In the dimness of the room the mysterious figure moves in measured gestures between the ampullae and stills lined up on the old wooden table, full of strange and mysterious substances infused stirring and heating elements in 'business of transmutation. The small furnace fire up the room with red glow. The flames surrounding the crucible where the metal is turned into hot liquid. The pungent vapors irritate the eyes and nostrils; fumes invade the lungs, making breathing labored. The air is filled with pungent odors. A new look at the notes on the lectern resting illuminated by candlelight.
The man takes off the table and a mysterious dark dust settles on the piece of metal placed on the coals burning, then using long forceps removes the small circular shape from the heat and deposits it on a stone near. Another gold coin is in addition to others contained in a small office, which make a fine show if precious stones of all shapes and sizes. The transmutation failed, alchemy is accomplished ...
It may seem early a tale of other times but what is clear from the stories that surround the ancient art of making gold: alchemy.
A science considered the ancestor of modern chemistry practiced in order to transform base metals into gold, considered for centuries a collection of stories, a practice of magicians and charlatans, dating from the time of the creation of the biblical blacksmith workshop Tubalcain, son of Lamech, who lived in the Early Bronze Age 4500 years ago, a character which the Bible attributes the invention of bronze tools and the ability to forge the metal.
was considered the art of ancient Egypt, the Khemeja, the word Syrian Kimija that combined Arabic "El" was alchemy, the science of black earth. "
In the Temple of Ptah were furnaces in order to practice alchemy. Ancient Chinese texts mention various possibilities for the transmutation of metals and report the story of one who turned silver shards Chen or brick by scrubbing with a black stone.
Fundamentals of alchemy were known in India 5000 years ago. In Greece, famous scholars were Homer, Pindar and Pythagoras himself, gaining a key role in spreading West medieval alchemy.
Arab Alchemists inherited all the teachings of the Hermetic Egyptian schools and Greek and developed the techniques of distillation, which allowed him to find acids and alkalis, salts and spirits used in medicine. Their laboratory was not only an art, but also aimed to reveal the hidden laws of creation and a comprehensive philosophical and mystical dimension.
The first to speak of the possibility of turning copper into gold was Djaba Ibn Hayyan great Arabic alchemist, known as "Geber", who lived in the eighth century, a disciple of a great teacher of Islam, Imam Djafar. In his books we find the description of ammonium chloride, the distillation of vinegar for acetic acid, the rules for the preparation of nitric acid diluted water director.
Geber considered as mercury and sulfur as the key elements to produce the gold, said that through their manipulations with other substances was obtained by a dry powder, called "XERION by the Greeks," al-iksir "Arabs and "elixir" by Europeans, with whom it was possible to transmute base metals into gold.
After an alchemist Geber appeared in Persian, later known as Avicenna, who is interested in more aspects of medicine. In his studies described the use of plaster for fractures, metallic antimony.
Various alchemical terms Arabs are still part of the scientific language, such as alcohol, elixir, alembic.
There are documents that testify to the alchemists regarded as rulers a danger to the country's economy and for its own substances. Diocletian forbade the practice and ordered it to be burned all the existing writings.
In China, there were laws prohibiting the production of gold through the use of alchemical processes.
John XXII in 1317 and Henry IV in 1404 forbade the practice of alchemy and the production of metals. Then with another decree, the king of England decreed that gold and silver produced by processes of alchemy was to be paid to the mint. A further proof that this production was perceived state economy.
The Church, for political and religious reasons, be wrong to practice the arts of our enemies, also considered impossible to achieve the transmutation of metals into gold, so those who claimed to transmute and crooks were not successful, or if there could have engage in magic. The Inquisition pursued many people who dedicated themselves.
Yet the images of Hermes adorned the cathedrals of Europe for over three centuries, today we can admire a fresco of Hermes in the Borgia apartments in the Vatican until 1614 when they were condemned by the church and ignored for two hundred years later.
Alchemy disgraced sorcerers and alchemists considered dedicated to the occult arts and prosecuted and therefore was practiced by people of high rank belonging to the nobility or ecclesiastical sphere, such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Raymond Lull.
ultimately seems that in the past someone has actually managed to produce gold "alchemy."
There would be some evidence to confirm. A session can be found in Coins and Medals at the British Museum, the object that resembles a bullet is classified as a "gold produced by an alchemist with a bullet in the presence of Colonel Mac Donald and Dr. Colquhoun in 1814."
