They did not abandon the Ancient Greek philosophical idea that everything is composed of four elements, and they tended to guard their work in secrecy, often making use of cyphers and cryptic symbolism. Islamic and European alchemists developed a basic set of laboratory techniques, theories, and terms, some of which are still in use today. The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with all of these projects. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical magnum opus ("Great Work"). Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of " base metals" (e.g., lead) into " noble metals" (particularly gold) the creation of an elixir of immortality and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. Īlchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.
Depiction of Ouroboros from the alchemical treatise Aurora consurgens (15th century), Zentralbibliothek Zürich, SwitzerlandĪlchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā from Ancient Greek: khumeía) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe.
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