WINNER OF THE
JOURNAL OF MODERN
JEWISH STUDIES ESSAY PRIZE 2013

Maoz Kahana


"This paper explores R. Jacob Emden’s surprising quest for the knowledge of alchemy. This important eighteenth-century rabbinic leader searched for ancient books in the library of Göttingen University, sought living experts and read original alchemical works in German. His sustained interest in alchemy reflects an historical phenomenon far deeper than his personal curiosity. By delving into his forgotten 1736 Igeret bikoret, comparing it to his other writings, and then contextualizing it within contemporary European medical discourse, I wish to use the quarrel between competing medical world views, so typical of the early modern era, to understand R. Jacob Emden’s alternative, esoteric path to modernity and the specific ties it reveals between theology, law and medical practice."

https://www.academia.edu/4443820/An_Esot...ical_Quest

By Helena Blavatsky.

From La Revue Théosophique, Paris, Vol. II, Nos. 8, 9, 10, October, November and December, 1889, pp. 49-57, 97-103, 145-149, respectively.

https://en.teopedia.org/lib/Blavatsky_H....ench_text)

Early references to alchemy in Latin and Arabic Texts.

https://pdfslide.us/documents/burnett-th...stpdf.html

"James Hillman was a past master of alchemical psychology. This field uses metaphors derived from ancient alchemy to elucidate deep structures in the creative imagination. Creative processes are not random. By studying alchemical psychology we come to understand ourselves and other humans in surprising ways that frequently diverge sharply from the habitual understandings we have unconsciously absorbed from the cultures in which we were raised. These new awarenesses can engender unexpected new vitality and wonder."

https://www.brilliancepublishing.com/Title/50597

'From Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons.'

Date: 28 May 2024, 9:30 (Tuesday, 6th week, Trinity 2024)

Venue:
2-10 Norham Road OX2 6SE, England.

Details: Maison Française d'Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6SE


https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/5ea8652d...8fc7369ee/

"Let’s start with some basics. If we take the writings of the alchemists at face value, Lévi’s brief summary of the goals of alchemy—“to be always rich, ever young, and never die”—is, as he says, the point of all those labors.  This goal is to be reached by creating a mysterious substance, the Stone of the Philosophers, which prolongs human life indefinitely, cures all diseases, and can convert other metals into pure gold."

https://www.ecosophia.net/the-ritual-of-...hapter-12/

"Honauer was born in Olomouc, Moravia (now in the Czech Republic), in 1572. Passing himself off under his alias as a goldsmith and alchemist, in 1596 he entered the service of Friedrich I, Duke of Württemberg, in Stuttgart, claiming to be able to convert iron into precious metal using a process that combined alchemical transmutation with the bulk techniques of metal ore smelting."

https://publicdomainreview.org/collectio...g-honauer/

"This presentation is a part of a research project in progress about natural philosophy, sciences and alchemy in the Byzantine era. The paper addresses a significant void in the current historiography of science by surveying and mapping a previously unexplored area: the relationship between alchemy and natural philosophy in the Byzantine era."

Gianna Katsiampoura/National Hellenic Research Foundation

https://www.academia.edu/81452506/Natura...lationship

"Towards the end of the Middle Ages, something strange started happening across Europe. People started believing they were made from glass. They firmly believed that they could shatter if touched. This became known as the “glass delusion”, and most cases involved the rich and the powerful. But what caused this strange phenomenon? And why did it disappear almost as swiftly as it appeared? Here are 30 things you need to know if you want to understand the bizarre history of the glass delusion… The glass delusion may have emerged as Europe was moving towards the Age of Enlightenment, but some men of science still investigated it thoroughly. The German alchemist Johann Becher was especially fascinated by the phenomenon. In his 1669 work Physica Subterranea, he even went so far as to claim that he had found the secret to turning humans into glass. Or, more specifically, Belcher boasted of knowing how to turn dead bodies into glass objects."

Comprehensive, well-illustrated article on this strange delusion:

https://historycollection.com/nobles-use...-breaking/

Becher's work here:

https://archive.org/details/johjoachimib...h/mode/2up

"The opinion has become almost universal that Alchemy was a pretended science, by which gold and silver were to be produced by transmutation of the elements of the baser metals; and its professors are at this day regarded as the dupes of imposture, and as having been themselves impostors and charlatans. In these classes they are placed by the writers of books; and the prejudice has been so long cherished, that, for the present, there is small ground for hope of its uprooting. The peculiar language employed by the alchemists is now commonly denominated "jargon," and this epithet appears to be conclusive logic with those whose convictions are chiefly produced by the employment of opprobrious names. Yet a candid and critical examination of the Hermetic writers, we think, will entirely disabuse the mind of any intelligent person. It is plain enough, that their directions in relation to transmuting metals are scarcely at all to be connected with any known manipulations now known as chemical. Yet it would be presumptuous to vilify such men as Roger Bacon, Boerhave, and Van Helmont, as ignorant, or to accuse them of imposture. We propose, therefore in this essay, to direct inquiry in another quarter for the purpose of indicating what was really the scope of the science or philosophy, formerly extant under the name of Alchemy."

https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/boo...npa-hp.htm

Essay on Wilder by John S. Haller, Jr.: https://lloydlibrary.org/wp-content/uplo...al_.11.pdf

https://theosophy.wiki/en/Alexander_Wilder