Johann Helvetius, physician of the Prince of Orange, was known for his alchemical transmutations occurred in the second half of 1600 and established by the Inspector of the Mint Dutch enlisted the jeweler Brechtel.
To get the gold ran the mercury or lead. The atomic numbers of gold, mercury and lead are respectively 79 to 80 and 82, so very close. We must record, however, that the table of elements was proposed by Mendelevium in 1879, the alchemists were in possession of this scale ever before? They knew that mercury dissolves gold and silver by forming mixtures of fluids, fire away with the mercury from gold and silver. They knew that mercury dissolves sulfur yellow rise to cinnabar red. Only in 1919 were transformed into nitrogen atoms of oxygen and hydrogen atoms after they have been bombarded with helium atoms.
A document preserved in Malta about a payment of one hundred thousand pounds a year for the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by a certain George Ripley, a large amount of money that casts a suspicion of the alchemical production of gold.
In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has retained an oval metal 40 to 37 centimeters to one third of seven kilograms of silver and two gold. Her story is nothing short of amazing. In some five hundred
Johann Wenzel Seiler had vows, but he could not stand the life of Monaco, an old monk at the monastery told him that he was, buried somewhere, a fabulous treasure. After long and painstaking research conducted in every place they found a copper box containing a parchment with strange indecipherable letters and four pots full of red dust. Seiler hoped to find gold, was disappointed he wanted to throw it all away, but the old man persuaded him not to. The elder brother studied for a long scroll and discovered that the powder used to carry out the transmutations. The two managed to turn into gold, an old tin plate covering it with red powder before heating on the fire and sold it for twenty ducats. Plans to escape from the convent, but the old man died. He designed the flight with another monaco which told the whole story. Happy with the idea of \u200b\u200babandoning that place celebrated by inviting a young woman disguised as her cousin, but discovered in intimacy with the girl ended up whipped and imprisoned. The friend managed to escape it and to implement the plans of escape. Arriving in Vienna took over the protection of Count Von Peter Par, friend of Emperor Leopold I. In the presence of the sovereign ounce tin transmuted into gold. Wenzel von Par robbed of half of the vessels. Luck was on their side because shortly after Earl died and two have returned to dust. The emperor became their protector, and in his presence and that of the captain of the Guard had conducted the experiments.
a ducat was coined in 1675 with the portrait of the ruler on the back reads: "with the dust Wenzel have been transformed from a tin into gold." Wenzel became a knight and assumed the name of the mother becoming Von Reinsburg. The red powder was ending and was forged in 1677 a large medallion with effigies of Leopold and all the predecessors. Became immersed in the mixture of gold at the bottom, but maybe the powder was not enough to complete the transformation and the locket was composed of two metals.
In 1883 the medallion was analyzed making sure that it is full of gold. In practice is the best evidence that in the past the alchemical transmutation was performed.
Crusades Through Arab Europeans took possession of the knowledge and introduced them in Europe.
Alchemy was first implemented in the West as the art of making gold from base metals. I am testing a recipe for the 'English gold ", a nod to alchemy as a falsification of precious metals.
Only around half of the '200 Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon were able to grasp the principle of alchemy, namely to change by changing the properties of natural products to make them perfect.
The first European alchemist Albertus Magnus was born in Lauingen, Germany, in 1193, the philosopher held his studies in Padua, where he made contact with the Dominicans. He was later appointed Bishop of Regensburg and obtained a chair of theology at Cologne, where his disciple Thomas Aquinas. He died Nov. 15 of 1280 in the city of Cologne. He was beatified in 1622, proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1931. Said all the works of Aristotle and introduced a clear distinction between philosophy and theology as it is based on revelation and the first on the right, so it is impossible to discuss theological issues in philosophy. His method of scientific research builds on the common method of anticipating confrontation and collaboration operated by modern science.
authoritative theologian and philosopher, shedding new light on Aristotle's philosophy. His writings on various subjects ranging from religious literature, physics, astronomy, natural science, alchemy and hermeticism. He tried to find a compromise between theology and magic to draw a distinction between the types of the latter pointing out that in addition to "black magic" and "white magic" there exists a third type: the alchemy.
