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Battle of Montmirail
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brigade to close up behind him, Pirch began attacking toward the Bailly and Plenois woods. Sacken ordered his two reserve heavy batteries to support the Prussian advance. At the same time, Michel's Old Guard division reached the battlefield and was committed to the fight against Yorck.
Napoleon ordered the tired soldiers of Ricard and Meunier back into the battle for Marchais. The emperor sent Marshal François Joseph Lefebvre with two battalions of Old Guard Foot Chasseurs to cut off Marchais from the north. Ricard organized a four-battalion attack from the hamlet of Pomesson in the south. Lefebvre's two battalions captured L'Épine-aux-Bois. Though the French achieved local artillery superiority,
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the Russians in Marchais continued to resist until 5:00 pm when they were forced to relinquish control of the village and pull back. When they reached the west side of the ravine, Defrance's cavalry charged into them, inflicting heavy losses on the brigades of Dietrich and Blagovenzenko. Several hundred Russian skirmishers near Marchais were either cut down or captured. Realizing that without control of Marchais, the battle was lost, Sacken began pulling back his artillery from the right wing toward the center. Near the highway, Russian infantry squares were charged by French cavalry, but they were able to escape when their own cavalry intervened. The Sophia Regiment was completely engulfed
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by French cavalry but fought its way clear.
Pirch attacked with the 1st East Prussian and West Prussian Grenadier Battalions and the 5th Silesian Landwehr Regiment in the first line screened by a cloud of skirmishers. The second line consisted of the Leib and Silesian Grenadier Battalions and the 13th Landwehr Regiment. Mortier put four Old Guard battalions into the Bailly woods alongside Ricard's 2/2nd Light and 7/4th Light Infantry Battalions. Despite the support from Russian artillery, the Prussian attack recoiled amid blistering musketry and canister shot. When French skirmishers threatened to envelop one flank, the 2/5th Silesian Landwehr charged with the bayonet to cut its way out. Ignoring
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the protests of his staff, Yorck went up to encourage the skirmish line, saying, "I want to die if you cannot stop the enemy."
After Michel counterattacked the Prussians with ten battalions, the Leib Grenadier Battalion and the 1/5th Silesian Landwehr met them. Two battalions of the Leib Infantry Regiment anchored the Prussian right flank while the 1st Brigade reformed on their left. Pirch led a bayonet attack that temporarily stopped the French, but he was badly wounded. He was replaced in command by Colonel Losthin. As Prussian retreat continued, the 13th Silesian Landwehr and the Silesian Grenadier Battalion were assailed in the woods, but managed to drive off their French pursuers. The
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Prussians ended the day between Fontenelle and Viffort.
By evening the Polish Lancers of the Guard fought their way as far west as Viels-Maisons. Sacken was nearly trapped, but Yorck's effort gave the Russians enough time and space to get away. With Vasilshikov's cavalry covering the withdrawal, the Russians headed for the Château-Thierry road as it rained. The Russian retreat through marshes and woods was guided by a line of bonfires. The artillery was saved by detailing 50 cavalrymen to help pull each gun using ropes, though eight disabled pieces were abandoned. After an all-night march, Sacken's troops reached Viffort on the main road and continued marching northward toward Château-Thierry.
#
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Results.
According to Petre, the French sustained 2,000 casualties while inflicting losses of 2,000 killed and wounded on the Russians while capturing 800 soldiers, six colors and 13 guns. The Prussians suffered an additional 900 casualties. Chandler asserted that the French lost 2,000 men while the Allies lost 4,000. Nafziger noted that the 1st Prussian Brigade lost 877 officers and men while the 7th Brigade's casualties are unknown. He cited various sources that gave Allied losses ranging from a low of 1,500 Russians, 877 Prussians and nine guns to a high of 3,000 killed and wounded plus 708 prisoners, 26 guns and 200 wagons. French losses are consistently reported at 2,000 men with Generals
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Nansouty, Michel and Boudin de Roville wounded.
MacDonald at Meaux was unable to carry out his orders to advance because he had destroyed the Trilport bridge. His subordinate Horace François Bastien Sébastiani de La Porta was unable to move because Sacken had broken the La Ferté-sous-Jouarre bridge. MacDonald sent his cavalry under Antoine Louis Decrest de Saint-Germain to join Napoleon via Coulommiers. Napoleon again ordered MacDonald to seize Château-Thierry, so that the Allied retreat would be blocked. He was taking a gamble. Napoleon intended to pursue Sacken and Yorck with maximum forces, hoping to trap them against the Marne. He also needed to consider that Blücher was positioned to the
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st de Saint-Germain to join Napoleon via Coulommiers. Napoleon again ordered MacDonald to seize Château-Thierry, so that the Allied retreat would be blocked. He was taking a gamble. Napoleon intended to pursue Sacken and Yorck with maximum forces, hoping to trap them against the Marne. He also needed to consider that Blücher was positioned to the east with 20,000 men and 80 guns. Though the emperor began getting calls for help from Victor, he calculated that the unaggressive Schwarzenberg would move slowly while he dealt with Blücher's army. The Battle of Château-Thierry would be fought on 12 February.
# External links.
- — French Army Archives, Château Vincennes, C2-555 Copyright GFN 1994
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The Logic of Scientific Discovery
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The Logic of Scientific Discovery
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
The Logic of Scientific Discovery is a 1959 book about the philosophy of science by Karl Popper. Popper rewrote his book in English from the 1934 German original, titled "Logik der Forschung. Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft", which literally translates as, "Logic of Research: On the Epistemology of Modern Natural Science"'.
# Summary.
Popper argues that science should adopt a methodology based on falsifiability, because no number of experiments can ever prove a theory, but a reproducible experiment or observation can refute one. According to Popper: "non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to science. Thus a few stray
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basic statements contradicting a theory will hardly induce us to reject it as falsified. We shall take it as falsified only if we discover a reproducible effect which refutes the theory". Popper argues that science should adopt a methodology based on "an "asymmetry" between verifiability and falsifiability; an asymmetry which results from the logical form of universal statements. For these are never derivable from singular statements, but can be contradicted by singular statements".
# Reception.
"The Logic of Scientific Discovery" is famous. The psychologist Harry Guntrip wrote that its publication "greatly stimulated the discussion of the nature of scientific knowledge", including by philosophers
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who did not completely agree with Popper, such as Thomas Kuhn and Horace Romano Harré. Carl Jung, founder of analytical psychology, valued the work. The biographer Vincent Brome recalls Jung remarking in 1938 that it exposed "some of the shortcomings of science". The historian Peter Gay described Popper's work as "an important treatise in epistemology". The philosopher Bryan Magee wrote that Popper's criticisms of logical positivism were "devastating". In his view, Popper's most important argument against logical positivism is that, while it claimed to be a scientific theory of the world, its central tenet, the verification principle, effectively destroyed all of science. The physicists Alan
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gical positivism were "devastating". In his view, Popper's most important argument against logical positivism is that, while it claimed to be a scientific theory of the world, its central tenet, the verification principle, effectively destroyed all of science. The physicists Alan Sokal and Jean Bricmont argued that critiques of Popper's work have provoked an "irrationalist drift", and that a significant part of the problems that currently affect the philosophy of science "can be traced to ambiguities or inadequacies" in Popper's book.
# External links.
- English version publisher's website
- German version publisher's website
- Excerpts on Google Books
- Full version on Internet Archive
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Battle of Pozzolo
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Battle of Pozzolo
Battle of Pozzolo
The Battle of Pozzolo (also known as the Battle of the Mincio River, and Monzambano) was fought on 25 December 1800 and resulted the difficult victory of French under General Brune against Austrians under General Bellegarde.
