Editing Alchemy (section)

=== Women ===
Several women appear in the earliest history of alchemy. [[Michael Maier]] names four women who were able to make the philosophers' stone: [[Mary the Jewess]], [[Cleopatra the Alchemist]], [[Medera]], and [[Paphnutia the Virgin|Taphnutia]].<ref>Raphael Patai. ''The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book.'' p. 78.</ref> Zosimos's sister Theosebia (later known as Euthica the Arab) and [[Isis the Prophetess]] also played roles in early alchemical texts.

The first alchemist whose name we know was Mary the Jewess ({{circa|200 A.D.}}).<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century |author1=Rayner-Canham, M |author2=Rayner-Canham, G |publisher=Chemical Heritage Foundation |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-941901-27-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/womeninchemistry0000rayn/page/2 2–4] |url=https://archive.org/details/womeninchemistry0000rayn/page/2}}</ref> Early sources claim that Mary (or Maria) devised a number of improvements to alchemical equipment and tools as well as novel techniques in chemistry.<ref name=":0" /> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book |last=Patai |first=R |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-691-00642-0 |pages=60–80}}</ref> Essentially a double-boiler, it was (and is) used in chemistry for processes that required gentle heating. The tribikos (a modified distillation apparatus) and the kerotakis (a more intricate apparatus used especially for sublimations) are two other advancements in the process of distillation that are credited to her.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The origins of alchemy in Graeco-Roman Egypt |last=Lindsay |first=J |publisher=Barnes & Noble |year=1970 |isbn=978-0-389-01006-7 |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/trent_0116301348557/page/240 240–250] |url=https://archive.org/details/trent_0116301348557/page/240}}</ref> Although we have no writing from Mary herself, she is known from the early-fourth-century writings of [[Zosimos of Panopolis]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Jewish Alchemists: A History and Source Book |last=Patai |first=R |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-691-00642-0 |pages=81–93}}</ref> After the Greco-Roman period, women's names appear less frequently in alchemical literature.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the Renaissance, due to the emergence of print, women were able to access the alchemical knowledge from texts of the preceding centuries.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Ray |first=Meredith K. |title=Daughters of alchemy: women and scientific culture in early modern Italy |date=2015 |isbn=978-0-674-42587-3 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |oclc=905902839}}</ref> [[Caterina Sforza]], the Countess of Forlì and Lady of Imola, is one of the few confirmed female alchemists after Mary the Jewess. As she owned an apothecary, she would practice science and conduct experiments in her botanic gardens and laboratories.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Boschiero |first=Luciano |date=1 July 2017 |title=The secret lives of women |journal=Metascience |language=en |volume=26 |issue=2 |pages=199–200 |doi=10.1007/s11016-016-0144-z |s2cid=151860901 |issn=1467-9981}}</ref> Being knowledgeable in alchemy and pharmacology, she recorded all of her alchemical ventures in a manuscript named {{lang|it|Experimenti}} ('Experiments').<ref name=":3" /> The manuscript contained more than four hundred recipes covering alchemy as well as cosmetics and medicine.<ref name=":2" /> One of these recipes was for the water of talc.<ref name=":2" /> [[Talc]], which makes up talcum powder, is a mineral which, when combined with water and distilled, was said to produce a solution which yielded many benefits.<ref name=":2" /> These supposed benefits included turning silver to gold and rejuvenation.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Sforza |first=Caterina |title=Experimenti de la Ex[ellentissi]ma S[igno]ra Caterina da Furlj Matre de lo inllux[trissi]mo S[ignor] Giovanni de Medici |publisher=Loescher |year=1893 |isbn=978-1-147-83327-0 |location=Rome |pages=617–18 |language=it |translator-last=Pasolini |translator-first=Pier Desiderio |trans-title=Caterina Sforza |chapter=3 |translator-last2=Sylvester |translator-first2=Paul}}</ref> When combined with white wine, its powder form could be ingested to counteract poison.<ref name=":4" /> Furthermore, if that powder was mixed and drunk with white wine, it was said to be a source of protection from any poison, sickness, or plague.<ref name=":4" /> Other recipes were for making hair dyes, lotions, lip colours.<ref name=":2" /> There was also information on how to treat a variety of ailments from fevers and coughs to epilepsy and cancer.<ref name=":1" /> In addition, there were instructions on producing the quintessence (or [[Aether (classical element)|aether]]), an elixir which was believed to be able to heal all sicknesses, defend against diseases, and perpetuate youthfulness.<ref name=":1" /> She also wrote about creating the illustrious [[philosophers' stone]].<ref name=":1" />

Some women known for their interest in alchemy were [[Catherine de' Medici]], the Queen of France, and [[Marie de' Medici]], the following Queen of France, who carried out experiments in her personal laboratory.<ref name=":2" /> Also, [[Isabella d'Este]], the Marchioness of Mantua, made perfumes herself to serve as gifts.<ref name=":2" /> Due to the proliferation in alchemical literature of [[pseudepigrapha]] and anonymous works, however, it is difficult to know which of the alchemists were actually women. This contributed to a broader pattern in which male authors credited prominent noblewomen for beauty products with the purpose of appealing to a female audience. For example, in {{lang|it|Ricettario galante}} ("Gallant Recipe-Book"), the distillation of lemons and roses was attributed to [[Elisabetta Gonzaga]], the duchess of Urbino.<ref name=":2" /> In the same book, [[Isabella d'Aragona]], the daughter of Alfonso II of Naples, is accredited for recipes involving [[alum]] and mercury.<ref name=":2" /> [[Ippolita Maria Sforza]] is even referred to in an anonymous manuscript about a hand lotion created with rose powder and crushed bones.<ref name=":2" />

As the sixteenth century went on, scientific culture flourished and people began collecting "secrets". During this period "secrets" referred to experiments, and the most coveted ones were not those which were bizarre, but the ones which had been proven to yield the desired outcome.<ref name=":2" />  In this period, the only book of secrets ascribed to a woman was {{lang|it|I secreti della signora Isabella Cortese}} ('The Secrets of Signora Isabella Cortese').<ref name=":2" /> This book contained information on how to turn base metals into gold, medicine, and cosmetics.<ref name=":2" /> However, it is rumoured that a man, [[Girolamo Ruscelli]], was the real author and only used a female voice to attract female readers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sacco |first=Francesco G. |date=March 2016 |title=Meredith K. Ray, Daughters of Alchemy: Women and Scientific Culture in Early Modern Italy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015. pp. 291. ISBN 978-0-674-50423-3 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/meredith-k-ray-daughters-of-alchemy-women-and-scientific-culture-in-early-modern-italy-cambridge-ma-harvard-university-press-2015-pp-291-isbn-9780674504233-4500-3395-hardback/81117AA39C92F6F86BACF185AD15262F |journal=The British Journal for the History of Science |language=en |volume=49 |issue=1 |pages=122–123 |doi=10.1017/S0007087416000078 |s2cid=146847844 |issn=0007-0874 |access-date=6 December 2022 |archive-date=6 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221206101904/https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/meredith-k-ray-daughters-of-alchemy-women-and-scientific-culture-in-early-modern-italy-cambridge-ma-harvard-university-press-2015-pp-291-isbn-9780674504233-4500-3395-hardback/81117AA39C92F6F86BACF185AD15262F |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the nineteenth-century, [[Mary Anne Atwood]]'s ''A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery'' (1850) marked the return of women during the [[occult revival]].