Alchemists would typically call the metals by their planetary names, e.g. They started breaking down with the discovery of antimony, bismuth, and zinc in the 16th century. The associations below are attested from the 7th century and had stabilized by the 15th. The exact correlation varied over time, and in early centuries bronze or electrum were sometimes found instead of mercury, or copper for Mars instead of iron however, gold, silver, and lead had always been associated with the Sun, Moon, and Saturn. The seven metals known since Classical times in Europe were associated with the seven classical planets this figured heavily in alchemical symbolism. Main article: Classical planets in Western alchemy The shield in the coat of arms of the Royal Society of Chemistry, with the seven planetary-metal symbols Salt or body, the principle of non-combustibility and non-volatility: □ ( ).Mercury or spirit, the principle of fusibility and volatility: ☿ ( ).Sulfur or soul, the principle of combustibility: □ ( ).This page therefore lists only the most common symbols.Īccording to Paracelsus (1493–1541), the three primes or tria prima – of which material substances are immediately composed – are: Lüdy-Tenger published an inventory of 3,695 symbols and variants, and that was not exhaustive, omitting for example many of the symbols used by Isaac Newton. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670Īlchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of alchemical symbols. In both cases, such symbolism facilitates understanding, regardless of the language in which the text is written.This article contains Unicode alchemical symbols. It is interesting to compare the early alchemists’ use of symbols with their successors’ use of Roman letters (e.g. These were important substances in the alchemists’ armoury. The metals represented by their symbols on the branches of the tree are, from the left, gold (Sun), iron (Mars), copper (Venus), mercury (Mercury), lead (Saturn), tin (Jupiter), and silver (Moon).Īt the apexes of the lower triangle, the symbols for sulphur (top left), salt (top right) and mercury are shown. Azoth meant a universal solvent but later meant mercury and the title can be translated as Mercury – or the Philosophers’ Secret Method of Producing Gold. The woodcut shown above is the cover of one of the most famous texts originally written by Basilus Valentinus (though this name may have been a pseudonym for a later alchemist). Given that alchemy and in particular, the search for the philosopher’s stone was forbidden, most alchemical writings were in code with a heavy use of symbols. The association of the known elements with celestial bodies (and with the panoply of Roman gods) stems from the medieval alchemists. Somewhat later, on the cover of edition 13 of LBMA’s quarterly journal, T he Alchemist, in November 1998, a more elegant logo was introduced, combining the representations of the sun and moon.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |