Were alchemists respected in Europe?
Upvote:9
Before roughly 1700, alchemy was simply another word for chemistry (the words are cognate). Any kind of work with chemicals could be called either chemistry or alchemy in Europe, depending simply on what kind of local vocabulary you were familiar with. Books about working with chemicals would be addressed to people doing any kind of work, including trying to make a philosopher's stone.
In 1699, the French Academy of Sciences was founded. They initially had virtually no code of ethics, and members included vivisection and human experimentation among their wish list for scientific experiments. However, "philosopher's stones" were banned from the very beginning.
By the mid 18th century, alchemy was completely excluded from high European society.
Sources:
Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy (2012)
Hans Blumenberg, The Legitimacy of the Modern Age (1985)
Upvote:13
You have to remember that chemistry was not a well-defined science yet. The borders between chemistry, natural philosophy, and alchemy were unclear. Universities would teach the seven liberal arts, consisting of the trivium and quadrivium. Other fields of study would be classified into this system, or simply called philosophy. There were people like Roger Bacon, who was a monk, or Albertus Magnus, who was a bishop. Their study could be called chemistry or alchemy.
Other alchemists would have promised rulers to make gold, which was common enough to lead to a papal bull against it. This was an edict against counterfeiting, not against alchemistry as such.
More post
- 📝 How did Napoleon evade the British fleet and return to France?
- 📝 Who governed London during the Great Plague?
- 📝 Why were women monarchs allowed to rule in patriarchal societies?
- 📝 Why was Villa Gaggia chosen as the setting for Hitler & Mussolini's July 1943 meeting?
- 📝 Are there any accounts of everyday life during the Black Death?
- 📝 Why is Matgenus, king of Tyre, sometimes called Mattan?
- 📝 How did the Chinese Civil War avoid becoming another Korean War?
- 📝 How advanced was the satellite technology during the Yom Kippur War?
- 📝 Were any fortified castles self-sufficient in food?
- 📝 Are there any ancient sources clearly testifying a frozen Tiber river in the year 398, 396, 271, and 177 BCE?
- 📝 Can Alexander III of Macedon's success be attributed to good logistics management?
- 📝 What was the political consciousness of a 15th century English peasant?
- 📝 How could lower judges ignore the US Supreme Court?
- 📝 Possible history behind photograph related to 1962 Sino-Indian War
- 📝 Why was immigration from France to the United States lower than from some other countries?
- 📝 How were documents written in Plato's time?
- 📝 How Did the Mongol Empire Get So Big?
- 📝 Did Roman gladiators use axes?
- 📝 Why did Native Americans never unify into a single country?
- 📝 Was simply addressing the English monarch wrongly ever a punishable crime?
- 📝 Did Crimea and Russia exchange Ukraine for the Taganrog region?
- 📝 What happened to Saxe Altenburg circa 1827?
- 📝 What was the official attitude to Cromwell after the Glorious Revolution?
- 📝 US Congress in WW2 Compared with other legislative bodies
- 📝 Were conquered professionals used as forced professional labor under Nazi rule?
- 📝 Why are there shields present on the sides of Henry VIII ships, did they serve any function or was it pure decoration?
- 📝 How did Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof end up on the list of prisoners to be released, by Black September?
- 📝 Native American Technology
- 📝 What age were these Britons in A.D. 43?
- 📝 During the Siege of Alesia, why were certain Roman forts located outside the circumvallation lines?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Were alchemists respected in Europe?
- 📝 Were the living standards in Medieval Europe a lot worse than in the Muslim world?
- 📝 Why were bloody religious wars so incredibly frequent in Europe in the century following the Reformation?
- 📝 Why were Germanic languages able to spread over much of northern Europe after 500BC? Did they mostly replace Celtic?
- 📝 Were there any battles in Continental Europe that were decided by "peasants with pitchforks?"
- 📝 How were the Morisco refugees from Europe received in North Africa, given that they were foreigners and Christian?
- 📝 Were East Germans more acquiescent to Soviet domination than the rest of Eastern Europe and if so, why?
- 📝 Why were even royals in medieval europe living without running water and sewerage?
- 📝 Were there ever instances of sailors pressed into British service in Europe ending up in the Caribbean?
- 📝 Was it common in Europe in the modern era that proper names were translated?
- 📝 When were the 'last' pagans in northern Europe converted to christianity?
- 📝 Where were Racka sheep brought to Europe from and when?
- 📝 How were border controls implemented in Western Europe in the 1970s
- 📝 How were "Wehrbauern" (soldier peasants) in medieval Europe even a thing, at all?
- 📝 Were people really as haphazardly *burned at the stake* back in the day in Europe as they make it out to have been?
- 📝 Were eastern weapons ever seen in medieval Europe and western weapons ever seen in medieval Asia?
- 📝 How were the beds in which privileged man in medieval Europe slept?
- 📝 Were there women who were against giving women the right to vote?
- 📝 Why were old fortifications shaped like stars and not like circles?
- 📝 Why were ships-of-the line not supposed to open fire on frigates during fleet actions?
- 📝 What were paper airplanes called before there were real airplanes? (i.e. untethered winged flyers, not kites or balloons)
- 📝 How much smaller were medieval farm animals in England than today?
- 📝 What drugs were used in England during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 Why Were Madagascar and New Zealand Discovered So Late?
- 📝 Why were Navajo code talkers used during WW2?
- 📝 What were the reasons for the Renaissance / scientific revolution in Europe?
- 📝 Were ancient ships named?
- 📝 Why were the Romans unable to conquer Germania?
- 📝 Were any Kings/Queens who were monarchs as children good rulers?
- 📝 Were Roman public roads built by private companies?