Description
Including selections from the legendary Hermes Trimegistus to Robert Boyle and Isaac Newton, the book illustrates basic definitions, conceptions, and varied interests and emphases; and it also illustrates the highly inter-disciplinary character of alchemical thought and its links with science and medicine, philosophical and religious currents, the visual arts and iconography and, especially, literary discourse. Like the notable anthologies of alchemical writings published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it seeks to counter the problem of an acute lack of reliable primary texts and to provide a convenient and accessible point of entry to the field.
In addition to newly edited, lightly modernised texts, the alchemy reader includes a substantial introduction to the subject, head notes to individual selections, annotations, a bibliography, glossary, illustrations, and suggestions for further reading.
