San Antonio College Library

Serge Hutin writes about the history, origins, and theories, and influences of alchemy.

Examines the principles and meaning of alchemy, discusses ancient and modern alchemists, and describes the practice of alchemy in the twentieth century.

A history of science and magic spanning the period from early Christianity, through early modern Europe, to the end of the 17th century.

What we now call chemistry began in the cauldrons of mystics and sorcerers seeking not to make a better world through science, but rather to make themselves rich. But among these early magicians, frauds, and con artists were a few far-seeing alchemists who, through rigorous experimentation, transformed mysticism into science. Scientific historians generally credit the great 18th-century French chemist Antoine Lavoisier with modernizing chemistry....

The Art of chemistry employs 187 figures to illuminate 72 essays on the mythical origins, experiments, and adventurous explorers in the annals of chemistry. Each of the eight sections tracks chemistry's incremental progress from myth to modern science, featuring the figures and diagrams that early chemists used to explain their craft. Readers will meet the deadly basilisk and the fabulous phoenix that populated the lore of pre-modern chemistry, learn...

As the authors show, the writings of medieval alchemists may seem like the ravings of brain-addled fools, but there is more to the story than that. Recent scholarship has shown that some seemingly nonsensical mysticism is, in fact, decipherable code, and Western European alchemists functioned from a firmer theoretical foundation than previously thought. They had a guiding principle, based on experience: separate and purify materials by fire and reconstitute...