Alberto was a Dominican and had to be very careful to avoid being accused of heretics or witchcraft. He made his recommendation to the alchemists to be quiet and follow the rule of Privacy maintaining absolute secrecy about the results achieved, follow the rules of alchemical operations using only glass jars to prevent contamination, and finally remain rich enough to afford the expenses that the sport requires.
his contemporary Roger Bacon was an advocate of applying mathematics to scientific studies. The description of the preparation of sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid, was the most important advancement in chemistry, was opened to the alchemists as the possibility of chemical reactions.
Alchemical One of the main centers was Florence by Cosimo I de 'Medici who created the Platonic Academy Florence and asked Marsilio Ficino to translate the first copy of the "Corpus Hermeticum" of Hermes Trismegistus, given to him by a Monaco in 1460. The first translation was prepared and disseminated in 1471. With this gesture, freed from the influences of the Tuscany Church and helped to make famous the productivity of small-scale melting of metals, the preparation of dyes for textiles and tapestries, the preparation of pharmaceutical drugs. The time the powerful guild of apothecaries. In Florence, came to create the Arts and Crafts in Tuscany that favored the emergence of a famous school of craftsmen know how to use fire for the manufacture of the glass to melt metals for the production of dyes and medicines.
student of Marsilio Ficino was Pico della Mirandola, at age 23 he had already studied everything that was known at the time, he considered useful to strengthen the natural magic with Kabbalistic magic, invoking the angels and archangels and their names Hebrew. For these ideas had to flee Italy. He was readmitted in June 1493 by Alexander VI, a pope in favor of magic and astrology. But not only physicians used the alchemical quintessence.
In the 20s of the XV century by the Florentine goldsmith Lorenzo Bisticci, began to heal the sick with medicine, alchemy, the gold drinking Rupescissa that John, who lived in the middle of the fourteenth century, had taught him to produce 'Melting gold foils in the distillate of wine, "the quintessential alchemical distilled in a sealed vessel fitted with circular so that the desired change in the initial product appearance becoming thin and clear. The
as representative of the Renaissance was the Swiss doctor Philipp Theophrasti Bombast von Hohenheim, who took the name of Paracelsus, who is credited with the discovery of zinc and hydrogen, according to which everything that nature has to produce be judged more or less perfect according to the use more or less directly, that man can draw from it: it is necessary to perfect the work of nature and bring all things to the state can be used by man. In this development, should be given the name of alchemy.
So is the man that should improve things, "imperfect" that nature provides, a concept similar to that of Descartes, which considers God the one who contemplates the world as a giant clock that loaded at the beginning of time, but can not intervene because the mechanism proceeds according to laws that do not need your intervention.
Paracelsus was born November 14, 1493 in Einsiedeln, a village near the city of Zurich, Switzerland, is remembered as a tall man five feet from the bluff body and sickly-looking, which often ran carrying a large sword supply hilt where a set is said to be concealed and the Philosopher's Stone pills laudanum.
Paracelsus is said to have been castrated as a young man following an incident, it is not certain, but his skull, which still exists, has a feminine shape. He learned from his father, the physician William Bombast of Hohenheim, the rudiments of alchemy, surgery and medicine. He continued his studies under the guidance of the monks of the monastery of St. Andrew, was a master of Spanheim Johann Trithemius, one of the adepts of magic, alchemy and astrology of the time.
Paracelsus traveled extensively. In 1521, according to the report of Van Helmont, arrived in Constantinople, and received Philosopher's Stone by a certain Solomon Trismosinus, reported still alive at the end of the seventeenth century. In 1526 he was in Basel where he managed to save the leg of a bookseller known throughout Europe, Johnann Froben, who had been considered incurable by mainstream medicine. The cured with natural therapies and preservation were the basis of what he called "medicine spagyric. The healing of the leg, considered exceptional, procured his appointment as lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Basel. In order to be publicly burned in the square the writings of Galen and Avicenna, and the growing hostility of the medical academic was forced to abandon the city.
His enemies and envious of his achievements in medicine, making life impossible; attacked him shamelessly accusing him of being only a boastful fanatic, described him as a drunk, a cheat, addicted to evil practices. His theories inspired the Rosicrucian texts, the "Fama Fraternitatis" and "Confessio Fraternitatis, the founder of homeopathy, Hahnemann, and philosophers like Francis Bacon. He opened the way for scientific research and gained autonomy in respect of the historical, however, triggering the conflict between religion and science.
He tried to be the perfect doctor, dedicated to research in medicine capable of curing all the ills, which he based on four pillars: philosophy for understanding the nature of all things, astronomy to determine the effect of the stars on the health of the body, alchemy and ethics in the art of preparing medicines.
