Their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion. However, they continued antiquity's belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers and cryptic symbolism.

Islamic and European alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the translation of Arabic works on science and the Recovery of Aristotle, alchemists played a significant role in early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine). In English, the term is often limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, and the Muslim world. In Europe, the creation of a philosopher's stone was variously connected with all of these projects. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus and, in the Hellenistic and western tradition, the achievement of gnosis. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of ' base metals' (e.g., lead) into ' noble' ones (particularly gold) the creation of an elixir of immortality the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease and the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent. It aimed to purify, mature, and perfect certain objects. WiktionaryĪlchemy is a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practiced throughout Europe, Egypt and Asia. Alchemy was the 'chemistry' of the Middle Ages and early modern times since c.1600 the word has been applied distinctively to the pursuit of the transmutation of baser metals into gold, which, along with the search for the universal solvent and the panacea, were the chief occupations of early chemistry. The al- is the Arabic definite article, 'the.' The art and the name were adopted by the Arabs from Alexandrians and thence returned to Europe via Spain. khymeia was probably the original, being first applied to pharmaceutical chemistry, which was chiefly concerned with juices or infusions of plants that the pursuits of the Alexandrian alchemists were a subsequent development of chemical study, and that the notoriety of these may have caused the name of the art to be popularly associated with the ancient name of Egypt.

concludes, after an elaborate investigation, that Gr. The word seems to have elements of both origins.Mahn. in a decree of Diocletian against 'the old writings of the Egyptians'), all meaning 'alchemy.' Perhaps from an old name for Egypt ( Khemia, literally 'land of black earth,' found in Plutarch), or from Greek khymatos 'that which is poured out,' from khein 'to pour,' related to khymos 'juice, sap'. Mid-14c., from Old French alchimie (14c.), alquemie (13c.), from Medieval Latin alkimia, from Arabic al-kimiya, from Greek khemeioa (found c.300 C.E.

Alchemist definition