Following the armistice agreed after the Battle of Marengo the Austrians had held the line of the Mincio river. The French "Army of Reserve" was now commanded by Brune after Napoleon's departure for Paris. On Christmas Day 1800, he attacked the Austrian positions and broke their line. The Austrians fell back eastwards over the Adige River. Two days later the armistice was renewed.
# References.
- Pope, Stephen. "The Cassell Dictionary of the Napoleonic
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ttle of Pozzolo (also known as the Battle of the Mincio River, and Monzambano) was fought on 25 December 1800 and resulted the difficult victory of French under General Brune against Austrians under General Bellegarde.
Following the armistice agreed after the Battle of Marengo the Austrians had held the line of the Mincio river. The French "Army of Reserve" was now commanded by Brune after Napoleon's departure for Paris. On Christmas Day 1800, he attacked the Austrian positions and broke their line. The Austrians fell back eastwards over the Adige River. Two days later the armistice was renewed.
# References.
- Pope, Stephen. "The Cassell Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars". Cassell (1999)
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Battle of Mormant
The Battle of Mormant (17 February 1814) was fought during the War of the Sixth Coalition between an Imperial French army under Emperor Napoleon I and a division of Russians under Count Peter Petrovich Pahlen. Enveloped by cavalry led by François Étienne de Kellermann and Édouard Jean-Baptiste Milhaud and infantry led by Étienne Maurice Gérard, Pahlen's outnumbered force was nearly destroyed, with only about a third of its soldiers escaping. Later in the day, a French column led by Marshal Claude Perrin Victor encountered an Austrian-Bavarian rearguard under Anton Leonhard von Hardegg and Peter de Lamotte in the Battle of Valjouan. Attacked by French infantry and cavalry, the
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Allied force was mauled before it withdrew behind the Seine River. The Mormant-Valjouan actions and the Battle of Montereau the following day marked the start of a French counteroffensive intended to drive back Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg's Allied Army of Bohemia. The town of Mormant is located southeast of Paris.
# Background.
The Allied generals, particularly the Prussians, were exuberant following their victory over Napoleon at the Battle of La Rothière on 1 February 1814. They soon conceived a plan in which the main army under the Austrian Field Marshal Schwarzenberg advanced toward Paris via Troyes. Simultaneously, Prussian Field Marshal Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher's army
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took a more northerly route along the Marne River toward Meaux. When Napoleon realized that Blücher represented the more serious threat on 6 February, he began to shift his strength northward in order to deal with the Prussian field marshal. Leaving Marshals Victor and Nicolas Oudinot with 34,000 men to hold off Schwarzenberg's much larger army, Napoleon headed north on 9 February with 30,000 troops.
Napoleon landed some damaging blows on Blücher's army in the subsequent Six Days' Campaign. On 10 February in the Battle of Champaubert, the French army fell on Zakhar Dmitrievich Olsufiev's corps, which numbered only 4,000 infantry and 24 guns. Only 1,700 Russians escaped the disaster and the
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French made Olsufiev a prisoner. The next day, Napoleon defeated Fabian Gottlieb von Osten-Sacken's Russians and Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg's Prussians in the Battle of Montmirail. For the loss of 2,000 killed and wounded, the French inflicted a loss of 3,700 men and 13 guns on the Allies. On 12 February, the French beat Sacken and Yorck again in the Battle of Château-Thierry. French losses were 600; the Allies lost 2,750 men and nine guns. Blücher attacked the French on 14 February and was nearly destroyed in the Battle of Vauchamps. The French sustained a loss of 600 men while the Allies lost 6,000 men and 16 guns. Altogether, Blücher's 56,000-man army lost over 16,000 soldiers and 47 guns
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during the week while Napoleon's losses added up to only 4,000.
While Napoleon was drubbing Blücher, Schwarzenberg's main army pushed back the forces of Marshals Victor and Oudinot. On the Allied right wing, Peter Wittgenstein's Russian corps advanced toward Nogent-sur-Seine while Karl Philipp von Wrede's Austro-Bavarian corps struck toward Bray-sur-Seine. On the Allied left wing, Crown Prince Frederick William of Württemberg's Württemberg corps moved toward Sens with Frederick Bianchi's Austrian corps on his left. Ignaz Gyulai's Austrian corps supported the left wing while Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly's Allied Reserves supported the right wing. Wrede got across the Seine at Bray, causing
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the French to abandon Nogent to Wittgenstein. Victor and Oudinot retreated behind the Yerres stream, dangerously close to Paris. When the marshals called for help, Napoleon sent Marshal Jacques MacDonald to Guignes where he arrived on 14 February with a corps that was rebuilt by replacements from Paris. A blunder caused the army's wagon train to withdraw across the Marne near Paris, causing panic in the French capital.
Leaving Marshals Auguste de Marmont and Édouard Mortier to watch Blücher, Napoleon rapidly transferred his strength southward against Schwarzenberg's army. The French emperor arrived at Guignes on the evening of 16 February and planned to launch his offensive the next day. He
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found the army of Victor and Oudinot in good order and prepared to go over to the offensive.
# Battle.
## Armies.
Schwarzenberg had over 100,000 soldiers in his main army. A week later, on 23 February, the army counted Moritz von Liechtenstein's 2nd Light Division (4,000), Bianchi's I Corps (13,000), Gyulai's III Corps (11,000), Württemberg's IV Corps (10,000), Wrede's V Corps (21,000), Wittgenstein's VI Corps (15,000) and Barclay's Guard and Reserve Corps (30,000). This reckoning was made after the Battle of Montereau which cost the I Corps 2,000 casualties and the IV Corps 2,844 casualties. When Schwarzenberg heard about Blücher's defeats, he ordered his army to pull back behind the Seine.
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Instead of obeying, Wittgenstein aggressively pushed his corps west beyond Provins toward Nangis while his advanced guard under Pahlen reached Mormant. On 16 February, Wrede's corps was near Donnemarie-Dontilly except for Anton von Hardegg's division which was in Nangis. Württemberg's corps was near Montereau with advance guards near Melun. Bianchi's corps was south of the Seine between Moret-sur-Loing and Villeneuve-la-Guyard with advance guards farther west in Fontainebleau. Gyulai's corps was in Pont-sur-Yonne, Barclay's Russian Reserves were near Nogent while Liechtenstein's division and the Austrian Reserves were at Sens.
Napoleon massed his army near Guinges by the evening of 16 February.
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The Imperial Guard forces included Louis Friant's Old Guard division (4,500), Marshal Michel Ney's Young Guard divisions (3,000) and Guard cavalry under Louis Marie Laferrière-Levesque, Rémi Joseph Isidore Exelmans and Louis Michel Pac (3,000 total). The line troops consisted of Victor's II Corps (6,549 men, 40 guns), from Oudinot's VII Corps (7,516 men, 34 guns), from MacDonald's XI Corps (8,797 men, 37 guns), Édouard Jean Baptiste Milhaud's V Cavalry Corps (4,700) and François Étienne de Kellermann's VI Cavalry Corps (2,788). In addition, there were 4,500 men from Étienne Maurice Gérard's Reserve of Paris. Farther east near Melun were Henri François Marie Charpentier's Young Guard division
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(3,500), Michel-Marie Pacthod's National Guards division (5,000) and Pierre Claude Pajol's cavalry division (1,400). On the march to Guignes were Jean François Leval's division (4,500), Joseph Boyer de Rébeval's Young Guard division (3,300) and Antoine-Louis Decrest de Saint-Germain's division (1,300). Étienne Tardif de Pommeroux de Bordesoulle was also on hand with 581 newly recruited horsemen.
