Customer Reviews

The Alchemy Reader: From Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

nice, easy to use, accessible translations. one of the first places one should go to get one's feet wet in the subject. useful introduction.

This book offers an introduction to alchemy through the words of some of the art's most notable authorities, and because the number of works is enormous, few readers will perhaps be satisfied with all the readings. Invariably, questions of inclusion (or exclusion) will arise that even the ablest defense may not justify. For example, the brief selections of Plato and Aristotle are included, not because they deal with alchemy per se - although many spurious treatises came to be fathered upon both philosophers - but because they set forth important background ideas (e.g., on prime matter, the transformation of the elements, and the formation of metals) that were long-lived and exerted considerable influence on subsequent alchemical theory.

See also Linden's Mystical Metal of Gold: Essays on Alchemy And Renaissance Culture (Ams Studies in the Renaissance).

This piece is a good compilation. I have yet to thoroughly study each passage, but I have covered many. Some pieces do not at first appear to fit in (and perhaps they don't- I could very well be crazy), but after pulling yourself back from a linear view it comes together nicely. It is true that many sections of this compilation can be found elsewhere if you look so I recomend it for anyone looking for the essence of concepts set down by past leaders in the field.