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DESCRIPTION

This course traces the development of alchemy in Medieval & Renaissance Europe up to the emergence of modern chemistry in the 18th century. The theoretical, experimental and occult dimensions of alchemy are treated as interdependent elements of a coherent world-view.  The entire development of European alchemy is covered from the transmission of the Greek and Islamic alchemical traditions in the 12th century up to Newton, whose alchemical theories represent a point of transition to Early Modern chemistry in one direction and to a more spiritualised occult philosophy in the other.

Special topics include:alchemy and the occult sciences in Antiquity & early Islam; the reception & integration of alchemy in the Medieval universities; the role of secrecy, ciphers and symbolism; the discovery of alcohol and mineral acids; the procedures of metallic transmutation; and the search for the elixir of immortality. We approach these special issues with a view to controversies over the historical interpretation of alchemy: is alchemy best represented as a precursor to the experimental theories and practices of modern chemistry;
or does this developmental approach privilege one aspect of alchemy– the narrowly scientific and technological– at the expense of its wider spiritual and psychological dimensions?