Libavius (ingles)

Alchymia in Andreas Libavius (1540-1616)(Part 1) Victor. Arturo.Cabello. Reyes. '' For Libavius, alchemy( or chemistry) was a Divine Art... He defined alchemy as the perfection of magisteries'and the extraaaaction of pure essences from mixed substances by separation.'' (Allen G. Debus, The French Paracelsians, p.61) He was born in Halle in 1540 and acquired his medical degree in Jena where he was professor of poetry and history (1586-1591). He was possibly the first to prepare 'stannic chloride and ammonium sulfate', the latter used today, for fertiliser purposes in agriculture. He was also the inventor of several dry methods of laboratory analysis. Stay as a doctor in Rothenburg was controversial and his chemical ideas were very complex. Without a doubt, he considered himself to be = 'rational iatrochemist'. On the other hand, he was a tremendous objector and critic of Rosicrucian, mystical and occult ideas within the research field of science and medicine. Of Khunrath's he said that he was an "enthusiastic diabolical", and he rejected all mystical, speculative and theological ideas. And he fought Paracelsus as early as 1594. (Neoparacelsica goes against Paracelsus' system) In many respects, his fundamental ideas of alchymia were to be used in practical and transmutatory medicine where perfection was reached through the magisterium of union of substances and extraction of essences. He divided his work into 'Encheiria' = manipulation and 'Chyma' = consists of the classification of chemical products. Thus, for example, in his work Alchemia (1597) he manages to create the illusion of a building or "chemical house". (published in 1606 and never made) However, his Alchymia is the first work considered as a chemical textbook. (John Read, Prelude to Chemistry, p.80) It seems, then, that he was considered Michael Maier's forerunner in the production of alchemical emblems and designs. Libavius creates a methodical and rigorous didactic system of research; free of a certain mystique. ''This contained a main laboratory, doubtless housing the array of furnaces that still played so prominent a part in alchemical operations, a store room, a preparation-room, a room for sand-baths and water-baths, a crystallizing room, a room for the laboratory assistants, a fuel-store, and a wine-cellar...'' The building of the Opus magnum - which we see in the image - is divided into three levels or floors. It is said that the original ideas of the Emblema are taken from Heinrich Kuhdorfer (1421), but it is earlier and is taken from a manuscript of 1028. Let's see: 2 Giant Atlas holds the sphere. The Dragon and the Lion guard the entrance. It is important to see the astrological conjunction-Sun-Moon. The 4-headed dragon breathes upwards; one mouth exhales air, another delicate smoke, the third smoke and fire and the fourth... pure fire! From the bottom upwards in the lower sphere, the draconic raw material is purified by the continuous process of a prolonged series of distillations. Letter A = under the glass the coal of the fire. B=basilisk C=Dragon D=Hermes-Mercury with two Silver chains, binds the dragon and the Green Lion. Both are representative of liquid Mercury; first phase of the matter of the stone. Dragon matter is required to pass through the rot phase. Letter G = two heads of the eagle face down and the third receives from the mercurial liquid = H. I = God of the Wind blows towards the great sea. K=is the Green Lion from his chest sprouts 'Red blood' towards the Great Sea. M = the Great Mountain and N = black-headed crows that look at the sea. R.R. = two blacks or the blackness of the process holding 2 balloons signifying blackness or putrefaction in the second process. S.S.= is pure Silver, the liquid mercury that connects the Tinctures. T.= is the Swan that sails in the sea and emits a white fluid that comes out of its mouth. The Ave Fénic crowns the work! There are more symbols that you yourself should study carefully; See beyond simple alchemical images and charts. Investigate more... O = Silver Rain that falls on the Mountain and P = shape of the clouds from which the May Dew or nutritious liquid comes. On the second floor the Swan is a symbol of the lunar tincture or 'white elixir'. And in the phase of the higher level the betrothal of the King and Queen = (Grow and multiply), is in the Sphere of the Phoenix = Glory in Excelsis Deo – My God is Exalted. Both are born by the Power of the Phoenix! Solar dye and red elixir. (Libavius, Alchymia, 1606) The King holds the Red Lily in his hands and the Queen the White Lily. There are variations on some copies of the Emblem. Libavius considered metals to be 'mineral bodies' that were constituted by seminal forces and vertides of the same metals in the vitriolic earth and through the 'mercurial juice' and its sulphurous spirit, it is heated in a digestive way and made malleable and useful. Iatrochemistry divided her into two groups, one that sought medicines and not impossible mystical descriptions. (I didn't believe in the concept of macro and micro-cosmic) And another, the hermetic doctors. He had doubts in both groups. It is worth noting that in another work of Libavius, it is his Defensio alchemiae et refutatio objectionum ex censura Scholae Parisiensis, where he consolidates himself as a great authority on alchemical and medical matters. ''Libavius thus regarded chemistry as a practical art, as is shown by his definition of ''Alchemia'' as the art of perfecting magisteries and extracting pure essences from mixed bodies by separation of their matters. His emphasis throughout is on the medical importance of the work.'' (F. Sherwood Taylor, The Alchemists, p.158) Khunrath's studied at the University of Basel alongside Andreas Libavius and the argument against Khunrath's was for his fondness for Hermes and theurgical magic. ( P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, The Alchemical Choir, A history of Alchemy, p.100) Three great ones that we must study carefully = Libavius (1540-1616), van Helmont (1577-1644) and the great Glauber (1604-1668). Libavius believed that seeds were the equivalent of Democritus' atoms and fused bodies and atoms manage to produce the 'bodies of created things'; These seeds contain the essential characteristics and particular qualities of all things. Alchymia in Andreas Libavius (1540-1616)(Part 1) Victor. Arturo. Cabello. Reyes. Art: Plate XVIII: Chymie, Volume III of Denis Diderot's Recueil de planches, sur les sciences, les arts libéraux, et les arts méchaniques, avec leur explication. Diderot's allegorical image of chemistry has at its base the text "PARADIGMA OPERIS PHILOSOPHICI, E. Libavio," in homage to Andreas Libavius.