Abstract
After the conquest of Alexandria in Egypt by the Arabs (642 AD) the mainly empirical knowledge of chemical technology was transmitted to the West as Alchemy. Fragments of the entire knowledge reached our days in the form of later manuscripts (10th to 18th century) in several collections. Many manuscripts contain illustrations of devices for conducting chemical processes like distillation, sublimation, digestion and others. There is lack of information about the operation and the product of these apparatus. In this communication we have focused on five figures from illustrated manuscripts of St Marc Library in Venice (in book of M. Berthelot «Collection des anciens Alchimistes Grecs» 1887). By comparison of the illustrations and with aid of the Graeco-roman literature we have concluded that in a manuscript of alembic (Fig. 5) is shown probably the dry distillation of mineral sulfur for the production of pure sulfur. In mixture with others sulfur is a critical material for giving gold-like color to metallic objects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
Aristotle born in Stagira, Macedonia, Greek philosopher, logician and influential scientist (founder of Lyceum).
- 2.
Theophrastus born in Eresus Lesbos influential Peripatic philosopher, pupil of Aristotle considered as the first chemist and mineralogist of the antiquity (Pliny, Vitruvius, Dioscorides and others were influenced by his writings).
- 3.
Dioscorides Pedanius born in Anazarbus,Cilicia, now Turkey physician and pharmacologist whose work “De materia medica” was the leading pharmacological text for 16 centuries in Europe.
- 4.
Vitruvius (Marcus Vitruvius Polio), Roman architect, engineer, and author of the famous book “De Architectura”.
- 5.
Pliny the elder (Lat.Gaius Plinius Secundus) born in Como, Italy encyclopaedist influenced by ancient Greek authors (natural History is his main work in 37 books based according Pliny on 327 Greeks and 146 Roman Authors).
- 6.
Demetrius Phalereus born in Phaleron near Athens, Athenian orator, statesman and philosopher. He became prominent at the court of Ptolemy I in Egypt.
- 7.
Instead of Alchemy the terms chemeutike, chemeusis correspond better to the chemical technology of the Hellenistic era.
- 8.
Bolos of Mende circa.200 BC Hellenized Egyptian alchemist frequently mentioned as Pseudo-Democritus influenced by Theophrastus, Author of physica et mystica.
- 9.
Zosimos of Panopolis, Egyptian alchemist of the early Hellenistic period influenced by ancient Egyptian technology.
- 10.
Berthelot born in Paris French physical/organic Chemist and pioneer science Historian (chemical technology, chemistry, alchemy).
- 11.
Alambic of partly Arabic origin (Al) and Greek ambix (Αμβυξ).
- 12.
Geber born in Iran, is the Latinized form of the name of Jabir ibn Hayyan. Geber is considered as «the father» of Arabic Alchemy with a strong influence to medieval Europe.
- 13.
Plutarch born in Chaeronia, Boeotia, Greece, Biographer and Author (also was a priest in Delphi oracle).
References
Shipley, G.: The Greek World after Alexander 323–30 BC. Taylor & Francis Group/Routledge, New York/London (2005)
Wilcken Ulrich Griechische Geschichte im Rahmen der Altertumsgeschichte, Verlag von R. Oldenburg MUENCHEN (1962)
Dioscorides: De materia medica. Book fifth (Διοσκουρίδου περί ύλης ιατρικής ΒΙΒΛΙΟ ΠΕΜΠΤΟ) edition. Georgiadis, Athens (2004)
Dioscorides: De materia medica. Book fifth (Διοσκουρίδου περί ύλης ιατρικής ΒΙΒΛΙΟ ΠΕΜΠΤΟ) editor E. Varela edition. Zitros, Thessaloniki (2006)
Vitruvius: De Architectura books VI-X edition plethron, Athens (1998)
Pliny: Natural History BOOKS 33-35, translated by H. Hackham LOEB Classical library Harvard university press first published 1952 reprint 2003 (liber xxxiv, xxi100 (2003)
Theophrastus: On stones- on fire, περί λίθων -περί πυρός, vol. 8. Cactus edition, Athens (1998)
Katsaros, Th.: Chromatology of Theophrastus from Eressos: analyses, identification, and contribution to the works of cultural heritage. Ph.D., University of the Aegean, Rhodes, Greece (2009)
Irby-Massie, G.L., Keyser, P.T.: Greek Science of the Hellenistic Era: A Sourcebook. Psychology Press, Portland (2002)
De Lacy, O.L.: How Greek Science Passed to Arabs. Routledge, London (1949)
