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Sean Martin.
Alchemy and Alchemists, revised and updated edition.
St. Albans: Pocket Essentials, 2nd impression (previously issued 2003; first edition was 2001).
ISBN 1903047528;
ISBN-13: 9781903047521.
Paperback, perfect bound.
109x177x6mm.
93pp.
English.
Unused bargain.
This item £2.00
[Publisher's price for updated edn. £9.99]
61g.Click for details of how to order this book
Often alchemy is seen as an example of medieval gullibility and the alchemists as a collection of eccentrics and superstitious fools.
In this Pocket Essential Sean Martin shows that nothing could be further from the truth. It is important to see the search for the philosopher's stone and the attempts to turn base metal into gold as metaphors for the relation of man to nature and man to God as much as seriously held beliefs.
Alchemy had a self-consistent outlook on the natural world and man's place in it. Alchemists like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus were amongst the greatest minds of their time and the history of alchemy is both the history of a spiritual search and the history of a slowly developing scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton devoted as much time to his alchemical studies as he did to his mathematical ones.
This book traces the history of alchemy from ancient times to the 20th century, highlighting the interest of modern thinkers like Jung in the subject, and in the process covers a major, if neglected area of Western thought.
Featuring: Fulcanelli, Nicholas Flammel, Albertus Magnus, Hermes Trismegistus, Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, Athanasius Kircher, Giordano Bruno, Sir Isaac Newton, John Dee, Rabbi Judah Loew, Maria Prophetissa, and more...
Related pages: | alchemy |
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