The Jewish Alchemists (ebook)

Argumento de The Jewish Alchemists (ebook)

In this monumental work, Raphael Patai opens up an entirely new field of cultural history by tracing Jewish alchemy from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Until now there has been little attention given to the significant role that Jews played in the field of alchemy. Here, drawing on an enormous range of previously unexplored sources, Patai reveals that Jews were major players in what was for centuries one of humanity's most compelling intellectual obsessions.

Originally published in 1994.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Winner of the 1994 National Jewish Honor Book in Scholarship0Illustrations Acknowledgments Abbreviations Pt. 1 Prelude Ch. 1 Introduction 3 Ch. 2 Biblical Figures as Alchemists 18 Ch. 3 Alchemy in Bible and Talmud? 41 Pt. 2 The Hellenistic Age Ch. 4 Jews in Hellenistic Alchemy 50 Ch. 5 Maria the Jewess 60 Ch. 6 Zosimus on Maria the Jewess 81 Pt. 3 The Early Arab World Ch. 7 Abufalah's Alchemy 98 Ch. 8 A Hebrew Version of the Book of Alums and Salts 119 Ch. 9 Pseudo-Khalid ibn Yazid 125 Pt. 4 The Eleventh to Thirteenth Centuries Ch. 10 Artephius 141 Ch. 11 The Great Jewish Philosophers 144 Ch. 12 Kabbalah and Alchemy: A Reconsideration 152 Pt. 5 The Fourteenth Century Ch. 13 Raymund de Tarrega: Marrano, Heretic, Alchemist 175 Ch. 14 The Quinta Essentia in Hebrew 204 Ch. 15 Flamel's Jewish Masters 218 Ch. 16 Two Spanish Jewish Court Alchemists 234 Ch. 17 Abraham Eleazar 238 Ch. 18 Themo Judaei 258 Pt. 6 The Fifteenth Century Ch. 19 Simeon ben Semah Duran 264 Ch. 20 Solomon Trismosin and His Jewish Master 268 Ch. 21 Abraham ben Simeon's Cabala Mystica 271 Ch. 22 Isaac Hollandus and His Son John Isaac 289 Ch. 23 Johanan Alemanno and Joseph Albo 293 Ch. 24 Pseudo-Maimonides 300 Ch. 25 Three Kuzari Commentators 314 Pt. 7 The Sixteenth Century Ch. 26 Esh Msaref: A Kabbalistic-Alchemical Treatise 322 Ch. 27 Taitazak and Provencali 336 Ch. 28 Hayyim Vital, Alchemist 340 Ch. 29 An Alchemical Miscellany 365 Ch. 30 Labi, Hamawi, and Portaleone 376 Ch. 31 The Manchester (John Rylands) Manuscript 381 Pt. 8 The Seventeenth Century Ch. 32 Leone Modena, Delmedigo, and Zerah 399 Ch. 33 Four Seventeenth-Century Manuscripts 407 Ch. 34 Benjamin Mussafia 437 Ch. 35 Benjamin Jesse 447 Pt. 9 The Eighteenth Century Ch. 36 Hayyim Shmuel Falck 455 Ch. 37 The Comte de Saint-Germain 463 Ch. 38 Jacob Emden; de Bar Ilan Manuscript 480 Pt. 10 The Nineteenth Century Ch. 39 An Alchemical Manuscript from Jerba 492 Ch. 40 Mordecai Abi Serour 514 Conclusion: A Profile of Jewish Alchemy 517 Appendix: An Alchemical Vocabulary from Jerba 525 Notes 543 Index 589