The Book of the Composition of Alchemy (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the 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 ...

: ''Liber de compositione alchemiae'') is generally considered to be the first

translation Translation is the communication of the Meaning (linguistic), meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The ...

of an Arabic work on alchemy into Latin, completed on 11 February 1144 by the English Arabist

Robert of Chester Robert of Chester (Latin: ''Robertus Castrensis'') was an English Arabist of the 12th century. He translated several historically important books from Arabic to Latin, such as: * '' The Book of the Composition of Alchemy'' (''Liber de composition ...

. It contains a dialogue between the semi-legendary

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

monk Morienus ( ar, مريانس, ''Maryānus'', perhaps from

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

Μαριανός, ''Marianos'') and the

Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...

prince

Khalid ibn Yazid 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 ca ...

(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 A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in ...

and that it has been

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ea ...

and translated into

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, n ...

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 sections not present in the other. The Arabic text belongs to the alchemical works associated with Khalid ibn Yazid, which are widely regarded as ninth century

forgeries Forgery is a white-collar crime that generally refers to the false making or material alteration of a legal instrument with the specific intent to defraud anyone (other than themself). Tampering with a certain legal instrument may be forbid ...

, although it has also been argued that they may go back to the eighth century. The Latin word ''alchemia'' in the title does not yet refer to

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, ...

, but rather to the

elixir ELIXIR (the European life-sciences Infrastructure for biological Information) is an initiative that will allow life science laboratories across Europe to share and store their research data as part of an organised network. Its goal is to bring t ...

(i.e., the agent of transmutation), the actual meaning of the title thus being "the book on the composition of the elixir". As the Latin translator states in his preface:

This book styles itself the composition of alchemy. And as your Latin world does not yet know what alchemy is and what its composition is, I will clarify it in the present text. ..Alchemy is a material substance taken from one and composed by one, joining between them the most precious substances by affinity and effect, and by the same natural mixture, naturally transforming them into better substances.

It has been noted that the part "taken from one and composed by one" (Latin: ''ex uno et per unum composita'') is reminiscent of the '' Emerald Tablet''.Halleux 1996: 890.

Bibliography

Editions of the Latin text: Manget, Jean-Jacques 1702. ''Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa''. 2 vols., Geneva, vol. 1, pp. 509–519. Stavenhagen, Lee 1974. ''A Testament of Alchemy. Being the Revelations of Morienus to Khālid ibn Yazīd''. Hanover: Brandeis University Press. (also contains an English translation) Editions of the Arabic source text: al-Hassan, Ahmad Y. 2004. “The Arabic Original of the Liber de compositione alchemiae: The Epistle of Maryānus, the Hermit and Philosopher, to Prince Khālid ibn Yazīd” in: ''Arabic Sciences and Philosophy'', 14(2), pp. 213–231. (same content also availabl
online
(partial edition and English translation) Literature: Bacchi, Eleonora and Martelli, Matteo 2009. “Il Principe Halid b. Yazid e le origini dell'alchimia araba” in: Cevenini, Daniele and D'Onofrio, Svevo. ''Conflitti e Dissensi Nell'Islam''. Bologna: Il Ponte Editrice, pp. 85–119. (contains a systematic comparison of the Arabic and the Latin text) Dapsens, Marion 2016
“De la Risālat Maryānus au De Compositione alchemiae: Quelques réflexions sur la tradition d’un traité d’alchimie”
in: ''Studia graeco-arabica'', 6, pp. 121–140. Halleux, Robert 1996. “The reception of Arabic alchemy in the West” in: Rashed, Roshdi (ed.). ''Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science''. Vol. I-III. London & New York: Routledge, vol. III, pp. 886–902. Lory, Pierre 1989. ''Alchimie et mystique en terre d’Islam''. Lagrasse: Verdier. Moureau, Sébastien 2020. “Min al-kīmiyāʾ ad alchimiam. The Transmission of Alchemy from the Arab-Muslim World to the Latin West in the Middle Ages” in: ''Micrologus'', 28, pp. 87–141. (a survey of all Latin alchemical texts known to have been translated from the Arabic) Ruska, Julius 1924. ''Arabische Alchemisten I. Chālid ibn Jazīd ibn Muʿāwija''. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. Stavenhagen, Lee 1970. “The Original Text of the Latin Morienus” in: ''Ambix'', 17(1), pp. 1–12. Ullmann, Manfred 1978. “Ḫālid Ibn Yazīd und die Alchemie: Eine Legende” in: ''Der Islam'', 55(2), pp. 181–218.

References

{{Islamic alchemy and chemistry, state=expanded Alchemical works of the medieval Islamic world