Leyden papyrus X
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The Leyden papyrus X (P. Leyden X) is a
papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to a ...
codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
written in Greek at about the end of the 3rd century A.D.E.R.Caley, ''The Leyden Paprus X: An English Translation with Brief Notes''
p.1149
"These two papyri have, however, upon the basis of unquestioned philological and paleographic evidence, been ascertained to have been written at about the end of the third century A.D. so that they are by far the earliest original historical evidence that we have in our possession concerning the nature and the extent of ancient chemical knowledge."
or perhaps around 250 A.D. and buried with its owner, and today preserved at
Leiden University Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; nl, Universiteit Leiden) is a Public university, public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. The university was founded as a Protestant university in 1575 by William the Silent, William, Prince o ...
in the Netherlands.


Origin

The Leiden papyrus was discovered at Thebes in Egypt, together with the
Stockholm Papyrus The Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis (also known as the Stockholm papyrus) is a collection of craft recipes compiled in Egypt . It is written in Greek. The Stockholm papyrus has 154 recipes for dyeing, coloring gemstones, cleaning (purifying) pearls, and ...
, which was probably written by the same scribe, and many
Greek magical papyri The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin: ''Papyri Graecae Magicae'', abbreviated ''PGM'') is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, written mostly in ancient Greek (but also in Old Coptic, Demotic, etc.), which each cont ...
, in the early 19th century by an adventurer calling himself Jean d'Anastasi, holding the office of Swedish vice-consul in Alexandria. In 1828 he sold a number of papyri to the Dutch government, which were lodged at the Leiden University Library, and labelled alphabetically from A to Z. The papyri were first published and translated into Latin by
Conrad Leemans Conradus Leemans (24 April 1809 – 14 October 1893) was a Dutch Egyptologist. Early life Conradus Leemans was born in 1809 in Zalt-Bommel, Netherlands, and was the eldest son of physician Dr. Willem Leemans and Hillegonda Rachel Ganderheijden. H ...
in 1885 (Papyri graeci musei antiquarii publici Lugduni Batavi). Papyri A to U relate to matters concerning Ancient Egyptian law. Papyri V, W and X deal with alchemy. The related
Stockholm papyrus The Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis (also known as the Stockholm papyrus) is a collection of craft recipes compiled in Egypt . It is written in Greek. The Stockholm papyrus has 154 recipes for dyeing, coloring gemstones, cleaning (purifying) pearls, and ...
was found together with these, and Anastasy donated it to Sweden in 1832. It was first published by
Otto Lagercrantz Carl Otto Lagercrantz (26 February 1868 – 13 January 1938) was a Swedish classical philologist and rector of Uppsala University. Biography Otto Lagercrantz was born at Näsby in Jönköping County, Sweden. Lagercrantz graduated from high school ...
in 1913 (Papyrus Graecus Holmiensis). Whereas the Leiden papyrus X deals with metallurgy, the Stockholm papyrus deals with gems, pearls and textile dyeing.


Papyrus V

Papyrus V contains a recipe for a mystical ink made of misy (oxidized
pyrite The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Iron, FeSulfur, S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic Luster (mineralogy), lust ...
ores, a mix of copper and iron sulfates),
green vitriol Iron(II) sulfate (British English: iron(II) sulphate) or ferrous sulfate denotes a range of salts with the formula Fe SO4·''x''H2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the hepta hydrate (''x'' = 7) but several values for x are kno ...
,
oak apple Oak apple or oak gall is the common name for a large, round, vaguely apple-like gall commonly found on many species of oak. Oak apples range in size from in diameter and are caused by chemicals injected by the larva of certain kinds of gall ...
, gum, and of a substance composed of 7 perfumes and 7 flowers. It has a recipe for purifying gold with cement royal. It gives a list of 37 secret names of plants, invented by holy scribes, containing code names such as "snake's blood" , "rat's tail", and "lion's semen". Traces of this nomenclature survive in botanical names, like in German "Löwenzahn" (dandelion: lion's tooth) and wolf's milk; also in
dragon's blood Dragon's blood is a bright red resin which is obtained from different species of a number of distinct plant genera: ''Calamus'' spp. (previously ''Daemonorops'') also including ''Calamus rotang'', '' Croton'', '' Dracaena'' and ''Pterocarpus''. ...
, which probably still denotes the same resin as in ancient times. Some of these aliases are given by Dioscorides, but with different meanings.


