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The Book Of The Composition Of Alchemy
The Book of the Composition of Alchemy (Latin: ''Liber de compositione alchemiae'') is generally considered to be the first translation of an Arabic work on alchemy into Latin, completed on 11 February 1144 by the English Arabist Robert of Chester. It contains a dialogue between the semi-legendary Byzantine monk Morienus ( ar, مريانس, ''Maryānus'', perhaps from Greek Μαριανός, ''Marianos'') and the Umayyad prince Khalid ibn Yazid (c. 668 – c. 704). The popularity of the work among later alchemists is shown by the fact that it has been preserved in many manuscripts and that it has been printed and translated into vernacular languages several times since the sixteenth century. The Latin translation is for the most part based on an Arabic source called ''The Epistle of the Wise Monk Maryanos to the Prince Khālid ibn Yazīd'' (''Risālat Maryānus al-rāhib al-ḥakīm li-l-amīr Khālid ibn Yazīd''), though both the Arabic and the Latin texts contain sectio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italy (geographical region), Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a fusional language, highly inflected language, with three distinct grammatical gender, genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vernacular
A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, normally spoken informally rather than written, and seen as of lower status than more codified forms. It may vary from more prestigious speech varieties in different ways, in that the vernacular can be a distinct stylistic register, a regional dialect, a sociolect, or an independent language. Vernacular is a term for a type of speech variety, generally used to refer to a local language or dialect, as distinct from what is seen as a standard language. The vernacular is contrasted with higher-prestige forms of language, such as national, literary, liturgical or scientific idiom, or a '' lingua franca'', used to facilitate communication across a large area. According to another definition, a vernacular is a language that has not deve ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Lory
Pierre Lory (22 April 1952, Paris) is a director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études, holder of the Chair of Muslim mysticism of the Ve section, religious sciences. Publications Works by Pierre Lory * ''Les commentaires ésotériques du Coran selon ‘Abd al-Razzâq al-Qâshânî'', Paris, Les Deux Océans, 1980, revised and extended in 1991, 123 pages. Translation inton turkish by Sadık Kılıc, ''Kaşânî’ye Göre Kur’an’ın Tasavvufi Tefsiri'', Istanbul, Insan yayınları, 2001. Translation into Persian by Zaynab Poudineh Aqaï, ''Ta’wîlât al-Qur’ân az dîdgâh-e ‘Abd al-Razzâq-e Kâshânî'', Téhéran, Enteshârât-e Hekmat, 2004. * ''Dix traités d’alchimie de Jâbir ibn Hayyân - Les dix premiers Traités du Livre des Soixante-dix'' (texts translated and presented), Paris, Sindbad, 1983, reissued with an update in 1996, éditions Actes-Sud, 313 pages. * ''L’élaboration de l’Elixir Suprême - Quatorze traités de Jâbir ibn H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ahmad Y
Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the verb (''ḥameda'', "to thank or to praise"), non-past participle (). Lexicology As an Arabic name, it has its origins in a Quranic prophecy attributed to Jesus in the Quran which most Islamic scholars concede is about Muhammad. It also shares the same roots as Mahmud, Muhammad and Hamed. In its transliteration, the name has one of the highest number of spelling variations in the world. Though Islamic scholars attribute the name Ahmed to Muhammed, the verse itself is about a Messenger named Ahmed, whilst Muhammed was a Messenger-Prophet. Some Islamic traditions view the name Ahmad as another given name of Muhammad at birth by his mother, considered by Muslims to be the more esoteric name of Muhammad and central to understanding his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean-Jacques Manget
Jean-Jacques Manget (or Johann Jacob Mangetus) (1652–1742) was a Genevan physician and writer. He was known for his work on epidemic diseases such as bubonic plague and tuberculosis. In addition to his own researches, he assiduously compiled preceding medical literature. With Théophile Bonet, he is considered one of the "great compilers" of knowledge in the areas of medicine, surgery and pharmacology. He also published a major collection of alchemical works, the '' Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa'' (1702). Life He was born in Geneva, the son of a merchant. He graduated as a physician at the University of Valence in 1678. Later he became the Dean of the Valence medical faculty. Frederick III, Elector of Brandenburg made Manget his personal physician in 1699. Works Manget was one of the first doctors to carry out studies of the pathological anatomy of miliary tuberculosis. He coined the term based on his observation of widespread tiny lesions like millet seeds in the liver, lung ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emerald Tablet
The ''Emerald Tablet'', also known as the ''Smaragdine Tablet'' or the ''Tabula Smaragdina'' (Latin, from the Arabic: , ''Lawḥ al-zumurrudh''), is a compact and cryptic Hermetic text. It was highly regarded by Islamic and European alchemists as the foundation of their art. Though attributed to the legendary Hellenistic figure Hermes Trismegistus, the text of the ''Emerald Tablet'' first appears in a number of early medieval Arabic sources, the oldest of which dates to the late eighth or early ninth century. It was translated into Latin several times in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Numerous interpretations and commentaries followed. Medieval and early modern alchemists associated the ''Emerald Tablet'' with the creation of the philosophers' stone and the artificial production of gold. It has also been popular with nineteenth and twentieth century occultists and esotericists, among whom the expression " as above, so below" (a modern paraphrase of the second verse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philosophers' Stone
