The Evolution of European Alchemy

By the 1300s European feudalism had declined the number of towns had increased and the newly centralized Catholic Church maintained an intellectual life of its own. Translated and compiled texts filled the monasteries ideas from China and India filtered in through travel and trade. Everything indicated a Europe poised for progress, but for chemistry this was not to happen. For the next 200 years, European wheels spun. There was a flurry of activity, but the paths were in circles. 

This was not the case outside of Europe By 1300 Chinese and Indian alchemists were actively engaged in iatrochemistry—the application of alchemy to medicine—but iatrochemistry did not fully evolve in Europe until 200 years later. Chinese and Indian alchemical writers also devoted much thought to the proper design of a laboratory, another concept that did not appear in European alchemical literature until about 1500. For example an Indian treatise of this period, the Rasaratnasamuchchaya, contains the following description  

The Laboratory is to be erected in a region, which abounds in medicinal herbs and wells. .. it is to be furnished with the various apparatus. The phallus of mercury [emblem of Siva, the creative principle] is to be placed in the east, furnaces to be arranged in the south-east, instruments in the south-west, washing operations in the 

Requirements likewise were placed on the professor The instructor must be wise, experienced, well-versed in chemical processes, devoted to the Siva and his consort Parvati, sober and patient (ibid). 

It is impossible to tell if Eastern ideas on iatrochemistry and systematically designed laboratories gradually made their way to Europe or later arose spontaneously in European minds, but it is clear that these ideas appeared in India and China first and were not immediately assimilated by the Europeans. The question then arises, Why not One answer might be found in the series of disasters— natural, political, and consequentially intellectual—that assailed Europe at this time. 

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Arabic alchemy was unknown in the west until the eleventh century when the first translations from Arabic into Latin were made. Two Arab alchemists were especially well known and widely read Jabir ibn Hayyan, known to Europeans as Geber, and Abu Bakr ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, known as Rhazes. Of more than 2,000 pieces of writing attributed to Jabir, most were compiled by a Muslim religious sect called the Faithful Brethren or Brethren of Purity after he died. The works are written in different styles, which would indicate that they were penned by different authors. The compilation was completed around the year 1000, more than a hundred years after Jabir died. However, it has been established that the work translated into Latin under the title Summa Perfectionis was based on translations of Jabir s writing. Thus, although little is known about his life, we know something about the role Jabir played in the evolution of alchemical theory. 

In addition to complete histories of the science, several other types of general works may be noted. First, there are several volumes of collected essays that deal, mainly or exclusively, with the history of chemistry. An example of these is the published proceedings of the Symposium on Alchemy, Chemistry and Pharmacy , held during the International Congress of History of Science at Liege in 1997.28 There is also a volume of essays on the history of chemistry in the multi-volume Italian publication, Storia della scienza.29 The five-year European Science Foundation Programme, The Evolution of Chemistry in Europe, 1789-1939 ,30 which was launched in 1993, has resulted in a number of collections of essays on Lavoisier,31 on aspects of the chemical industry,32-35 on chemical textbooks,36 and on chemical education and institutions.37-39... 

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