In practice, the key to healing is the psychosomatic nature of man because man is the only medicine itself. He saw alchemy as the anticipation of chemistry.
Paracelsus was also in charge of psychology, mental illness, the St. Vitus dance, epilepsy, hysteria, of psychotherapy. It remains the forerunner of medicinal chemistry based essentially on the distillation and analysis of minerals extracted from such substances which were used to prepare medicaments. His work was based on medical art of alchemy and astrology, since, according to him, the purpose of alchemy was not produce gold or silver, but to provide medicines against diseases.
For Paracelsus the body gets sick when it is no longer able to fully expel the coarse parts of food, including the air you breathe. The treatment is therefore the elimination of these extraneous elements. To achieve this, given that the human body has the ability to heal itself rid of the bad parts ejecting foreign crude, it must find a way to give effect by strengthening the immune system so that alone provide the complete healing.
died at the age of forty-eight September 24, 1541, and his body was buried in the cemetery of the church of San Sebastian, the grave was erected a pyramid in the center with his portrait.
His death is still a mystery to many biographers because he was subject to violent death, after injury or administration of poison. There is no evidence but on the skull, repeatedly examined, showed a fracture along the temporal bone. They rest in peace even in the grave was dug up several times and his bones were stolen. Him is his motto: "Do not let other people who may be himself." In 1556 appeared
a book of mineralogy, "De Re Metallica, Agricola (1494-1555) who was until 1700 the most important text on metallurgy.
Then the alchemist Andreas Libavius \u200b\u200bdescribed the preparation of hydrochloric acid, tin tetrachloride and ammonium sulfate and the preparation of turpentine can attack gold.
In the history of alchemy emerges a figure shrouded in mystery: the Count of St. Germain, called an adventurer, which is considered a stranger arrived from Germany, very rich, with a reputation as a great alchemist capable of transmutation. He held a fabulous treasures that attracted many observers. Testimonials concrete on its stories come from Casanova, who had the opportunity to attend and told that they saw him turn a silver coin in gold. St. Germain put money on coal burning, and set of black powder when cooled and made it to Giacomo Casanova, who looked astonished the coin turned into gold.
Hausset Madame, the lady Pompadour, shows that the count could also produce pearls. For the record, China produced cultured pearls since the thirteenth century Germain then could know the procedure, but it remains difficult to explain how he could get diamonds and other precious stones as needed for their production pressure and very high temperatures and the count certainly did not have a laboratory equipped to do so. Madame Hausset also said that the stones were flawless and that many of the stones of the crown were improved. It is said that members of the court he served at a banquet at the end of a gemstone to hold it as a souvenir.
was seen in many places at different times and since it is not known the date of his birth has been attributed to the discovery of the elixir of long life. In 1710 he was met in Venice from Rameau composer who lived from 1683 to 1764, according to the musician, the count could have been about fifty years. The Memoirs of Madame de Pompadour Hausset tell us that he would ask the Count if he was in possession of the elixir, because Some people described as the trust had told him they had seen fifty years earlier in Venice.
"Tell me how old you are!" Pompadour asked "How many have you, madam - said the count - but it's true that I met Madame De Gergy, wife of the ambassador at Venice."
"Do not joke, you should have one hundred years," said the Pompadour.
"It could be - said the Germans - but perhaps Madame de Gergy then demonstrate that age is wrong."
From 1737 to 1742 he was a guest at the court of the Shah of Persia in 1745 was seen in London in 1746 in Vienna, in 1749 at Versailles, in 1756 in Bombay; in Russia in 1762 and took part in the coup, in 1763 at Chambord where he had his laboratory in 1768 in Berlin, in 1769 in Italy. In 1770 in Germany, protected by Prince Karl von Kassel. Published in London in 1780 is a collection of his violin studies in 1785 is to be indicated in a Masonic meeting and, finally, the Countess of Genlis writes about meeting him in Vienna in 1821. According to the German church registers deceased February 27, 1784. Age, according to the testimony of Rameau, it is 125 years old.
seems that the Count of Saint Germain has said, "I'm leaving tomorrow evening. I do not go to Europe will be seen in the Himalayan mountains."
