Author Description

This book is primarily meant for those whose interest in alchemy is historical, containing fourteen full length texts on alchemy, mostly from the 17th and 18th centuries, along with an appendix containing bits of other works of note, and an expansive preface on the subject matter. Ending with a short bibliography of more modern works for further academic reading, it includes such notable manuscripts as "Aula Lucis" and Hollandus' "A Work of Saturn."The compilation here was carefully chosen to include both highly symbolic works full of metaphors as well as works which are far more literal and easily understood, as the tradition of alchemy is manifold and hardly monolithic in form- for alchemy is both pseudoscience and science, and both spiritual and mundane. It is superstition and it is the very seed of modern science.