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

occidental Alchemy from its very beguinning becoming specially important in scholastic and renaissance Europe

120123 in connection with fraudulent alchemy carried out by swarms of "gold-makers", avidly looking for the obtention of the "Philopher's Stone", gold-elixir which enjoyed central protagonism in these epochs as the culmination of the crisopoeyical "Great Work", a phantastic dream both of greedy alchemists and financially-needed nobles and kings. A lot of anecdotical facts on this matter can be found elsewhere

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. New conceptions on the philosophy of matter were introduced in the XVIth c. by Paracelsus, main protagonist of the "latrochemical Revolution". The fundamental aspects of Paracelsus's panvitalistic approach to matter and Cosmos is summed up in fig.16, based essentially on macrocosmosmicrocosmos interaction, astrology, neoplatonic, gnostic and stoic philosophies

102 and a new theory of matter based on his "Triada Prima"

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3 which applies to the three kingdoms of Nature. The tenets of the paracelsian .Triada Prima" as well as the meanings and characteristics of the three principles involved (sulphur-mercury-salt) are summarized in fig.17. The paracelsian conception of matter

104 gave rise to further developments during the XVII—XVIIIth c. in connection with the laboratory practices of fireanalysis and distillation of substances leading to the progressive adoption of a hybrid 5-principle theory

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5 arising from the amalgamation of aristotelian and paracelsian matter theories, which was adopted by a great number of alchemists, physicians and chemists (Duchesne, Fludd, Basso, Glaser, Lefevre, Béguin, Juencken, Homberg, Becher, etc.).