Alchemy and Philosophy in the Middle Ages

Alchemy and Philosophy in the Middle Ages

Alchemy can be traced a far a back as the ancient empires of Egypt and in some forms is still practiced today. The most basic definition of Alchemy is the art of trying to make gold out of base metals such as lead. For this transformation to take place one would need the philosophers stone. It was the magical element that could be used to transmute the base metal into precious gold by how it was used and the length of time it was used. Many famous Alchemists claimed to discover this stone in the form of a powder or elixir, but many never produced evidence of this. Alchemy, though is much more than a physics or magic trick, it is a way of think and a full philosophy. In the middle ages, alchemy took on this philosophy and became the most prevalent through many great philosophers and alchemist.
Originating in Egypt, “the great Egyptian adept king, named by the Greeks "Hermes Trismegistus" is thought to have been the founde...