Editing Alchemy (section)

=== Renaissance and early modern Europe ===
{{Further|Renaissance magic|natural magic}}
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 | caption1 = Page from alchemic treatise of [[Ramon Llull]], 16th century
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 | caption2 = The red sun rising over the city, the final illustration of 16th-century alchemical text, ''[[Splendor Solis]]''. The word [[rubedo]], meaning "redness", was adopted by alchemists and signalled alchemical success, and the end of the great work.
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During the [[Renaissance]], Hermetic and Platonic foundations were restored to European alchemy. The dawn of medical, pharmaceutical, occult, and entrepreneurial branches of alchemy followed.

In the late 15th century, [[Marsilio 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.<ref>Peter J. Forshaw. '"Chemistry, That Starry Science" – Early Modern Conjunctions of Astrology and Alchemy' (2013)</ref><ref>Peter J. Forshaw, 'Cabala Chymica or Chemia Cabalistica – Early Modern Alchemists and Cabala' (2013)</ref> A key figure in this development was German [[Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa]] (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.<ref>Glenn Alexander Magee. ''Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition.'' Cornell University Press. 2008. p.30</ref><ref>Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. ''The Western Esoteric Traditions: A Historical Introduction.'' Oxford University Press. 2008 p.60</ref>

[[Paracelsus]] (Philippus Aureolus 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."<ref>{{cite book |author=Edwardes, Michael |title=The Dark Side of History |location=New York |publisher=Stein and Day |year=1977 |page=47 |isbn=978-0-552-11463-9}}</ref>

His 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.<ref>{{cite book |author=Debus, Allen G. |author2=Multhauf, Robert P. |author2-link=Robert P. Multhauf |title=Alchemy and Chemistry in the Seventeenth Century |location=Los Angeles |publisher=William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California. |year=1966 |pages=6–12 |author-link=Allen G. Debus}}</ref> [[Iatrochemistry]] refers to the pharmaceutical 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 [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]], Dee's alchemical<ref>"''Monas hieroglyphica'' is not a traditional alchemical work, but has important theoretical insights about a cosmic vision, in which alchemy played an important part."{{cite web |last=Szőnyi |first=György E. |year=2015 |url=http://www.renesancni-texty.upol.cz/soubory/publikace/Latin_Alchemical_Literature_of_Czech_Provenance.pdf |title='Layers of Meaning in Alchemy in John Dee's Monas hieroglyphica and its Relevance in a Central European Context' |publisher=Centre for Renaissance Texts, 2015, 118| access-date = 22 June 2016| archive-date = 12 August 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160812223446/http://www.renesancni-texty.upol.cz/soubory/publikace/Latin_Alchemical_Literature_of_Czech_Provenance.pdf| url-status = live}}</ref> ''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''.<ref>[[William R. Newman|William Royall Newman]], Anthony Grafton. ''Secrets of Nature: Astrology and Alchemy in Early Modern Europe''. MIT Press, 2001. P.173.</ref> 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 of alchemy believed that the philosopher's stone might be used to summon and communicate with angels.<ref>
* ''Journal of the History of Ideas'', '''41''', 1980, pp. 293–318
* {{Harvnb|Principe|Newman|2001|pp=399}}
* ''The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest'', by [[Lawrence M. Principe]], 'Princeton University Press', 1998, '''pp. 188 90'''</ref>

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.<ref>[[Tara Nummedal|Tara E. Nummedal]]. ''Alchemy and authority in the Holy Roman Empire.'' p.4</ref> [[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]]. [[James IV of Scotland|King James IV of Scotland]],<ref>''Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland'', vol. iii, (1901), 99, 202, 206, 209, 330, 340, 341, 353, 355, 365, 379, 382, 389, 409.</ref> [[Julius, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]], [[Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg]], [[Augustus, Elector of Saxony]], [[Julius Echter von Mespelbrunn]], and [[Maurice, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel]] all contracted alchemists.<ref>[[Tara Nummedal|Tara E. Nummedal]]. ''Alchemy and authority in the Holy Roman Empire.'' pp. 85–98</ref> 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]]''.

[[File:Alchemik Sedziwoj Matejko.JPG|thumb|''Alchemist [[Sendivogius]]'' (1566–1636) by [[Jan Matejko]], 1867]]
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 artist]]s.<ref>[[Tara Nummedal|Tara E. Nummedal]]. ''Alchemy and authority in the Holy Roman Empire.'' p.171</ref> False alchemists were sometimes prosecuted for fraud.

The terms "chemia" and "alchemia" 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. [[Michał Sędziwój|Michael Sendivogius]] (''Michał Sędziwój'', 1566–1636), a [[Poland|Polish]] alchemist, philosopher, medical doctor and pioneer of chemistry wrote mystical works but is also credited with distilling [[oxygen]] in a 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.