## Mormant.
At Mormant, Pahlen became aware that large numbers of French troops were near his position. The Russian placed two battalions in Mormant and massed the rest of his troops on both sides of the highway with his artillery in the center. He was prepared to fight or to retreat. During the night,
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Wittgenstein received positive orders to withdraw so he marched his corps east toward Provins at dawn. He forwarded the orders to Pahlen but they came too late. At daybreak, Pahlen saw that he faced an overwhelming force and began to retreat. The Russian commanded 2,000–2,500-foot soldiers and 1,500–1,800 mounted troops. The infantry consisted of Selenginsk, Reval, Tenguinsk and Estonia Regiments and the 4th and 34th Jäger Regiments. The cavalry were led by Theodor von Rüdiger and included 14 squadrons from the Soumy Hussar, Olviopol Hussar and Tchougoulev Uhlan Regiments plus the Illowaiski XII, Rebrikov III and two unnamed Cossack Regiments. Colonel Rosen's brigade was to the east at Bailly.
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Another source stated that the Grodno rather than the Olviopol Hussars were engaged, that the 20th and 21st Jägers were involved and that the Russians had 12 field pieces.
At 5:00 a.m. the French infantry advanced with Guillaume Philibert Duhesme's II Corps division on the left, Gérard's Paris Reserve in the center and Louis Huguet-Château's II Corps division on the right. Victor's corps artillery marched in the intervals. Milhaud's corps included Hippolyte Piré's light cavalry division, André Briche's dragoon division and Samuel-François Lhéritier dragoon division. Kellermann's corps had only Anne-François-Charles Trelliard's dragoon division, fresh from the Spanish theater. Lhéritier was
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temporarily assigned to Kellermann. Milhaud commanded the left wing cavalry with Piré's horsemen deployed on Duhesme's left and Briche's troopers echeloned to Piré's left rear. Kellermann commanded the right wing cavalry with Trelliard's dragoons on Huguet-Château's right and Lhéritier's troopers echeloned to Trelliard's right rear. Behind the front-line units marched two VII Corps units on the north side of the highway. Pierre François Xavier Boyer's division was in the lead with Henri Rottembourg's division farther back. The Imperial Guard artillery moved along the main road beside the VII Corps. The remainder of the army followed.
Pahlen ordered the two battalions in Mormant to hold back
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the French at all cost in order to allow the rest of his command to escape. Four Cossack regiments opposed Kellermann's corps while Rüdiger's regular cavalry faced Milhaud's corps. Jacques Gervais, baron Subervie's brigade of Pire's division turned half-right and swooped down on the Russian skirmishers while the rest of Milhaud's cavalry advanced on Rüdiger's horsemen. In the center, Gérard's infantry forced its way into the village of Mormant, flushing its defenders into the open. Pierre Ismert, leading one of Trelliard's brigades, hurled the 4th Dragoons at the fleeing Russians, forcing many to surrender. On the right flank, Lhéritier's first brigade under August Étienne Lamotte dispersed
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the first two Cossack regiments. When the Illowaiski and Rebrikov Cossacks tried to intervene they were swept away by Lhéritier's second brigade led by Jean Antoine de Collaert. As Lhéritier's horsemen galloped after the routed Cossacks, the 16th Dragoons of Trelliard's division charged and broke a Russian square.
On the north flank, Rüdiger deployed nine squadrons in the first line and five squadrons in the second line. Against the Russian horsemen, Milhaud had Piré's division (minus Subervie's brigade) in the first line, Gabriel Gaspard Montelégier's brigade in the second and Denis Éloi Ludot's in the third. Successive charges by Piré and Montelégier broke Rüdiger's squadrons and chased them
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off the battlefield with the French light cavalry in pursuit. Milhaud directed Montelégier to deal with the Russian infantry while sending Ludot on a sweep to block Pahlen's escape route. Without its supporting cavalry, Pahlen's infantry battalions were compelled to form into a square formation to defend against cavalry. Antoine Drouot aggressively pushed 36 guns from the French Guard artillery into the front line where they pummeled the Russians.
Pahlen sent messengers to Nangis pleading for assistance, but Ignaz Splény de Miháldi's division had already marched off leaving only Anton Leonhard von Hardegg's Austrian division from Wrede's V Corps. Hardegg had some infantry battalions in Nangis
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and two cavalry regiments in Bailly. The Austrian division commander declined to assist his ally and ordered an immediate retreat. However, before they could get away, the two Austrian cavalry regiments were disordered by the fleeing Cossacks and then scattered by Piré's and August Lamotte's horsemen. The Russian infantry's withdrawal continued, leaving a trail of casualties from artillery fire. On the outskirts of Grandpuits they were finally brought to halt by Ludot's brigade which was now blocking the Russian line of retreat. Surrounded and hammered by artillery, the Russian battalions were all overrun by cavalry charges. The final square was broken when charged simultaneously by the brigades
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of Ludot and Ismert.
The Russians probably lost one-third of their cavalry and admitted the loss of 2,114-foot soldiers. The French claimed 9–12 guns and 40 caissons captured while the Russians said they saved two cannons. The French cavalry commanders reported losing 150 horsemen and Gérard reported only 30 casualties. Pahlen's survivors dispersed over the French countryside. Another authority stated that Pahlen lost 2,000 men and 10 guns. The Reval and Selenginsk Regiments lost so many men that they were withdrawn to Plock in Poland to reorganize.
## Valjouan.
At Nangis, Napoleon split his advancing army into three columns. Victor led the right-most column south toward Montereau. This force
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included the II Corps, Paris Reserve, Lhéritier's dragoons and Bordesoulle's recruits. The left-most column under Oudinot, with the VII Corps and Trelliard's dragoons, followed Wittgenstein's retreat east toward Provins. MacDonald's center column consisted of the XI Corps, Piré light horsemen and Briche's dragoons; it headed southeast toward Donnemarie. The French emperor held the Imperial Guard in reserve at Nangis. Wittgenstein retreated rapidly and crossed the Seine at Nogent that evening.
Victor's column departed Nangis at 1:30 p.m. and bumped into enemy resistance at Villeneuve-le-Comte about 3:00 p.m. Tipped off by Hardegg's survivors, Peter de Lamotte deployed the 3rd Bavarian Division
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on the Valjouan heights, blocking the road. Lamotte posted the 11th Bavarian Line Infantry in an advanced position at Villeneuve and Grand-Maison farm; his cavalry covered both flanks. The divisions of Hardegg and Splény were behind Lamotte; they began withdrawing as soon as the French appeared. The Schwarzenberg Uhlans Nr. 1 and Archduke Joseph Hussars Nr. 2, rallied from their earlier mauling by the French cavalry, were positioned to assist the Bavarian cavalry. Gérard, whose troops led the infantry column, decided to attack at once and asked Victor for help from the II Corps. Gérard deployed Lhéritier to the right and Bordesoulle to the left.