The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", and , "to make") or silver. It is also called the elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and for achieving immortality; for many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in alchemy. The philosopher's stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, enlightenment, and heavenly bliss. Efforts to discover the philosopher's stone were known as the Magnum Opus ("Great Work"). History Antiquity The earliest known written mention of the philosopher's stone is in the ''Cheirokmeta'' by Zosimos of Panopolis (c. 300 AD). Alchemical writers assign a longer history. Elias Ashmole and the anonymous author of ''Gloria Mundi'' (1620) claim that its history goes back to Adam, who acquired ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''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. 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.Principe, Lawrence M. The secrets of alchemy'. University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 9–14. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. 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. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical ''magnum opus'' ("Great Work"). The concept of creating the philosophers' stone was variously connected with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pseudepigrapha
Pseudepigrapha (also anglicized as "pseudepigraph" or "pseudepigraphs") are falsely attributed works, texts whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past.Bauckham, Richard; "Pseudo-Apostolic Letters", ''Journal of Biblical Literature'', Vo. 107, No. 3, September 1988, pp. 469–94. In biblical studies, the term ''pseudepigrapha'' can refer to an assorted collection of Jewish religious works thought to be written 300 BCE to 300 CE. They are distinguished by Protestants from the deuterocanonical books (Catholic and Orthodox) or Apocrypha (Protestant), the books that appear in extant copies of the Septuagint in the fourth century or later and the Vulgate, but not in the Hebrew Bible or in Protestant Bibles. The Catholic Church distinguishes only between the deuterocanonical and all other books; the latter are called biblical apocrypha, which in Catholic usage includes the pseudepigrapha. In addition, two book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Calid
Khālid ibn Yazīd (full name ''Abū Hāshim Khālid ibn Yazīd ibn Muʿāwiya ibn Abī Sufyān'', ), 668–704 or 709, was an Umayyad prince and purported alchemist. As a son of the Umayyad caliph Yazid I, Khalid was supposed to become caliph after his elder brother Mu'awiya II died in 684. However, Marwan I, a senior Umayyad from another branch of the clan, was chosen over the much younger Khalid. Despite having lost the caliphate to Marwan, Khalid forged close ties with Marwan's son and successor, the caliph Abd al-Malik, who appointed him to successive administrative and military roles. He participated in a number of successful military campaigns in 691, but then chose to retire to his Homs estate, where he lived out the rest of his life. He may have engaged in some level of poetry and hadith scholarship. A large number of alchemical writings were attributed to Khalid, including also many alchemical poems. Khalid's purported alchemical activity was pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Printing Press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the cloth, paper or other medium was brushed or rubbed repeatedly to achieve the transfer of ink, and accelerated the process. Typically used for texts, the invention and global spread of the printing press was one of the most influential events in the second millennium. In Germany, around 1440, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press, which started the Printing Revolution. Modelled on the design of existing screw presses, a single Renaissance movable-type printing press could produce up to 3,600 pages per workday, compared to forty by hand-printing and a few by hand-copying. Gutenberg's newly devised hand mould made possible the precise and rapid creation of metal movable type in large quantities. His tw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Translations Of The 12th Century
Latin translations of the 12th century were spurred by a major search by European scholars for new learning unavailable in western Europe at the time; their search led them to areas of southern Europe, particularly in central Spain and Sicily, which recently had come under Christian rule following their reconquest in the late 11th century. These areas had been under Muslim rule for a considerable time, and still had substantial Arabic-speaking populations to support their search. The combination of this accumulated knowledge and the substantial numbers of Arabic-speaking scholars there made these areas intellectually attractive, as well as culturally and politically accessible to Latin scholars. A typical story is that of Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–87), who is said to have made his way to Toledo, well after its reconquest by Christians in 1085, because he Many Christian theologians were highly suspicious of ancient philosophies and especially of the attempts to synthesize t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
