Technikatörténeti szemle 22. (1996)

Papers from the Second International Conference on the History of Chemistry and Chemical Industry (Eger, Hungary, 16–19 August, 1995) - Pérez-Bustamente, A. Juan: The Holistic Concept of Alchemy

involving a number of assay techniques needed for trade purposes, to identify materials and to detect spurious imitations and forgeries. Symbolism and Philosophy of Matter The philosophy of matter in western Alchemy

96101 is based mainly on hylemorphic aristotelism, stoicism and neoplatonism. Fig.9 summarizes a number of symbols, concepts and correspondences Involving the four aristotelic elements and qualities, the stoic active "pneuma" and the symbolics of Solomon's seal as related to the concept of a universal unique matter ("protyle"), as well as to correspondences between metals and planets. Solomon's seal is plenty of additional symbolic alchemical connotations relatFig. 9. Fundamental alchemical symbology ' Fig. 10. Hylemorphic theory of matter and cosmology