Supported by 12 cannons, Jacques Félix Jan de
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La Hamelinaye's brigade stormed Villeneuve and Grand-Maison at 3:30 p.m. Gérard held Georges Joseph Dufour's brigade in reserve. As the Bavarian foot soldiers bolted from both positions, they were set upon by Bordesoulle's cavalrymen. When some Allied cavalry tried to rescue the Bavarians, the French horsemen rode into them and chased them away. Next, the Iller Mobile Legion tried to intervene, only to be routed by the French recruits. Altogether, Bordesoulle's half-trained horsemen inflicted about 300 casualties on their foes. They apparently took no prisoners except a wounded Austrian officer who Bordesoulle had to personally save.
Peter de Lamotte formed his division into a square formation
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and began to retreat, followed by Bordesoulle. At some point during the withdrawal, the two Austrian mounted regiments were attacked by a large force of French cavalry and suffered 200 casualties in the melee. After Lamotte marched about toward Donnemarie, Gérard's infantry burst out of the woods and nearly broke up Lamotte's division. However, the French cavalry was absent this time, allowing the Bavarians to reform their battalions and resume their retreat. That evening, Wrede got the V Corps across the Seine at Bray, except for a rearguard at Mouy-sur-Seine.
## Other actions.
On 17 February, Charpentier's division and a task force under Jacques Alexandre Allix de Vaux advanced south from
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Melun, driving Ignaz von Hardegg's division (Bianchi's I Corps) from Fontainebleau. Pajol and Pacthod left Saint-Germain-Laxis and headed southeast toward Montereau. They skirmished with Prince Adam of Württemberg's 1,000 infantry and cavalry during the day.
# Result.
The Allies had become overextended and Napoleon took advantage of this to strike hard at his enemies. One historian estimated that the French sustained 800 casualties while the Allies lost 3,000 men and 14 guns at Mormant and Valjouan. A second authority gave casualties for the actions as 600 French and 3,114 Allied, with the French seizing nine guns and 40 caissons. Pahlen was credited with 2,500 infantry and 1,800 cavalry of
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h and 3,114 Allied, with the French seizing nine guns and 40 caissons. Pahlen was credited with 2,500 infantry and 1,800 cavalry of which 1,250 were Russian and 550 were Austrian. Though the author listed the Valjouan action, he did not list Bavarian numbers. The French brought 18,000–20,000 men to the battlefield.
Napoleon was angry at Victor for not pressing on that evening. He expected Victor to be at Montereau at 6:00 a.m. the next day. When Victor did not arrive before the town until 9:00 a.m., the French emperor replaced him with Gérard. Schwarzenberg ordered the Crown Prince of Württemberg to hold a bridgehead at Montereau for a day. The Battle of Montereau was fought on 18 February.
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Siege of Pavia (773–74)
The Siege or Battle of Pavia was fought in 773–774 in northern Italy, near Ticinum (modern Pavia), and resulted in the victory of the Franks under Charlemagne against the Lombards under king Desiderius.
# Background.
Charlemagne, "rex Francorum", had succeeded to the throne in 768 jointly with his brother Carloman. At the time there was antagonism between not only the two ruling brothers, but between the king of the Lombards, Desiderius, and the papacy. In 772, Pope Hadrian I expelled all the Lombard officials from the papal curia. In response, Desiderius invaded papal territory, even taking Otriculum (modern Otricoli), just a day's march from Rome. Hadrian called Charlemagne
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for assistance.
Charles had produced an alliance with the Lombards by marrying one of Desiderius' daughters, Desiderata; within a year, however, he had changed his mind about the marriage and alliance, and divorced his wife, sending her back to her father. This was taken as an insult by the Lombards.
Upon the death of Carloman in 771, his own wife, Gerberge fled the kingdom with her children for reasons now unclear (Einhard disingenuously protests that she spurned her husband's brother "for no reason at all") and sought refuge with Desiderius at Pavia. Desiderius now returned the insult to the Franks by giving her asylum, and protesting that her children be allowed their share of the Kingdom
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of the Franks. The relationship between Frank and Lombard now broke down completely and the pope took full advantage. His embassy landed at Marseilles and travelled to Thionville, where they delivered this message:
Charlemagne ascertained the truth of Desiderius' aggressions and the threat he posed to his own Frankish realm and marched his troops towards Italy in the early summer of 773.
# Siege.
Charles' army had 10,000–40,000 troops; he divided it in half, giving command of one half to his uncle, Bernard, son of Charles Martel; and led it through the Alpine passes, he through that of the Dora Susa near Mont Cenis and Bernard through the Great St Bernard Pass. At the foot of the mountains,
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Charles' army met the fortifications of Desiderius, but scouting forces found an alternate route. A cavalcade was sent to attack the defenders from the flank and, with Bernard's forces approaching from the east, the Lombards fled to fortified Pavia. The Frankish troops then marched on to begin the siege of Pavia by September.
The entire Frankish army was capable of wholly surrounding the Lombard capital. They had brought no siege engines, however. The Lombards too had failed in their preparations: the city was poorly stocked with food and the surrounding countryside was now in the hands of the Franks. Desiderius remained in Pavia, but Adelchis, his son, had left to stronger Verona to guard
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over the family of Carloman. Charles led a small force to besiege Verona. Adelchis fled in fear to Constantinople and the city and Carloman's family were taken.
Charles then began to subdue the whole region around Pavia in the early months of 774. Charles even visited the pope in Rome at Easter. No other Lombard dukes or counts made any attempt at relief and Desiderius made no strong counterattack. In the tenth month of the siege, famine was hitting Pavia hard and Desiderius, realising that he was left on his own, opened the gates to Charles and surrendered on some Tuesday in June.
The Longobards who managed to leave Pavia crossed the Apennines and settled in present-day Liguria where the
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Republic of Genoa was born later.
# Legacy.
After the victory, Charlemagne had himself declared "rex Langobardorum", and from that time onwards he was to be called King of the Franks "and" Lombards. This was unique in the history of the Germanic kingdoms of the Dark Ages: a ruler taking the title of the conquered. Charles was forging what could truly be called an "empire". He was also allying himself very closely with the church as its protector. His recognition of temporal papal authority in central Italy laid the foundation for mediaeval Papal power.
The decline of the Lombard state had been swift and the changes wrought in Italy by the Frankish conquest were great. Many Franks entered
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ly be called an "empire". He was also allying himself very closely with the church as its protector. His recognition of temporal papal authority in central Italy laid the foundation for mediaeval Papal power.
The decline of the Lombard state had been swift and the changes wrought in Italy by the Frankish conquest were great. Many Franks entered into positions of power and authority in Italy, though many Lombards, on account of their willingness to make peace with Charles, retained their positions.
As Paul K. Davis writes, "The defeat and consequent destruction of the Lombard monarchy rid Rome of its most persistent threat to papal security, laying the groundwork for the Holy Roman Empire."
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Alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: "al-kīmiyā") was an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition practised throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, originating in Greco-Roman Egypt in the first few centuries .
Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease; and the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical "magnum opus" and, in
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the Hellenistic and Western mystery tradition, the achievement of gnosis. In Europe, the creation of a philosopher's stone was variously connected with all of these projects.
In English, the term is often limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East, the Indian subcontinent, and the Muslim world. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the translation of Medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy, alchemists played a significant role in early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine). Islamic and European alchemists developed a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory,
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terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use today. However, they continued antiquity's belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers and cryptic symbolism. Their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion.
Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its esoteric spiritual aspects, despite the arguments of scholars like Holmyard and von Franz that they should be understood as complementary. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences who examine the subject in terms of early chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism, and
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the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events occurred. The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers and spiritualists. The subject has also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. Despite this split, which von Franz believes has existed since the Western traditions' origin in a mix of Greek philosophy that was mixed with Egyptian and Mesopotamian technology, numerous sources have stressed an integration of esoteric and exoteric approaches to alchemy as far back as Pseudo-Democritus's first-century "On Physical and Mystical Matters" ().
