EARLY EUROPEAN ALCHEMISTS

The first important European alchemist was Albert of Bollstadt (c. 1200-80), better known as Albertus Magnus ( Albert the Great ). He studied the works of Aristotle intensively, and it was through him that Aristotelian philosophy grew so important to the scholarship of the later Middle Ages and of early modem times. 

One final word people actually did alchemy in early modern Europe. When they called themselves alchemists and others found this believable, I take them at their word and call them alchemists as well, whether they claimed to be able to transmute metals, access divine secrets, assay metals, or produce fantastic medicines. Whatever we think of alchemy today, it is essential to remember that many people accepted the basic principles of alchemy in early modern Europe, even the transmutation of metals, and could point to religious and natural philosophical justifications for their belief. Successful alchemical works were rare and wondrous indeed, but not impossible. Thus, when we read in the newsletter of the Fugger banking family, for example, that the alchemist Marco Bragadino "changed a pound of quicksilver into gold some days ago" in Venice, we must accept that, in the eyes of early modern Europeans, he did indeed transmute metals.25... 

Indian alchemists also made scientific discoveries, often well in advance of their European counterparts. The importance of the colour of the flame in the analysis of metals was known as early as the twelfth century certain metallurgical processes were described by Hindu alchemists three centuries before the work of Paracelsus, Agrippa and Agricola and the internal use of... 

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