Papyrus W

Papyrus W contains magical invocations and Judaeo-Gnostic content. The 7 perfumes are given as:
styrax ''Styrax'' (common names storax or snowbell) is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern ...
dedicated to Saturn,
malabathrum Malabathrum, malabathron, or malobathrum is the name used in classical and medieval texts for certain cinnamon-like aromatic plant leaves and an ointment prepared from those leaves. '' Cinnamomum tamala'' (sometimes given as ''Cinnamomum tejpa ...
to Jupiter, costus to Mars,
frankincense Frankincense (also known as olibanum) is an aromatic resin used in incense and perfumes, obtained from trees of the genus ''Boswellia'' in the family Burseraceae. The word is from Old French ('high-quality incense'). There are several species o ...
to the Sun, nard to Venus, cassia to Hermes,
myrrh Myrrh (; from Semitic, but see '' § Etymology'') is a gum-resin extracted from a number of small, thorny tree species of the genus ''Commiphora''. Myrrh resin has been used throughout history as a perfume, incense and medicine. Myrrh mi ...
to the Moon. The 7 flowers are: nard,
marjoram Marjoram (; ''Origanum majorana'') is a cold-sensitive perennial herb or undershrub with sweet pine and citrus flavours. In some Middle Eastern countries, marjoram is synonymous with oregano, and there the names sweet marjoram and knotted mar ...
,
lily ''Lilium'' () is a genus of Herbaceous plant, herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. They are the true lilies. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in mu ...
, lotus,
buttercup ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe, ...
, narcissus, white violet.


Papyrus X

The papyrus consists of 10 leaves, 30 x 34 cm in size, folded lengthwise and making 20 pages, of which 16 contain writing. Each page has 28-47 lines. The text contains one hundred and eleven recipes for extracting precious metals, or counterfeiting such metals, or precious stones and purple dye. It also contains details of the manufacture of textiles, and making gold and silver inks. The recipes are not detailed, and probably served as a memory aid for those already familiar with the process. The presentation is exclusively practical, and does not include the usual alchemical or philosophical elements. The last eleven recipes are simply short extracts from the ''Materia Medica'' of
Pedanius Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides ( grc-gre, Πεδάνιος Διοσκουρίδης, ; 40–90 AD), “the father of pharmacognosy”, was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of ''De materia medica'' (, On Medical Material) —a 5-vol ...
. They are chiefly descriptions of certain minerals. The Leiden papyrus X quotes Dioscorides without spurious additions that may have been introduced by later scribes. For example,
Kurt Sprengel Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel (3 August 1766 – 15 March 1833) was a German botanist and physician who published an influential multivolume history of medicine, ''Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der Arzneikunde'' (1792–99 in four vol ...
's edition of
De materia medica (Latin name for the Greek work , , both meaning "On Medical Material") is a pharmacopoeia of medicinal plants and the medicines that can be obtained from them. The five-volume work was written between 50 and 70 CE by Pedanius Dioscorides, a ...
writes that mercury is stored in glass, leaden, tin and silver vessels. While it is true that glass is unaffected by mercury, all the metals named are attacked, and
Zosimus Zosimus, Zosimos, Zosima or Zosimas may refer to: People * * Rufus and Zosimus (died 107), Christian saints * Zosimus (martyr) (died 110), Christian martyr who was executed in Umbria, Italy * Zosimos of Panopolis, also known as ''Zosimus Alchem ...
takes special care in pointing that out. The Dioscorides extract in the Leiden papyrus X recommends only glass for storing mercury.


References


Bibliography

* Robert Halleux: ''Papyrus de Leyden, papyrus de Stockholm, fragments de recettes''. Texte établi et traduction. Les Belles Lettres, Paris 1981 (= Les alchimistes grecs, 1), . * Conrad Leemans: ''Papyri graeci Musei antiquarii publici Lugduni-Batavi'', vol. 2, Leiden 1885, p. 199 f. * Earle Radcliffe Caley: ''The Leyden papyrus X: an English translation with brief notes''. In: ''Journal of Chemical Education'' Vol. 3, No. 10 (October 1926), p. 1149-1166. * Leslie Bernard Hunt: ''The Oldest Metallurgical Handbook: Recipes of a Fourth Century Goldsmith''. In: Gold Bulletin 9 (1976), S. 24-31 * C. Raub: ''How to coat objects with gold - Pliny, Leyden Papyrus X, Mappae Clavicula and Theophilus seen with a modern chemist's eyes.'' In: Christiane Eluère (Hrsg.), ''Outils et ateliers d'orfèvres des temps ancien'', Société des Amis du Musée des Antiquités Nationales et du Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye 1993 (= Antiquités nationales mémoire, 2), S. 101-110 * Arie Wallert: ''Alchemy and medieval art technology.'' In: Zweder R. von Martels (Hrsg.), ''Alchemy Revisited: Proceedings of the International Conference on the History of Alchemy at the University of Groningen 17–19 April 1989'', Brill, Leiden .a.1990 (= Collection de travaux de l'Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences, 33), , S. 154-161


External links

* William B.Jensen
The Leyden and Stockholm Papyri
{{Alchemy, state=expanded Alchemical documents Art technological sources Egyptian papyri Greek alchemy