As he wrote in his only opera, "La Très Sainte Trinosophie" is somewhat puzzling and intriguing: "The speed with which they move in space was so great that, in a short time we lost sight of the regions below us. The earth seemed only a small ball wrapped in clouds below me. I have seen orbs rotating around me and lands gravitate around a single point. "
"I know you need me to Constantinople, then to England where I have to take care of two inventions which you can have in the next century: the train and the steamship."
This is what has been written and said Franz Graffer, the Count had a time machine?
It may seem early a tale of other times but what is clear from the stories that surround the ancient art of making gold: alchemy.
A science considered the ancestor of modern chemistry practiced in order to transform base metals into gold, considered for centuries a collection of stories, a practice of magicians and charlatans, dating from the time of the creation of the biblical blacksmith workshop Tubalcain, son of Lamech, who lived in the Early Bronze Age 4500 years ago, a character which the Bible attributes the invention of bronze tools and the ability to forge the metal.
was considered the art of ancient Egypt, the Khemeja, the word Syrian Kimija that combined Arabic "El" was alchemy, the science of black earth. "
In the Temple of Ptah were furnaces in order to practice alchemy. Ancient Chinese texts mention various possibilities for the transmutation of metals and report the story of one who turned silver shards Chen or brick by scrubbing with a black stone.
Fundamentals of alchemy were known in India 5000 years ago. In Greece, famous scholars were Homer, Pindar and Pythagoras himself, gaining a key role in spreading West medieval alchemy.
Arab Alchemists inherited all the teachings of the Hermetic Egyptian schools and Greek and developed the techniques of distillation, which allowed him to find acids and alkalis, salts and spirits used in medicine. Their laboratory was not only an art, but also aimed to reveal the hidden laws of creation and a comprehensive philosophical and mystical dimension.
The first to speak of the possibility of turning copper into gold was Djaba Ibn Hayyan great Arabic alchemist, known as "Geber", who lived in the eighth century, a disciple of a great teacher of Islam, Imam Djafar. In his books we find the description of ammonium chloride, the distillation of vinegar for acetic acid, the rules for the preparation of nitric acid diluted water director.
Geber considered as mercury and sulfur as the key elements to produce the gold, said that through their manipulations with other substances was obtained by a dry powder, called "XERION by the Greeks," al-iksir "Arabs and "elixir" by Europeans, with whom it was possible to transmute base metals into gold.
After an alchemist Geber appeared in Persian, later known as Avicenna, who is interested in more aspects of medicine. In his studies described the use of plaster for fractures, metallic antimony.
Various alchemical terms Arabs are still part of the scientific language, such as alcohol, elixir, alembic.
There are documents that testify to the alchemists regarded as rulers a danger to the country's economy and for its own substances. Diocletian forbade the practice and ordered it to be burned all the existing writings.
In China, there were laws prohibiting the production of gold through the use of alchemical processes.
John XXII in 1317 and Henry IV in 1404 forbade the practice of alchemy and the production of metals. Then with another decree, the king of England decreed that gold and silver produced by processes of alchemy was to be paid to the mint. A further proof that this production was perceived state economy.
The Church, for political and religious reasons, be wrong to practice the arts of our enemies, also considered impossible to achieve the transmutation of metals into gold, so those who claimed to transmute and crooks were not successful, or if there could have engage in magic. The Inquisition pursued many people who dedicated themselves.
Yet the images of Hermes adorned the cathedrals of Europe for over three centuries, today we can admire a fresco of Hermes in the Borgia apartments in the Vatican until 1614 when they were condemned by the church and ignored for two hundred years later.
Alchemy disgraced sorcerers and alchemists considered dedicated to the occult arts and prosecuted and therefore was practiced by people of high rank belonging to the nobility or ecclesiastical sphere, such as Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Thomas Aquinas, Raymond Lull.
ultimately seems that in the past someone has actually managed to produce gold "alchemy."
There would be some evidence to confirm. A session can be found in Coins and Medals at the British Museum, the object that resembles a bullet is classified as a "gold produced by an alchemist with a bullet in the presence of Colonel Mac Donald and Dr. Colquhoun in 1814."
Johann Helvetius, physician of the Prince of Orange, was known for his alchemical transmutations occurred in the second half of 1600 and established by the Inspector of the Mint Dutch enlisted the jeweler Brechtel.
