The Practice and History of Alchemy Chemistry Essay
The question of institutional association is crucial for the historical assessment of alchemy and for determining its intellectual place in early modern Europe. In this respect, a supposed gap between alchemy and the university has played a decisive role in its historical assessment. Seen as an occult practice, Gabriel-Fran ois presented Venel 1723-1775 in the second part of his entry on "Chemistry" 1753 in Diderot's and D'Alembert's Encyclop which provided a detailed history of the origins of chemistry. Venel attempted the Hermetic, Egyptian roots of alchemical knowledge, and aimed at tracing a specific historical territory, chemistry is a science of change. Historiography is also in motion. In turn, then, these transmutations inevitably shape the publications that present the state of the art in this field – including, of course, Ambix, the Journal of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry. Two years after the Society itself became the journal, The ancient Greeks promoted the use of symbols in the study of the elements. The ancient Greek philosophers defined the four elements as air, earth, fire and water. Another famous philosopher Aristotle linked the elements to different concepts. He identified air as a life-giving force that represented heat and wetness. This alchemical background of modern science argues for the persistence of a technopoetic approach to metallurgy through alchemy for millennia. Derchain, 1980 Karpenko, 1995 Keizer, 1989 Obrist.