The Lyceum Magazine
Author: Ralph Albert Parlette
Publisher:
Published: 1919
Total Pages: 504
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPosts
The Transmutations of Chymistry
Author: Lawrence M. Principe
Publisher: Synthesis
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 481
ISBN-13: 022670078X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA merchant of the marvelous -- A Batavian in Paris -- Essaying chymistry -- A new chymical light -- Chrysopoeia at the AcadeÌ1mie and the Palais Royal -- Chymistry in Homberg's later years : practices, promises, poisons, and prisons -- Homberg's legacy -- Epilogue: Homberg and the transmutations of chymistry at the AcadeÌ1mie.
The Luyceumite and Talent
Author:
Publisher:
Published: 1907
Total Pages: 996
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn Alchemical Quest for Universal Knowledge
Author: Georgiana D. Hedesan
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-04-20
Total Pages: 265
ISBN-13: 1317182146
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHistory of science credits the Flemish physician, alchemist and philosopher Jan Baptist Van Helmont (1579-1644) for his contributions to the development of chemistry and medicine. Yet, as this book makes clear, focussing on Van Helmont's impact on modern science does not do justice to the complexity of his thought or to his influence on successive generations of intellectuals like Robert Boyle or Gottfried Leibniz. Revealing Van Helmont as an original thinker who sought to produce a post-Scholastic synthesis of religion and natural philosophy, Georgiana Hedesan reconstructs his ambitious quest for universal knowledge as it emerges from the text of the Ortus medicinae (1648). Published after Van Helmont's death by his son, the work can best be understood as a compilation of finished and unfinished treatises, the historical product of a life unsettled by religious persecution and personal misfortune. The present book provides a coherent account of Van Helmont's philosophy by analysing its main tenets. Divided into two parts, the study opens with a background to Van Helmont's concept of an alchemical Christian philosophy, demonstrating that his outlook was deeply grounded in the tradition of medical alchemy as reformed by Theophrastus von Hohenheim, called Paracelsus (1493-1541). It then reconstitutes Van Helmont's biography, while giving a historical dimension to his intellectual output. The second part reconstructs Van Helmont's Christian philosophy, investigating his views on God, nature and man, as well as his applied philosophy. Hedesan also provides an account of the development of Van Helmont's thought throughout his life. The conclusion sums up Van Helmont's intellectual achievement and highlights avenues of future research.
Alchemical Laboratory Notebooks and Correspondence
Author: George Starkey
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 2010-11-15
Total Pages: 391
ISBN-13: 0226577104
DOWNLOAD EBOOKGeorge Starkey—chymistry tutor to Robert Boyle, author of immensely popular alchemical treatises, and probably early America's most important scientist—reveals in these pages the daily laboratory experimentation of a seventeenth-century alchemist. The editors present in this volume transcriptions of Starkey's texts, their translations, and valuable commentary for the modern reader. Dispelling the myth that alchemy was an irrational enterprise, this remarkable collection of laboratory notebooks and correspondence reveals the otherwise hidden methodologies of one of the seventeenth century's most influential alchemists.
The Aspiring Adept
Author: Lawrence Principe
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2018-06-05
Total Pages: 354
ISBN-13: 0691186286
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Aspiring Adept presents a provocative new view of Robert Boyle (1627-1691), one of the leading figures of the Scientific Revolution, by revealing for the first time his avid and lifelong pursuit of alchemy. Boyle has traditionally been considered, along with Newton, a founder of modern science because of his mechanical philosophy and his experimentation with the air-pump and other early scientific apparatus. However, Lawrence Principe shows that his alchemical quest--hidden first by Boyle's own codes and secrecy, and later suppressed or ignored--positions him more accurately in the intellectual and cultural crossroads of the seventeenth century. Principe radically reinterprets Boyle's most famous work, The Sceptical Chymist, to show that it criticizes not alchemists, as has been thought, but "unphilosophical" pharmacists and textbook writers. He then shows Boyle's unambiguous enthusiasm for alchemy in his "lost" Dialogue on the Transmutation and Melioration of Metals, now reconstructed from scattered fragments and presented here in full for the first time. Intriguingly, Boyle believed that the goal of his quest, the Philosopher's Stone, could not only transmute base metals into gold, but could also attract angels. Alchemy could thus act both as a source of knowledge and as a defense against the growing tide of atheism that tormented him. In seeking to integrate the seemingly contradictory facets of Boyle's work, Principe also illuminates how alchemy and other "unscientific" pursuits had a far greater impact on early modern science than has previously been thought.