To get the gold ran the mercury or lead. The atomic numbers of gold, mercury and lead are respectively 79 to 80 and 82, so very close. We must record, however, that the table of elements was proposed by Mendelevium in 1879, the alchemists were in possession of this scale ever before? They knew that mercury dissolves gold and silver by forming mixtures of fluids, fire away with the mercury from gold and silver. They knew that mercury dissolves sulfur yellow rise to cinnabar red. Only in 1919 were transformed into nitrogen atoms of oxygen and hydrogen atoms after they have been bombarded with helium atoms.
A document preserved in Malta about a payment of one hundred thousand pounds a year for the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by a certain George Ripley, a large amount of money that casts a suspicion of the alchemical production of gold.
In the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna has retained an oval metal 40 to 37 centimeters to one third of seven kilograms of silver and two gold. Her story is nothing short of amazing. In some five hundred
Johann Wenzel Seiler had vows, but he could not stand the life of Monaco, an old monk at the monastery told him that he was, buried somewhere, a fabulous treasure. After long and painstaking research conducted in every place they found a copper box containing a parchment with strange indecipherable letters and four pots full of red dust. Seiler hoped to find gold, was disappointed he wanted to throw it all away, but the old man persuaded him not to. The elder brother studied for a long scroll and discovered that the powder used to carry out the transmutations. The two managed to turn into gold, an old tin plate covering it with red powder before heating on the fire and sold it for twenty ducats. Plans to escape from the convent, but the old man died. He designed the flight with another monaco which told the whole story. Happy with the idea of \u200b\u200babandoning that place celebrated by inviting a young woman disguised as her cousin, but discovered in intimacy with the girl ended up whipped and imprisoned. The friend managed to escape it and to implement the plans of escape. Arriving in Vienna took over the protection of Count Von Peter Par, friend of Emperor Leopold I. In the presence of the sovereign ounce tin transmuted into gold. Wenzel von Par robbed of half of the vessels. Luck was on their side because shortly after Earl died and two have returned to dust. The emperor became their protector, and in his presence and that of the captain of the Guard had conducted the experiments.
a ducat was coined in 1675 with the portrait of the ruler on the back reads: "with the dust Wenzel have been transformed from a tin into gold." Wenzel became a knight and assumed the name of the mother becoming Von Reinsburg. The red powder was ending and was forged in 1677 a large medallion with effigies of Leopold and all the predecessors. Became immersed in the mixture of gold at the bottom, but maybe the powder was not enough to complete the transformation and the locket was composed of two metals.
In 1883 the medallion was analyzed making sure that it is full of gold. In practice is the best evidence that in the past the alchemical transmutation was performed.
Crusades Through Arab Europeans took possession of the knowledge and introduced them in Europe.
Alchemy was first implemented in the West as the art of making gold from base metals. I am testing a recipe for the 'English gold ", a nod to alchemy as a falsification of precious metals.
Only around half of the '200 Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon were able to grasp the principle of alchemy, namely to change by changing the properties of natural products to make them perfect.
The first European alchemist Albertus Magnus was born in Lauingen, Germany, in 1193, the philosopher held his studies in Padua, where he made contact with the Dominicans. He was later appointed Bishop of Regensburg and obtained a chair of theology at Cologne, where his disciple Thomas Aquinas. He died Nov. 15 of 1280 in the city of Cologne. He was beatified in 1622, proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XI in 1931. Said all the works of Aristotle and introduced a clear distinction between philosophy and theology as it is based on revelation and the first on the right, so it is impossible to discuss theological issues in philosophy. His method of scientific research builds on the common method of anticipating confrontation and collaboration operated by modern science.
authoritative theologian and philosopher, shedding new light on Aristotle's philosophy. His writings on various subjects ranging from religious literature, physics, astronomy, natural science, alchemy and hermeticism. He tried to find a compromise between theology and magic to draw a distinction between the types of the latter pointing out that in addition to "black magic" and "white magic" there exists a third type: the alchemy.
Alberto was a Dominican and had to be very careful to avoid being accused of heretics or witchcraft. He made his recommendation to the alchemists to be quiet and follow the rule of Privacy maintaining absolute secrecy about the results achieved, follow the rules of alchemical operations using only glass jars to prevent contamination, and finally remain rich enough to afford the expenses that the sport requires.
his contemporary Roger Bacon was an advocate of applying mathematics to scientific studies. The description of the preparation of sulfuric acid and concentrated nitric acid, was the most important advancement in chemistry, was opened to the alchemists as the possibility of chemical reactions.
