Description
Book SynopsisIn 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 rev
Trade ReviewWinner of the 1994 National Jewish Honor Book in Scholarship "Raphael Patai seeks to break what he sees as the code of silence surrounding the history of Jewish alchemy, and his book represents the findings of years of intense research in this little-known subject... To the author's great credit he has marshaled a vast array of sources in an effort to reaffirm that which was proclaimed by both Jewish and especially non-Jewish alchemists until the rise of the 19th-century Jewish scholarship--namely, that the Jews played a seminal role in the history of alchemy."--John Efron, Forward "Groundbreaking and highly original treatise... Before Patai's monumental study, the exact knowledge of the Jewish input into alchemy was minimal... [Raphael Patai] has brought the searching light of his extraordinary excavation skills into the unearthing of a dusty but now glimmering vein of the Jewish experience."--Arnold Ages, Midstream
Table of ContentsIllustrationsAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsPt. 1PreludeCh. 1Introduction3Ch. 2Biblical Figures as Alchemists18Ch. 3Alchemy in Bible and Talmud?41Pt. 2The Hellenistic AgeCh. 4Jews in Hellenistic Alchemy50Ch. 5Maria the Jewess60Ch. 6Zosimus on Maria the Jewess81Pt. 3The Early Arab WorldCh. 7Abufalah's Alchemy98Ch. 8A Hebrew Version of the Book of Alums and Salts119Ch. 9Pseudo-Khalid ibn Yazid125Pt. 4The Eleventh to Thirteenth CenturiesCh. 10Artephius141Ch. 11The Great Jewish Philosophers144Ch. 12Kabbalah and Alchemy: A Reconsideration152Pt. 5The Fourteenth CenturyCh. 13Raymund de Tarrega: Marrano, Heretic, Alchemist175Ch. 14The Quinta Essentia in Hebrew204Ch. 15Flamel's Jewish Masters218Ch. 16Two Spanish Jewish Court Alchemists234Ch. 17Abraham Eleazar238Ch. 18Themo Judaei258Pt. 6The Fifteenth CenturyCh. 19Simeon ben Semah Duran264Ch. 20Solomon Trismosin and His Jewish Master268Ch. 21Abraham ben Simeon's Cabala Mystica271Ch. 22Isaac Hollandus and His Son John Isaac289Ch. 23Johanan Alemanno and Joseph Albo293Ch. 24Pseudo-Maimonides300Ch. 25Three Kuzari Commentators314Pt. 7The Sixteenth CenturyCh. 26Esh Msaref: A Kabbalistic-Alchemical Treatise322Ch. 27Taitazak and Provencali336Ch. 28Hayyim Vital, Alchemist340Ch. 29An Alchemical Miscellany365Ch. 30Labi, Hamawi, and Portaleone376Ch. 31The Manchester (John Rylands) Manuscript381Pt. 8The Seventeenth CenturyCh. 32Leone Modena, Delmedigo, and Zerah399Ch. 33Four Seventeenth-Century Manuscripts407Ch. 34Benjamin Mussafia437Ch. 35Benjamin Jesse447Pt. 9The Eighteenth CenturyCh. 36Hayyim Shmuel Falck455Ch. 37The Comte de Saint-Germain463Ch. 38Jacob Emden; de Bar Ilan Manuscript480Pt. 10The Nineteenth CenturyCh. 39An Alchemical Manuscript from Jerba492Ch. 40Mordecai Abi Serour514Conclusion: A Profile of Jewish Alchemy517Appendix: An Alchemical Vocabulary from Jerba525Notes543Index589