Although alchemy is popularly associated with magic, historian Lawrence M. Principe argues
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that recent historical research has revealed that medieval and early modern alchemy embraced a much more varied set of ideas, goals, techniques, and practices:
Most readers probably are aware of several common claims about alchemy—for example, ... that it is akin to magic, or that its practice then or now is essentially deceptive. These ideas about alchemy emerged during the eighteenth century or after. While each of them might have limited validity within a narrow context, none of them is an accurate depiction of alchemy in general."
# Etymology.
The word alchemy comes from Old French "alquemie", "alkimie", used in Medieval Latin as "alchymia". This name was itself brought from the Arabic
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word "al-kīmiyā" ( or ) composed of two parts: the Late Greek term "khēmeía" (χημεία), "khēmía" (χημία), meaning 'to fuse or cast a metal', and the Arabic definite article "al-" (), meaning 'The'. Together this association can be interpreted as 'the process of transmutation by which to fuse or reunite with the divine or original form'. Its roots can be traced to the Egyptian name "kēme" (hieroglyphic 𓆎𓅓𓏏𓊖 "khmi" ), meaning 'black earth' which refers to the fertile and auriferous soil of the Nile valley, as opposed to red desert sand.
According to the Egyptologist Wallis Budge, the Arabic word "al-kīmiyaʾ" actually means "the Egyptian [science]", borrowing from the Coptic word for "Egypt", "kēme"
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(or its equivalent in the Mediaeval Bohairic dialect of Coptic, "khēme"). This Coptic word derives from Demotic "kmỉ", itself from ancient Egyptian "kmt". The ancient Egyptian word referred to both the country and the colour "black" (Egypt was the "Black Land", by contrast with the "Red Land", the surrounding desert); so this etymology could also explain the nickname "Egyptian black arts". However, according to Mahn, this theory may be an example of folk etymology. Assuming an Egyptian origin, chemistry is defined as follows:
Thus, according to Budge and others, chemistry derives from an Egyptian word "khemein" or "khēmia", "preparation of black powder", ultimately derived from the name "khem",
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Egypt. A decree of Diocletian, written about 300 AD in Greek, speaks against "the ancient writings of the Egyptians, which treat of the "khēmia" transmutation of gold and silver".
The Medieval Latin form was influenced by Greek "chymeia" (χυμεία) meaning 'mixture' and referring to pharmaceutical chemistry.
# History.
Alchemy is several philosophical traditions spanning some four millennia and three continents. These traditions' general penchant for cryptic and symbolic language makes it hard to trace their mutual influences and "genetic" relationships. One can distinguish at least three major strands, which appear to be largely independent, at least in their earlier stages: Chinese alchemy,
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centered in China and its zone of cultural influence; Indian alchemy, centered on the Indian subcontinent; and Western alchemy, which occurred around the Mediterranean and whose center has shifted over the millennia from Greco-Roman Egypt, to the Islamic world, and finally medieval Europe. Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoism and Indian alchemy with the Dharmic faiths, whereas Western alchemy developed its own philosophical system that was largely independent of, but influenced by, various Western religions. It is still an open question whether these three strands share a common origin, or to what extent they influenced each other.
## Hellenistic Egypt.
The start of Western alchemy
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may generally be traced to ancient and Hellenistic Egypt, where the city of Alexandria was a center of alchemical knowledge, and retained its pre-eminence through most of the Greek and Roman periods. Here, elements of technology, religion, mythology, and Hellenistic philosophy, each with their own much longer histories, combined to form the earliest known records of alchemy in the West. Zosimos of Panopolis wrote the oldest known books on alchemy, while Mary the Jewess is credited as being the first non-fictitious Western alchemist. They wrote in Greek and lived in Egypt under Roman rule.
Mythology – Zosimos of Panopolis asserted that alchemy dated back to Pharaonic Egypt where it was the domain
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of the priestly class, though there is little to no evidence for his assertion. Alchemical writers used Classical figures from Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology to illuminate their works and allegorize alchemical transmutation. These included the pantheon of gods related to the Classical planets, Isis, Osiris, Jason, and many others.
The central figure in the mythology of alchemy is Hermes Trismegistus (or Thrice-Great Hermes). His name is derived from the god Thoth and his Greek counterpart Hermes. Hermes and his caduceus or serpent-staff, were among alchemy's principal symbols. According to Clement of Alexandria, he wrote what were called the "forty-two books of Hermes", covering all fields
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of knowledge. The "Hermetica" of Thrice-Great Hermes is generally understood to form the basis for Western alchemical philosophy and practice, called the hermetic philosophy by its early practitioners. These writings were collected in the first centuries of the common era.
Technology – The dawn of Western alchemy is sometimes associated with that of metallurgy, extending back to 3500 . Many writings were lost when the emperor Diocletian ordered the burning of alchemical books after suppressing a revolt in Alexandria ( 292). Few original Egyptian documents on alchemy have survived, most notable among them the Stockholm papyrus and the Leyden papyrus X. Dating from 250-300, they contained recipes
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for dyeing and making artificial gemstones, cleaning and fabricating pearls, and manufacturing of imitation gold and silver.These writings lack the mystical, philosophical elements of alchemy, but do contain the works of Bolus of Mendes (or Pseudo-Democritus), which aligned these recipes with theoretical knowledge of astrology and the classical elements. Between the time of Bolus and Zosimos, the change took place that transformed this metallurgy into a Hermetic art.
Philosophy – Alexandria acted as a melting pot for philosophies of Pythagoreanism, Platonism, Stoicism and Gnosticism which formed the origin of alchemy's character. An important example of alchemy's roots in Greek philosophy,
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originated by Empedocles and developed by Aristotle, was that all things in the universe were formed from only four elements: earth, air, water, and fire. According to Aristotle, each element had a sphere to which it belonged and to which it would return if left undisturbed. The four elements of the Greek were mostly qualitative aspects of matter, not quantitative, as our modern elements are; "...True alchemy never regarded earth, air, water, and fire as corporeal or chemical substances in the present-day sense of the word. The four elements are simply the primary, and most general, qualities by means of which the amorphous and purely quantitative substance of all bodies first reveals itself
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in differentiated form." Later alchemists extensively developed the mystical aspects of this concept.
Alchemy coexisted alongside emerging Christianity. Lactantius believed Hermes Trismegistus had prophesied its birth. St Augustine later affirmed this in the 4th & 5th centuries, but also condemned Trismegistus for idolatry. Examples of Pagan, Christian, and Jewish alchemists can be found during this period.
Most of the Greco-Roman alchemists preceding Zosimos are known only by pseudonyms, such as Moses, Isis, Cleopatra, Democritus, and Ostanes. Others authors such as Komarios, and Chymes, we only know through fragments of text. After 400, Greek alchemical writers occupied themselves solely
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in commenting on the works of these predecessors. By the middle of the 7th century alchemy was almost an entirely mystical discipline. It was at that time that Khalid Ibn Yazid sparked its migration from Alexandria to the Islamic world, facilitating the translation and preservation of Greek alchemical texts in the 8th and 9th centuries.
