Greek Alchemy

This volume offers a comprehensive and accurate description of all the Greek alchemical manuscripts known to be currently held in Greek libraries. It will be a de facto supplement to the Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs (CMAG) compiled under the auspices of the Union Académique Internationale by an international team of renowned scholars, historians and philologists during the 1920s and 1930s.

The vast majority of the Greek alchemical manuscripts now held in Greek...
More Description

This volume offers a comprehensive and accurate description of all the Greek alchemical manuscripts known to be currently held in Greek libraries. It will be a de facto supplement to the Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs (CMAG) compiled under the auspices of the Union Académique Internationale by an international team of renowned scholars, historians and philologists during the 1920s and 1930s.

The vast majority of the Greek alchemical manuscripts now held in Greek libraries (be it in Athens or in other localities), has remained hitherto largely unknown and, consequently, undescribed. The present publication will list and describe 19 manuscripts, following up to date conventions in palaeography and codicology, as well as in the history of alchemy.

The work results from the research program directed by Professor Efthymios Nicolaidis with the principal objective of providing access to the documentary resources necessary for the historical reconstruction of the development and mutations of alchemy in the medieval and early modern Greek-speaking world. This included creating a repository of textual information on Greek alchemy from Byzantium to the 18th century in the Ottoman Empire. The search for primary sources was fundamental: locating, listing, and describing manuscripts which were hitherto unknown or known only through brief descriptions in the printed catalogues.