Alchemical One of the main centers was Florence by Cosimo I de 'Medici who created the Platonic Academy Florence and asked Marsilio Ficino to translate the first copy of the "Corpus Hermeticum" of Hermes Trismegistus, given to him by a Monaco in 1460. The first translation was prepared and disseminated in 1471. With this gesture, freed from the influences of the Tuscany Church and helped to make famous the productivity of small-scale melting of metals, the preparation of dyes for textiles and tapestries, the preparation of pharmaceutical drugs. The time the powerful guild of apothecaries. In Florence, came to create the Arts and Crafts in Tuscany that favored the emergence of a famous school of craftsmen know how to use fire for the manufacture of the glass to melt metals for the production of dyes and medicines.
student of Marsilio Ficino was Pico della Mirandola, at age 23 he had already studied everything that was known at the time, he considered useful to strengthen the natural magic with Kabbalistic magic, invoking the angels and archangels and their names Hebrew. For these ideas had to flee Italy. He was readmitted in June 1493 by Alexander VI, a pope in favor of magic and astrology. But not only physicians used the alchemical quintessence.
In the 20s of the XV century by the Florentine goldsmith Lorenzo Bisticci, began to heal the sick with medicine, alchemy, the gold drinking Rupescissa that John, who lived in the middle of the fourteenth century, had taught him to produce 'Melting gold foils in the distillate of wine, "the quintessential alchemical distilled in a sealed vessel fitted with circular so that the desired change in the initial product appearance becoming thin and clear. The
as representative of the Renaissance was the Swiss doctor Philipp Theophrasti Bombast von Hohenheim, who took the name of Paracelsus, who is credited with the discovery of zinc and hydrogen, according to which everything that nature has to produce be judged more or less perfect according to the use more or less directly, that man can draw from it: it is necessary to perfect the work of nature and bring all things to the state can be used by man. In this development, should be given the name of alchemy.
So is the man that should improve things, "imperfect" that nature provides, a concept similar to that of Descartes, which considers God the one who contemplates the world as a giant clock that loaded at the beginning of time, but can not intervene because the mechanism proceeds according to laws that do not need your intervention.
Paracelsus was born November 14, 1493 in Einsiedeln, a village near the city of Zurich, Switzerland, is remembered as a tall man five feet from the bluff body and sickly-looking, which often ran carrying a large sword supply hilt where a set is said to be concealed and the Philosopher's Stone pills laudanum.
Paracelsus is said to have been castrated as a young man following an incident, it is not certain, but his skull, which still exists, has a feminine shape. He learned from his father, the physician William Bombast of Hohenheim, the rudiments of alchemy, surgery and medicine. He continued his studies under the guidance of the monks of the monastery of St. Andrew, was a master of Spanheim Johann Trithemius, one of the adepts of magic, alchemy and astrology of the time.
Paracelsus traveled extensively. In 1521, according to the report of Van Helmont, arrived in Constantinople, and received Philosopher's Stone by a certain Solomon Trismosinus, reported still alive at the end of the seventeenth century. In 1526 he was in Basel where he managed to save the leg of a bookseller known throughout Europe, Johnann Froben, who had been considered incurable by mainstream medicine. The cured with natural therapies and preservation were the basis of what he called "medicine spagyric. The healing of the leg, considered exceptional, procured his appointment as lecturer in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery in Basel. In order to be publicly burned in the square the writings of Galen and Avicenna, and the growing hostility of the medical academic was forced to abandon the city.
His enemies and envious of his achievements in medicine, making life impossible; attacked him shamelessly accusing him of being only a boastful fanatic, described him as a drunk, a cheat, addicted to evil practices. His theories inspired the Rosicrucian texts, the "Fama Fraternitatis" and "Confessio Fraternitatis, the founder of homeopathy, Hahnemann, and philosophers like Francis Bacon. He opened the way for scientific research and gained autonomy in respect of the historical, however, triggering the conflict between religion and science.
He tried to be the perfect doctor, dedicated to research in medicine capable of curing all the ills, which he based on four pillars: philosophy for understanding the nature of all things, astronomy to determine the effect of the stars on the health of the body, alchemy and ethics in the art of preparing medicines.
In practice, the key to healing is the psychosomatic nature of man because man is the only medicine itself. He saw alchemy as the anticipation of chemistry.
