and the corresponding
seven metals of antiquity. Similarly, the gods of the Roman pantheon who are
associated with these luminaries are discussed in alchemical literature. The
concepts of prima materia and anima mundi are central to the theory of the
philosopher's stone.
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