## India.
The 2nd millennium BCE text Vedas describe a connection between eternal life and gold. The use of Mercury for alchemy is first documented in the 3rd- or 4th-century BCE text "Arthashastra". Buddhist texts from the 2nd to 5th centuries mention the transmutation of base metals to gold. Greek alchemy may have been introduced to Ancient India through
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the invasions of Alexander the Great in 325 , and kingdoms that were culturally influenced by the Greeks like Gandhāra, although hard evidence for this is lacking.
The 11th-century Persian chemist and physician Abū Rayhān Bīrūnī, who visited Gujarat as part of the court of Mahmud of Ghazni, reported that they
The goals of alchemy in India included the creation of a divine body (Sanskrit "divya-deham") and immortality while still embodied (Sanskrit "jīvan-mukti"). Sanskrit alchemical texts include much material on the manipulation of mercury and sulphur, that are homologized with the semen of the god Śiva and the menstrual blood of the goddess Devī.
Some early alchemical writings seem to have
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their origins in the Kaula tantric schools associated to the teachings of the personality of Matsyendranath. Other early writings are found in the Jaina medical treatise "Kalyāṇakārakam" of Ugrāditya, written in South India in the early 9th century.
Two famous early Indian alchemical authors were Nāgārjuna Siddha and Nityanātha Siddha. Nāgārjuna Siddha was a Buddhist monk. His book, "Rasendramangalam", is an example of Indian alchemy and medicine. Nityanātha Siddha wrote "Rasaratnākara", also a highly influential work. In Sanskrit, "rasa" translates to "mercury", and Nāgārjuna Siddha was said to have developed a method of converting mercury into gold.
Scholarship on Indian alchemy is in the
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publication of "The Alchemical Body" by David Gordon White.
A modern bibliography on Indian alchemical studies has been written by White.
The contents of 39 Sanskrit alchemical treatises have been analysed in detail in G. Jan Meulenbeld's "History of Indian Medical Literature". The discussion of these works in HIML gives a summary of the contents of each work, their special features, and where possible the evidence concerning their dating. Chapter 13 of HIML, "Various works on rasaśāstra and ratnaśāstra" (or "Various works on alchemy and gems") gives brief details of a further 655 (six hundred and fifty-five) treatises. In some cases Meulenbeld gives notes on the contents and authorship of
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these works; in other cases references are made only to the unpublished manuscripts of these titles.
A great deal remains to be discovered about Indian alchemical literature. The content of the Sanskrit alchemical corpus has not yet (2014) been adequately integrated into the wider general history of alchemy.
## Islamic world.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, the focus of alchemical development moved to the Islamic World. Much more is known about Islamic alchemy because it was better documented: indeed, most of the earlier writings that have come down through the years were preserved as Arabic translations. The word "alchemy" itself was derived from the Arabic word "al-kīmiyā" (الكيمياء).
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The early Islamic world was a melting pot for alchemy. Platonic and Aristotelian thought, which had already been somewhat appropriated into hermetical science, continued to be assimilated during the late 7th and early 8th centuries through Syriac translations and scholarship.
In the late 8th century, Jābir ibn Hayyān (Latinized as "Geber" or "Geberus") introduced a new approach to alchemy, based on scientific methodology and controlled experimentation in the laboratory, in contrast to the ancient Greek and Egyptian alchemists whose works were often allegorical and unintelligible, with very little concern for laboratory work. Jabir is thus "considered by many to be the father of chemistry",
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albeit others reserve that title for Robert Boyle or Antoine Lavoisier. The science historian, Paul Kraus, wrote:
Jabir himself clearly recognized and proclaimed the importance of experimentation:
Early Islamic chemists such as Jabir Ibn Hayyan, Al-Kindi ("Alkindus") and Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi ("Rasis" or "Rhazes") contributed a number of key chemical discoveries, such as the muriatic (hydrochloric acid), sulfuric and nitric acids, and more. The discovery that aqua regia, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids, could dissolve the noblest metal, gold, was to fuel the imagination of alchemists for the next millennium.
Islamic philosophers also made great contributions to alchemical
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hermeticism. The most influential author in this regard was arguably Jabir. Jabir's ultimate goal was "Takwin", the artificial creation of life in the alchemical laboratory, up to, and including, human life. He analyzed each Aristotelian element in terms of four basic qualities of "hotness", "coldness", "dryness", and "moistness". According to Jabir, in each metal two of these qualities were interior and two were exterior. For example, lead was externally cold and dry, while gold was hot and moist. Thus, Jabir theorized, by rearranging the qualities of one metal, a different metal would result. By this reasoning, the search for the philosopher's stone was introduced to Western alchemy. Jabir
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developed an elaborate numerology whereby the root letters of a substance's name in Arabic, when treated with various transformations, held correspondences to the element's physical properties.
The elemental system used in medieval alchemy also originated with Jabir. His original system consisted of seven elements, which included the five classical elements (aether, air, earth, fire, and water) in addition to two chemical elements representing the metals: sulphur, "the stone which burns", which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties. Shortly thereafter, this evolved into eight elements, with the Arabic concept
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of the three metallic principles: sulphur giving flammability or combustion, mercury giving volatility and stability, and salt giving solidity. The atomic theory of corpuscularianism, where all physical bodies possess an inner and outer layer of minute particles or corpuscles, also has its origins in the work of Jabir.
From the 9th to 14th centuries, alchemical theories faced criticism from a variety of practical Muslim chemists, including Alkindus, Abū al-Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, Avicenna and Ibn Khaldun. In particular, they wrote refutations against the idea of the transmutation of metals.
## East Asia.
Whereas European alchemy eventually centered on the transmutation of base metals into noble
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metals, Chinese alchemy had a more obvious connection to medicine. The philosopher's stone of European alchemists can be compared to the Grand Elixir of Immortality sought by Chinese alchemists. However, in the hermetic view, these two goals were not unconnected, and the philosopher's stone was often equated with the universal panacea; therefore, the two traditions may have had more in common than initially appears.
Black powder may have been an important invention of Chinese alchemists. As previously stated above, Chinese alchemy was more related to medicine. It is said that the Chinese invented gunpowder while trying to find a potion for eternal life. Described in 9th-century texts and used
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in fireworks in China by the 10th century, it was used in cannons by 1290. From China, the use of gunpowder spread to Japan, the Mongols, the Muslim world, and Europe. Gunpowder was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241, and in Europe by the 14th century.
Chinese alchemy was closely connected to Taoist forms of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Acupuncture and Moxibustion.In the early Song dynasty, followers of this Taoist idea (chiefly the elite and upper class) would ingest mercuric sulfide, which, though tolerable in low levels, led many to suicide. Thinking that this consequential death would lead to freedom and access to the Taoist heavens, the ensuing deaths encouraged
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people to eschew this method of alchemy in favor of external sources (the aforementioned Tai Chi Chuan, mastering of the qi, etc.)
## Medieval Europe.
The introduction of alchemy to Latin Europe may be dated to 11 February 1144, with the completion of Robert of Chester's translation of the Arabic "Book of the Composition of Alchemy". Although European craftsmen and technicians preexisted, Robert notes in his preface that alchemy was unknown in Latin Europe at the time of his writing. The translation of Arabic texts concerning numerous disciplines including alchemy flourished in 12th-century Toledo, Spain, through contributors like Gerard of Cremona and Adelard of Bath. Translations of the
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time included the Turba Philosophorum, and the works of Avicenna and al-Razi. These brought with them many new words to the European vocabulary for which there was no previous Latin equivalent. Alcohol, carboy, elixir, and athanor are examples.
