Pseudo-Democritus

Pseudo-Democritus. "From The treatise of Democritus On things natural and mystical." In The alchemy reader, ed. Stanton J. Linden, 38-43., 2003. 

The allusions to Democritus by Vitruvius, writing a century or more before Pliny, seem to apply to the real Democritus. Vitruvius says he wrote several works on the nature of things. Seneca attributes to him the invention of the reverbatory furnace, and the art of imitating natural gems, particularly the emerald, though it is probable that here also the real Democritus is confused with the pseudo-Democritus. 

At any rate, we may safely assume that whatever is assigned to Democritus that is related to the practical arts of chemistry, is attributable to the pseudo-Democritus and belongs, in so far as it has significance, to the earliest... 

The traditions of the ancient pagan schools and their literature were, however, preserved and cultivated especially by the Syrian scholars who took refuge in Persia, after the closing of the Alexandrian schools, and there founded and maintained schools modeled after the Alexandrian. By these scholars, the classical works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, Dioscorides and others, and of some early chemical and alchemical writers, as the pseudo-Democritus and Zosimos, were preserved and translated into Syrian. Astronomy, astrology, medicine, alchemy, were among the subjects taught in their schools. 

The practical recipes of the pseudo-Democritus differ only from the Theban papyri in their less simple and plain directions. They are the same in their intentions of imitating gold and silver by yellow and white alloys of copper, lead, tin, mercury and arsenic by colored mixtures or varnishes or stains to be superficially applied to give a surface resemblance to gold or silver and the materials... 

Zosimos is in his philosophy and chemical knowledge and points of view very similar to pseudo-Democritus whom he often cites with evident respect. Like the latter, he seems to be familiar with the practical chemistry of the Alex-andrian-Egyptian school, and his writings are a similar mixture of laboratory directions, chemical apparatus and methods and mystical symbolism. It has been previously noted that he belonged to the cult of Gnostics. 

The first important worker in Greek-Egyptian khemeia that we know by name was Bolos of Mendes (c. 200 b.c.), a town in the Nile delta. In his writings, he used the name Democritus so that he is referred to as Bolos-Democritus or sometimes as the pseudo-Democritus. ... 

Also of interest were such corrosive substances as acids, hydroxides, and ammonium chloride, which on heating turns into ammonia and hydrochloric acid and readily attack metals. Because arsenic sublimes like mercury, forms soft alloys like mercury, and has a sulfide that looks like the sulfide of mercury, alchemists regarded arsenic as a kind of mercury, and much use was made of arsenic s property of coloring metals. Vitriols (copper and iron sulfates) were also of interest to the alchemist, probably because of their colors. Copper sulfate forms beautiful blue crystals and solutions, and iron sulfate is green. We can confidently write about the preceding materials and techniques because of the efforts of a few early alchemical practitioners to preserve their knowledge in writing. Three are considered here pseudo-Democritus, Mary the Jew, and Zosimos. 

Muslim rulers also patronized Alexandrian refugee scholars, and they had the works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen, pseudo-Democritus, Zosimos, and others translated into Arabic. In this way Arabs came into contact with the practice of alchemy and quickly made it their own. The main contribution of the Arabs to alchemy was to tone down the mystical and to take an approach more akin to the practical approach of the early Alexandrian alchemists. Perhaps the Arabs felt less compelled to invoke magic to attain results because they were as interested in the process as in the goal. Whatever the reason, the alchemy eventually inherited by Europe used methods that had come back down to earth. 

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