Symbols, alchemists chemical

There are 28 folios (56 recto and verso) 33 of the folios are illustrated. There are 11 naturalistic drawings of alchemical equipment (folios 18v—23v). 5 portraits of famous alchemists. 14 other folios are illustrated with large diagrams of alchemical symbols or abstractions of the chemical process. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that the alchemists used the terms "putrefaction" and "decay" rather indiscriminately, applying them to chemical processes which are no longer regarded as such. Pictorial symbols of death and decay representative of such processes... 

As the ancients and alchemists discovered more substances, an increasing number of symbols were required to represent the substances. Because different civilizations used different symbols for the same substance, confusion resulted and there was no common language to transfer chemical knowledge. 

Antimony compounds have been used by humans for centuries. Women of ancient Egypt used stibic stone, antimony sulfide (Sb2S3), to darken the skin around their eyes. Antimony was also used in making colored glazes for beads and glassware. The chemical symbol for antimony was taken from the ancient name for the element, stibium. Not recognized as a chemical element until the Middle Ages, antimony became a common material used by alchemists. 

In medieval times, alchemists (AL kuh mists) were the first to explore the world of chemistry. Although many of them believed in magic and mystical transformations, alchemists did learn much about the properties of some elements. They even used symbols to represent them in chemical processes, some of which are shown in Figure 21. 

Figure 21 Alchemists used elaborate symbols to describe elements and processes. Modern chemical symbols are letters that can be understood all over the world.

Above Arab symboBc figures and diagrams of stills (on the right) from a 12th-century Arab text on alchemy. In gener the Arab alchemists were less secretive about their discoveries, and the Arab manuscripts are less shrouded in complicated symbolism than the later European chemical works. 

The next tier is silver, associated with the Moon and the Feminine, whereas the gold of the upper tier is associated with the Sun and the Masculine Principle. This symbolism contrasts to the more specific color symbolism of the knight s crest in Plate 1-3, which refers back to changes in color observed during actual chemical processes in the experiments of the alchemists. The metals refer to the instinctual prima materia and to the Feminine and Masculine Principles, Luna and Sol, which emerge as the prima materia is refined to reveal its spirit and its soul. Here we see that what begins as an attempt to transform matter begins to be taken inside, as a process of interior transformation. 

From a psychological point of view, the images of the Ethiopian and Sophia refer to the spirit or consciousness that can emerge from rejected or undervalued aspects of the personality From these examples, we can see how concrete chemical operations took on a life of their own in the imagination of the alchemist. They are like visions or dreams, rife with symbolism and unconscious projections of the psyche s archetypal process. 

Before the early 1800s the symbols used to denote chemical elements and compounds were obscure. Alchemists wanted to keep their work secret and so devised symbols for the chemicals they used that would not reveal anything about them. This all changed with the work of Jons Jakob Berzelius. 

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