Meanwhile, theologian contemporaries of the translators made strides towards the reconciliation of faith and experimental rationalism, thereby priming Europe for the influx of alchemical thought. The 11th-century St Anselm put forth the opinion that faith and rationalism were compatible and encouraged rationalism in a Christian context. In the early 12th century, Peter Abelard followed Anselm's work, laying down the foundation for acceptance of Aristotelian
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thought before the first works of Aristotle had reached the West. In the early 13th century, Robert Grosseteste used Abelard's methods of analysis and added the use of observation, experimentation, and conclusions when conducting scientific investigations. Grosseteste also did much work to reconcile Platonic and Aristotelian thinking.
Through much of the 12th and 13th centuries, alchemical knowledge in Europe remained centered on translations, and new Latin contributions were not made. The efforts of the translators were succeeded by that of the encyclopaedists. In the 13th century, Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon were the most notable of these, their work summarizing and explaining the newly
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imported alchemical knowledge in Aristotelian terms. Albertus Magnus, a Dominican friar, is known to have written works such as the "Book of Minerals" where he observed and commented on the operations and theories of alchemical authorities like Hermes and Democritus and unnamed alchemists of his time. Albertus critically compared these to the writings of Aristotle and Avicenna, where they concerned the transmutation of metals. From the time shortly after his death through to the 15th century, more than 28 alchemical tracts were misattributed to him, a common practice giving rise to his reputation as an accomplished alchemist. Likewise, alchemical texts have been attributed to Albert's student
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Thomas Aquinas.
Roger Bacon, a Franciscan friar who wrote on a wide variety of topics including optics, comparative linguistics, and medicine, composed his "Great Work" () for as part of a project towards rebuilding the medieval university curriculum to include the new learning of his time. While alchemy was not more important to him than other sciences and he did not produce allegorical works on the topic, he did consider it and astrology to be important parts of both natural philosophy and theology and his contributions advanced alchemy's connections to soteriology and Christian theology. Bacon's writings integrated morality, salvation, alchemy, and the prolongation of life. His correspondence
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with Clement highlighted this, noting the importance of alchemy to the papacy. Like the Greeks before him, Bacon acknowledged the division of alchemy into practical and theoretical spheres. He noted that the theoretical lay outside the scope of Aristotle, the natural philosophers, and all Latin writers of his time. The practical, however, confirmed the theoretical thought experiment, and Bacon advocated its uses in natural science and medicine. In later European legend, however, Bacon became an archmage. In particular, along with Albertus Magnus, he was credited with the forging of a brazen head capable of answering its owner's questions.
Soon after Bacon, the influential work of Pseudo-Geber
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(sometimes identified as Paul of Taranto) appeared. His "Summa Perfectionis" remained a staple summary of alchemical practice and theory through the medieval and renaissance periods. It was notable for its inclusion of practical chemical operations alongside sulphur-mercury theory, and the unusual clarity with which they were described. By the end of the 13th century, alchemy had developed into a fairly structured system of belief. Adepts believed in the macrocosm-microcosm theories of Hermes, that is to say, they believed that processes that affect minerals and other substances could have an effect on the human body (for example, if one could learn the secret of purifying gold, one could use
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the technique to purify the human soul). They believed in the four elements and the four qualities as described above, and they had a strong tradition of cloaking their written ideas in a labyrinth of coded jargon set with traps to mislead the uninitiated. Finally, the alchemists practiced their art: they actively experimented with chemicals and made observations and theories about how the universe operated. Their entire philosophy revolved around their belief that man's soul was divided within himself after the fall of Adam. By purifying the two parts of man's soul, man could be reunited with God.
In the 14th century, alchemy became more accessible to Europeans outside the confines of Latin
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speaking churchmen and scholars. Alchemical discourse shifted from scholarly philosophical debate to an exposed social commentary on the alchemists themselves. Dante, Piers Plowman, and Chaucer all painted unflattering pictures of alchemists as thieves and liars. Pope John XXII's 1317 edict, "Spondent quas non exhibent" forbade the false promises of transmutation made by pseudo-alchemists. In 1403, Henry IV of England banned the practice of multiplying metals (although it was possible to buy a licence to attempt to make gold alchemically, and a number were granted by Henry VI and Edward IV). These critiques and regulations centered more around pseudo-alchemical charlatanism than the actual study
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of alchemy, which continued with an increasingly Christian tone. The 14th century saw the Christian imagery of death and resurrection employed in the alchemical texts of Petrus Bonus, John of Rupescissa, and in works written in the name of Raymond Lull and Arnold of Villanova.
Nicolas Flamel is a well-known alchemist, but a good example of pseudepigraphy, the practice of giving your works the name of someone else, usually more famous. Although the historical Flamel existed, the writings and legends assigned to him only appeared in 1612. Flamel was not a religious scholar as were many of his predecessors, and his entire interest in the subject revolved around the pursuit of the philosopher's
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stone. His work spends a great deal of time describing the processes and reactions, but never actually gives the formula for carrying out the transmutations. Most of 'his' work was aimed at gathering alchemical knowledge that had existed before him, especially as regarded the philosopher's stone. Through the 14th and 15th centuries, alchemists were much like Flamel: they concentrated on looking for the philosophers' stone. Bernard Trevisan and George Ripley made similar contributions. Their cryptic allusions and symbolism led to wide variations in interpretation of the art.
## Renaissance and early modern Europe.
During the Renaissance, Hermetic and Platonic foundations were restored to European
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alchemy. The dawn of medical, pharmaceutical, occult, and entrepreneurial branches of alchemy followed.
In the late 15th century, Marsilo Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum and the works of Plato into Latin. These were previously unavailable to Europeans who for the first time had a full picture of the alchemical theory that Bacon had declared absent. Renaissance Humanism and Renaissance Neoplatonism guided alchemists away from physics to refocus on mankind as the alchemical vessel.
Esoteric systems developed that blended alchemy into a broader occult Hermeticism, fusing it with magic, astrology, and Christian cabala. A key figure in this development was German Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
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(1486–1535), who received his Hermetic education in Italy in the schools of the humanists. In his "De Occulta Philosophia", he attempted to merge Kabbalah, Hermeticism, and alchemy. He was instrumental in spreading this new blend of Hermeticism outside the borders of Italy.
Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus, (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541) cast alchemy into a new form, rejecting some of Agrippa's occultism and moving away from chrysopoeia. Paracelsus pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine and wrote, "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines."
His
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hermetical views were that sickness and health in the body relied on the harmony of man the microcosm and Nature the macrocosm. He took an approach different from those before him, using this analogy not in the manner of soul-purification but in the manner that humans must have certain balances of minerals in their bodies, and that certain illnesses of the body had chemical remedies that could cure them. Paracelsian practical alchemy, especially herbal medicine and plant remedies has since been named spagyric (a synonym for alchemy from the Greek words meaning "to separate" and "to join together", based on the Latin alchemic maxim: "solve et coagula"). Iatrochemistry also refers to the pharmaceutical
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applications of alchemy championed by Paracelsus.
John Dee (13 July 1527 – December, 1608) followed Agrippa's occult tradition. Although better known for angel summoning, divination, and his role as astrologer, cryptographer, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I, Dee's alchemical "Monas Hieroglyphica", written in 1564 was his most popular and influential work. His writing portrayed alchemy as a sort of terrestrial astronomy in line with the Hermetic axiom "As above so below". During the 17th century, a short-lived "supernatural" interpretation of alchemy became popular, including support by fellows of the Royal Society: Robert Boyle and Elias Ashmole. Proponents of the supernatural interpretation
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of alchemy believed that the philosopher's stone might be used to summon and communicate with angels.