Yfantis, D.: L’Art psammurgique et la Chimie par M. Stephanides Mytilene 1909 a book from historical library of NTUA analysis and comments. In: Proceedings of Conference 170 Years NTUA, Athens, Greece, pp. 199–208 (2008)
Berthelot, M.: Les origines de l’ Alchimie, Georges Steinheil, Editeur, Paris, 1885 (translated in Greek by M. Stephanides entitled “ the coming –to –be of Alchemy” -H της Αλχημείας γένεσις 1906 Athens Greece) (1885)
The new Encyclopaedia Britannica, Lemma Alchemy pp. 431–436, 1979 macropaedia knowledge in depth volume 1, founded 1768 15th edition
Canavas, C.: Distillation techniques from the classical Greek Antiquity to the late Hellenistic era. In: Proceedings of 1st International Conference Ancient Greek Technology, Thessaloniki, pp. 285–292 (1990)
Berthelot, M.: Collection des anciens ALCHIMISTES GRECS, Georges Steinheil, Editeur, First Edition, Paris (1887)
Aristotle: Meteorologia B - Μετεωρολογικά I, vol. 13. Cactus edition, Athens (1994). (translation in modern Greek)
Lafont, O.: De l’Alchimie a la Chimie Ellipses Edition Marketing (2000). (in French-Greek translation)
Archaeology & Arts, Alchemy in Byzantium from 1204 to 1453, pp. 23–39 fig.7 issue 108 2008
Klement, R.: Allgemeine und Anorganische Chemie (General and Inorganic Chemistry Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft G.m.b.H., Stuttgart (1949). (in German)
Yfantis, D.: Ancient chemical technology: texts from Graeco – Roman literature an interdisciplinary approach. In: 10th International Symposium on the Conservation of Monuments in Mediterranean Basin, Athens, Greece, Chap. 57, pp. 531–537. Springer (2019)
Suida byzantine lexicon 10c AC, Thessaloniki edition thyrathen (2002)
Aristotle, on Coming – to- be and Passing – away (περί γενέσεως και φθοράς, De Generatione et corruptione). Cactus edition, Athens (1992)
Yfantis, D.K., Yfantis, N.: Decoration and protection of surfaces in antiquity from texts of Graeco-roman literature. In: 13th Symposium of Paints Athens, pp. 110–121 (2018). (in Greek)
Catakis, D.: Courses in Inorganic Chemistry edition of University of Athens, Athens (1976). (in Greek)
Plutarch: Delphic dialogues, vol. 2. Zitros, Thessaloniki (2002)
Wuensche, R.: On the coloring of the bronze head with a headband of victory in Munich. In: Multicolored gods- colors in ancient sculptures, an exhibition of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in cooperation with Glyptothek of Munich and Goethe Institute in Athens, p. 115 (2007)
Varella, E.: A temperature control in ancient Greek experimental procedures. In: Proceedings of 1st International Conference Ancient Greek Technology, Thessaloniki, pp. 293–301 (1990)
Liddel, Scott: Greek –English Lexicon abridged edition (abridged from Liddel and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon Oxford at the Clarendon Press first edition 1891) (1891)
Papathanassiou, M.: The old tradition of illumination techniques. In: Proceedings of 1st International Conference Ancient Greek Technology, Thessaloniki, pp. 331–336 (1990)
Mastrotheodoros, D., Anagnostopoulos, D., Beltsios, K., Filippaki, E.: Glittering on the wall: gildings on Greek post – Byzantine wall paintings. Presented in 1st International Conference on Transdisciplinary Multispectral Modeling and Cooperation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage, Athens (2018)
Kapetanidis, N.: Colorants and techniques used in the frescoes of Panselinos (14th century). In: 11th Symposium of Paints Athens, pp. 359–393 (2009). (in Greek)
Acknowledgement
My thanks to Sychem Group of companies SA (Advanced Water Technologies) for valuable technical assistance.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Yfantis, D. (2019). Reconstructing the Hellenistic Heritage: Chemical Processes, Devices and Products from Illustrated Greek Manuscripts—An Interdisciplinary Approach. In: Moropoulou, A., Korres, M., Georgopoulos, A., Spyrakos, C., Mouzakis, C. (eds) Transdisciplinary Multispectral Modeling and Cooperation for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage. TMM_CH 2018. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 962. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12960-6_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12960-6_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-12959-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-12960-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)