The alchemy reader : from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton

Introduction. Part 1 - Ancient texts. 1 Hermes Trismegistus - The emerald table (tabula smaragdina). 2 Plato - from the Timaeus. 3 Aristotle - from the Meteorology. 4 Pseudo-Democritus - from The treatise of Democritus on things natural and mystical. 5 Anonymous - Dialogue of Cleopatra and the philosophers. 6 Anonymous - from Leyden Papyrus X and the Stockholm Papyrus. 7 Zosimos of Panopolis - Of virtue, lessons 1-3. 8 Stephanos of Alexandria - from The great and sacred art of the making of gold. 9 Anonymous - The poem of the philosopher Theophrastos upon the sacred art. Part 2 - Islamic and medieval texts. 10 Khalid ibn Yazid - from Secreta alchymiae. 11 Jabir ibn Hayyan - from Of the investigation or search of perfection; Of the sum of perfection; and His book of furnaces. 12 Avicenna - De congelatione et conglutinatione lapidum. 13 Albertus Magnus - from the Libellus de alchimia. 14 Roger Bacon - from the Radix mundi. 15 Nicolas Flamel - from His exposition of the hieroglyphical figures. 16 Bernard, Earl of Trevisan - A treatise of the philosopher's stone. 17 George Ripley - The epistle of George Ripley written to King Edward IV. Part 3 - Renaissance and seventeenth-century texts. 18 Paracelsus - from Of the nature of things and Paracelsus his aurora. 19 Francis Anthony - Aurum-potabile: or the receit of Dr. Fr. Antonie. 20 Michael Sendivogius - from A new light of Alchymie and A dialogue between Mercury, the alchymist and nature. 21 Robert Fludd - from the Mosaicall philosophy. 22 Gabriel Plattes - A caveat for alchymists. 23 John French - Preface to The divine pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus in XVII books. 24 George Starkey/Eirenaeus Philalethes - The admirable efficacy, and almost incredible virtue of true oyl; from An exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV. 25 Elias Ashmole - from the "Prolegomena" to the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. 26 Robert Boyle - from An historical account of a degradation of gold made by an anti-elixir: a strange chymical narative. Sir Isaac Newton - The key; The commentary on the emerald tablet

'...a collection of primary source readings on alchemy and hermeticism, which offers readers an informed introduction and background to a complex field through the works of important ancient, medieval and early modern alchemical authors.'

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