Entrepreneurial opportunities were common for the alchemists of Renaissance Europe. Alchemists were contracted by the elite for practical purposes related to mining, medical services, and the production of chemicals, medicines, metals, and gemstones. Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the late 16th century, famously received and sponsored various alchemists at his court in Prague, including Dee and his associate Edward Kelley. King James IV of Scotland, Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Augustus, Elector of Saxony, Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn, and Maurice,
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Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel all contracted alchemists. John's son Arthur Dee worked as a court physician to Michael I of Russia and Charles I of England but also compiled the alchemical book "Fasciculus Chemicus".
Although most of these appointments were legitimate, the trend of pseudo-alchemical fraud continued through the Renaissance. "Betrüger" would use sleight of hand, or claims of secret knowledge to make money or secure patronage. Legitimate mystical and medical alchemists such as Michael Maier and Heinrich Khunrath wrote about fraudulent transmutations, distinguishing themselves from the con artists. False alchemists were sometimes prosecuted for fraud.
The terms "chemia" and "alchemia"
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were used as synonyms in the early modern period, and the differences between alchemy, chemistry and small-scale assaying and metallurgy were not as neat as in the present day. There were important overlaps between practitioners, and trying to classify them into alchemists, chemists and craftsmen is anachronistic. For example, Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), an alchemist better known for his astronomical and astrological investigations, had a laboratory built at his Uraniborg observatory/research institute. Michael Sendivogius ("Michał Sędziwój", 1566–1636), a Polish alchemist, philosopher, medical doctor and pioneer of chemistry wrote mystical works but is also credited with distilling oxygen in a
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lab sometime around 1600. Sendivogious taught his technique to Cornelius Drebbel who, in 1621, applied this in a submarine. Isaac Newton devoted considerably more of his writing to the study of alchemy (see Isaac Newton's occult studies) than he did to either optics or physics. Other early modern alchemists who were eminent in their other studies include Robert Boyle, and Jan Baptist van Helmont. Their Hermeticism complemented rather than precluded their practical achievements in medicine and science.
## Late modern period.
The decline of European alchemy was brought about by the rise of modern science with its emphasis on rigorous quantitative experimentation and its disdain for "ancient
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wisdom". Although the seeds of these events were planted as early as the 17th century, alchemy still flourished for some two hundred years, and in fact may have reached its peak in the 18th century. As late as 1781 James Price claimed to have produced a powder that could transmute mercury into silver or gold. Early modern European alchemy continued to exhibit a diversity of theories, practices, and purposes: "Scholastic and anti-Aristotelian, Paracelsian and anti-Paracelsian, Hermetic, Neoplatonic, mechanistic, vitalistic, and more—plus virtually every combination and compromise thereof."
Robert Boyle (1627–1691) pioneered the scientific method in chemical investigations. He assumed nothing
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in his experiments and compiled every piece of relevant data. Boyle would note the place in which the experiment was carried out, the wind characteristics, the position of the Sun and Moon, and the barometer reading, all just in case they proved to be relevant. This approach eventually led to the founding of modern chemistry in the 18th and 19th centuries, based on revolutionary discoveries of Lavoisier and John Dalton.
Beginning around 1720, a rigid distinction was drawn between "alchemy" and "chemistry" for the first time. By the 1740s, "alchemy" was now restricted to the realm of gold making, leading to the popular belief that alchemists were charlatans, and the tradition itself nothing
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more than a fraud. In order to protect the developing science of modern chemistry from the negative censure of which alchemy was being subjected, academic writers during the scientific Enlightenment attempted, for the sake of survival, to divorce and separate the "new" chemistry from the "old" practices of alchemy. This move was mostly successful, and the consequences of this continued into the 19th and 20th centuries, and even to the present day.
During the occult revival of the early 19th century, alchemy received new attention as an occult science. The esoteric or occultist school, which arose during the 19th century, held (and continues to hold) the view that the substances and operations
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mentioned in alchemical literature are to be interpreted in a spiritual sense, and it downplays the role of the alchemy as a practical tradition or protoscience. This interpretation further forwarded the view that alchemy is an art primarily concerned with spiritual enlightenment or illumination, as opposed to the physical manipulation of apparatus and chemicals, and claims that the obscure language of the alchemical texts were an allegorical guise for spiritual, moral or mystical processes.
In the 19th-century revival of alchemy, the two most seminal figures were Mary Anne Atwood and Ethan Allen Hitchcock, who independently published similar works regarding spiritual alchemy. Both forwarded
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a completely esoteric view of alchemy, as Atwood claimed: "No modern art or chemistry, notwithstanding all its surreptitious claims, has any thing in common with Alchemy." Atwood's work influenced subsequent authors of the occult revival including Eliphas Levi, Arthur Edward Waite, and Rudolf Steiner. Hitchcock, in his "Remarks Upon Alchymists" (1855) attempted to make a case for his spiritual interpretation with his claim that the alchemists wrote about a spiritual discipline under a materialistic guise in order to avoid accusations of blasphemy from the church and state. In 1845, Baron Carl Reichenbach, published his studies on Odic force, a concept with some similarities to alchemy, but his
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research did not enter the mainstream of scientific discussion.
In 1946, Louis Cattiaux published the Message Retrouvé, a work that was at once philosophical, mystical and highly influenced by alchemy. In his lineage, many researchers, including Emmanuel and Charles d'Hooghvorst, are updating alchemical studies in France and Belgium.
## Women in alchemy.
Several women appear in the earliest history of alchemy. Michael Maier names Mary the Jewess, Cleopatra the Alchemist and Taphnutia as the four women who knew how to make the philosopher's stone. Zosimos' sister Theosebia (later known as Euthica the Arab) and Isis the Prophetess also played a role in early alchemical texts.
The first alchemist
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whose name we know is said to have been Mary the Jewess (c. 200 A.D.). Early sources claim that Mary (or Maria) devised a number of improvements to alchemical equipment and tools as well as novel techniques in chemistry. Her best known advances were in heating and distillation processes. The laboratory water-bath, known eponymously (especially in France) as the bain-marie, is said to have been invented or at least improved by her. Essentially a double-boiler, it was (and is) used in chemistry for processes that require gentle heating. The tribikos (a modified distillation apparatus) and the kerotakis (a more intricate apparatus used especially for sublimations) are two other advancements in
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the process of distillation that are credited to her. The occasional claim that Mary was the first to discover hydrochloric acid is not accepted by most authorities. Although we have no writing from Mary herself, she is known from the early-fourth-century writings of Zosimos of Panopolis.
Due to the proliferation of pseudepigrapha and anonymous works, it is difficult to know which of the alchemists were actually women. After the Greco-Roman period, women's names appear less frequently in the alchemical literature. Women vacate the history of alchemy during the medieval and renaissance periods, aside from the fictitious account of Perenelle Flamel. Mary Anne Atwood's "A Suggestive Inquiry into
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the Hermetic Mystery" (1850) marks their return during the nineteenth-century occult revival.
## Modern historical research.
The history of alchemy has become a significant and recognized subject of academic study. As the language of the alchemists is analyzed, historians are becoming more aware of the intellectual connections between that discipline and other facets of Western cultural history, such as the evolution of science and philosophy, the sociology and psychology of the intellectual communities, kabbalism, spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and other mystic movements. Institutions involved in this research include The Chymistry of Isaac Newton project at Indiana University, the University
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