Elements, Principles and Corpuscles
Author: Antonio Clericuzio
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Published: 2013-04-17
Total Pages: 239
ISBN-13: 9401594643
DOWNLOAD EBOOKIn Elements, Principles and Particles, Antonio Clericuzio explores the relationships between chemistry and corpuscular philosophy in the age of the Scientific Revolution. Science historians have regarded chemistry and corpuscular philosophy as two distinct traditions. Clericuzio's view is that since the beginning of the 17th century atomism and chemistry were strictly connected. This is attested by Daniel Sennert and by many hitherto little-known French and English natural philosophers. They often combined a corpuscular theory of matter with Paracelsian chemical (and medical) doctrines. Boyle plays a central part in the present book: Clericuzio redefines Boyle's chemical views, by showing that Boyle did not subordinate chemistry to the principles of mechanical philosophy. When Boyle explained chemical phenomena, he had recourse to corpuscles endowed with chemical, not mechanical, properties. The combination of chemistry and corpuscular philosophy was adopted by a number of chemists active in the last decades of the 17th century, both in England and on the Continent. Using a large number of primary sources, the author challenges the standard view of the corpuscular theory of matter as identical with the mechanical philosophy. He points out that different versions of the corpuscular philosophy flourished in the 17th century. Most of them were not based on the mechanical theory, i.e. on the view that matter is inert and has only mechanical properties. Throughout the 17th century, active principles, as well as chemical properties, are attributed to corpuscles. Given its broad coverage, the book is a significant contribution to both history of science and history of philosophy.
Newton the Alchemist
Author: William R. Newman
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2018-12-11
Total Pages: 559
ISBN-13: 0691174873
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA book that finally demystifies Newton’s experiments in alchemy When Isaac Newton’s alchemical papers surfaced at a Sotheby’s auction in 1936, the quantity and seeming incoherence of the manuscripts were shocking. No longer the exemplar of Enlightenment rationality, the legendary physicist suddenly became “the last of the magicians.” Newton the Alchemist unlocks the secrets of Newton’s alchemical quest, providing a radically new understanding of the uncommon genius who probed nature at its deepest levels in pursuit of empirical knowledge. In this evocative and superbly written book, William Newman blends in-depth analysis of newly available texts with laboratory replications of Newton’s actual experiments in alchemy. He does not justify Newton’s alchemical research as part of a religious search for God in the physical world, nor does he argue that Newton studied alchemy to learn about gravitational attraction. Newman traces the evolution of Newton’s alchemical ideas and practices over a span of more than three decades, showing how they proved fruitful in diverse scientific fields. A precise experimenter in the realm of “chymistry,” Newton put the riddles of alchemy to the test in his lab. He also used ideas drawn from the alchemical texts to great effect in his optical experimentation. In his hands, alchemy was a tool for attaining the material benefits associated with the philosopher’s stone and an instrument for acquiring scientific knowledge of the most sophisticated kind. Newton the Alchemist provides rare insights into a man who was neither Enlightenment rationalist nor irrational magus, but rather an alchemist who sought through experiment and empiricism to alter nature at its very heart.
Raising Hell
Author: Robert Masello
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-07-01
Total Pages: 201
ISBN-13: 1497638062
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn occultism reference chronicling the quest for metaphysical truth, from astronomers to astrologers, necromancers to sorcerers, alchemists to prophets. If the history of black magic and the occult reveals anything, it’s that the drive to marshal the unseen powers of the dark, and bend them to mortal will, is as old as mankind itself. Men and women have believed, in virtually every age and in every land, that there is another world—a world of spirits and souls, angels and demons, gods and monsters, a world that might hold the answers to the great mysteries: What is the meaning of life? Do humans decide their own fate? Is there a Heaven? And, perhaps more important, is there a Hell? As they sought the answers to these questions, the occult pioneers often stumbled upon real and verifiable truths. Here, in one spellbinding volume, is a history of the major occult arts—necromancy, sorcery, astrology, alchemy, and prophecy—as they have been practiced from ancient Babylon to the present day. Raising Hell weaves history with mythology, quotes, anecdotes, and illustrations to provide a vivid chronicle of the evolution of the occult arts. From the origins of the pentagram and the sacred circle, to the incantations of necromancers, to the prophecies of Nostradamus, this definitive source offers a compelling look at the black arts and those who risked their lives—and some say their souls—to explore them.
Providence
Author: John Michael Greer
Publisher: Aeon Books
Published: 2023-10-31
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 1915952115
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA thrilling adventure on the other side of the Cthulhu Mythos: in a handful of dust... As the ancient war between the old gods of Earth and their bitter enemies rises toward a final confrontation, Owen Merrill sets out from his new home in Arkham to Rhode Island, seeking the ultimate weapon in that war: the spells that might succeed in calling Great Cthulhu from his temple-tomb in drowned R’lyeh to fulfill the terrible prophecy of the Weird of Hali. The threads of evidence he and Jenny Chaudronnier have traced through years of hard work all lead to a young man named Charles Dexter Ward, who lived in Providence a century earlier and may have received copies of the rituals from the elderly scholar George Gammell Angell. As he plunges into the mysteries surrounding Ward and the rituals, he finds himself entangled in a web of peril reaching far beyond the urban landscape of Providence. The Starry Wisdom Church there is racked by rivalries no member will discuss, and the Radiance and the Fellowship of the Yellow Sign are closing in. Owen’s one hope lies with a young woman named Hannah Ward—Charles Dexter Ward’s great-granddaughter—who is in Providence on a mission of her own. She has learned the same terrible secrets of alchemy her great-grandfather mastered, and plans on using them to revive the one person on Earth who might know the location of the rituals Owen needs so badly: Charles Dexter Ward himself...