Paracelsus was also in charge of psychology, mental illness, the St. Vitus dance, epilepsy, hysteria, of psychotherapy. It remains the forerunner of medicinal chemistry based essentially on the distillation and analysis of minerals extracted from such substances which were used to prepare medicaments. His work was based on medical art of alchemy and astrology, since, according to him, the purpose of alchemy was not produce gold or silver, but to provide medicines against diseases.
For Paracelsus the body gets sick when it is no longer able to fully expel the coarse parts of food, including the air you breathe. The treatment is therefore the elimination of these extraneous elements. To achieve this, given that the human body has the ability to heal itself rid of the bad parts ejecting foreign crude, it must find a way to give effect by strengthening the immune system so that alone provide the complete healing.
died at the age of forty-eight September 24, 1541, and his body was buried in the cemetery of the church of San Sebastian, the grave was erected a pyramid in the center with his portrait.
His death is still a mystery to many biographers because he was subject to violent death, after injury or administration of poison. There is no evidence but on the skull, repeatedly examined, showed a fracture along the temporal bone. They rest in peace even in the grave was dug up several times and his bones were stolen. Him is his motto: "Do not let other people who may be himself." In 1556 appeared
a book of mineralogy, "De Re Metallica, Agricola (1494-1555) who was until 1700 the most important text on metallurgy.
Then the alchemist Andreas Libavius \u200b\u200bdescribed the preparation of hydrochloric acid, tin tetrachloride and ammonium sulfate and the preparation of turpentine can attack gold.
In the history of alchemy emerges a figure shrouded in mystery: the Count of St. Germain, called an adventurer, which is considered a stranger arrived from Germany, very rich, with a reputation as a great alchemist capable of transmutation. He held a fabulous treasures that attracted many observers. Testimonials concrete on its stories come from Casanova, who had the opportunity to attend and told that they saw him turn a silver coin in gold. St. Germain put money on coal burning, and set of black powder when cooled and made it to Giacomo Casanova, who looked astonished the coin turned into gold.
Hausset Madame, the lady Pompadour, shows that the count could also produce pearls. For the record, China produced cultured pearls since the thirteenth century Germain then could know the procedure, but it remains difficult to explain how he could get diamonds and other precious stones as needed for their production pressure and very high temperatures and the count certainly did not have a laboratory equipped to do so. Madame Hausset also said that the stones were flawless and that many of the stones of the crown were improved. It is said that members of the court he served at a banquet at the end of a gemstone to hold it as a souvenir.
was seen in many places at different times and since it is not known the date of his birth has been attributed to the discovery of the elixir of long life. In 1710 he was met in Venice from Rameau composer who lived from 1683 to 1764, according to the musician, the count could have been about fifty years. The Memoirs of Madame de Pompadour Hausset tell us that he would ask the Count if he was in possession of the elixir, because Some people described as the trust had told him they had seen fifty years earlier in Venice.
"Tell me how old you are!" Pompadour asked "How many have you, madam - said the count - but it's true that I met Madame De Gergy, wife of the ambassador at Venice."
"Do not joke, you should have one hundred years," said the Pompadour.
"It could be - said the Germans - but perhaps Madame de Gergy then demonstrate that age is wrong."
From 1737 to 1742 he was a guest at the court of the Shah of Persia in 1745 was seen in London in 1746 in Vienna, in 1749 at Versailles, in 1756 in Bombay; in Russia in 1762 and took part in the coup, in 1763 at Chambord where he had his laboratory in 1768 in Berlin, in 1769 in Italy. In 1770 in Germany, protected by Prince Karl von Kassel. Published in London in 1780 is a collection of his violin studies in 1785 is to be indicated in a Masonic meeting and, finally, the Countess of Genlis writes about meeting him in Vienna in 1821. According to the German church registers deceased February 27, 1784. Age, according to the testimony of Rameau, it is 125 years old.
seems that the Count of Saint Germain has said, "I'm leaving tomorrow evening. I do not go to Europe will be seen in the Himalayan mountains."
As he wrote in his only opera, "La Très Sainte Trinosophie" is somewhat puzzling and intriguing: "The speed with which they move in space was so great that, in a short time we lost sight of the regions below us. The earth seemed only a small ball wrapped in clouds below me. I have seen orbs rotating around me and lands gravitate around a single point. "
"I know you need me to Constantinople, then to England where I have to take care of two inventions which you can have in the next century: the train and the steamship."
This is what has been written and said Franz Graffer, the Count had a time machine?
Milady
(from: M. Paoletti
for Edicolaweb )
