Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418)Public writer born in 1330 and died in 1418, he had a shop next to the Tour Saint-Jacques, at Pontoise, he acquired a good education, decided to go to Paris to perform clerical occupations, notary and bookseller.
A dream that he predicted would come into possession of a book written by a certain Abraham and allowing it to achieve the Great Work.
Everything changes when a stranger he sold a book for two florins. This manuscript of Abraham the Jew, supposed to contain the secret of making the Philosopher's Stone that would change his life and that of his wealthy wife, Lady Pernelle. It will turn into an alchemist and will devote his life to deciphering the scrawl.
His research will not be motivated by greed but by a spiritual impulse. After three years of hard work, he finally reached his goal. According to one of his wills, it would be able to discover the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, a token of eternity, and the means to transmute lead into gold, April 25, 1382. From his own words, Nicolas Flamel did not create the gold three times.
The book was composed of 3 times 7 sheets (21). He was 21 years of research before finding the man who could explain the book. The deciphering of the book took him three years and the Work at the Red White and took him three tries (the second 103 days after the first).
Flamel and his wife, Lady Pernelle, lived modestly and used their wealth to help others. Nicolas Flamel has funded fourteen hospitals and built three chapels, seven churches and some houses.
Curiously, while the rest of his life, he lived as a patron, being built or renovated many buildings, but at his death, leaving only a thin legacy.
In 1407, Flamel and his wife, Lady Pernelle, are building a three story house at 51 rue de Montmorency, nestled in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. They adjust to the hostel for the poor, to serve as a refuge for the homeless at the time. In exchange, they asked only to say a few prayers, as evidenced by the inscription on the cornice, restored in the early twentieth century.
Alchemy was born, in fact, to Alexandria to the ninth century BC: in Arabic, "Al-Kimiya" means "philosopher's stone". The goal is the manufacture of the philosopher's stone which transmutes base metals into gold and allows the preparation of the panacea or universal remedy. The language of alchemy is to remain willfully esoteric than insiders. The bodies are classified into solid, liquid and vapor and by color. They interact according to notions of sympathy and antipathy.
The alchemy came to Europe with translations of Arab alchemists who seized their ideas amplified assigning all possible virtues in this mysterious gold, which they claimed to extract themselves imperfect metals such as mercury, lead, etc..
The scholars who have devoted themselves to alchemy in the Middle Ages had more names than the alchemists: Children's Art, The Insider, Cosmopolitans, Fans, The Rosicrucians, blowers, or The Hermetic philosophers ...
In 1407, Flamel and his wife, Lady Pernelle, are building a three story house at 51 rue de Montmorency, nestled in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris. They adjust to the hostel for the poor, to serve as a refuge for the homeless at the time. In exchange, they asked only to say a few prayers, as evidenced by the inscription on the cornice, restored in the early twentieth century.
Hermetic philosophy was to search for the philosopher's stone, the universal panacea, and the great work, was the art of finding water, which gives a wonderful health and eternal youth, and change the metal gold.
"" Gold, they said, is all natural bodies the most compact, heavier, more immune to attack by fire, water and air, is the king of metals. ""
It existed in the early Middle Ages an important relationship between alchemy and astrology. At that time, seven metals were known (Au, Ag, Cu, Fe, Sn, Pb, Hg) and astrology were 7 planets. The association stood thus:
Sun - gold (Au)
Mercury - mercury (Hg)
Venus - copper (Cu)
Moon - silver (Ag)
Mars - iron (Fe)
Jupiter - tin (Sn)
Saturn - Lead (Pb)There are an infinite number of treaties of alchemy, almost all written in mystical language, which provide formulas or recipes to make the great mysterious work.
Important discoveries are due to their laborious manipulations and patient example:
- Preparation of mineral acids: nitric, sulfuric and hydrochloric acid, aqua regia, which is capable of dissolving gold, vitriol, but Strong water, the Spirit of Salt, the Spirit of wine (ethanol), Crystals of Venus, the Flower of Jupiter, black powder, Vitriol Moon ... and so on and best!
- Obtaining of some previously unknown elements: antimony, arsenic, bismuth, phosphorus ... Of chemicals: alum, borax, ether, cream of tartar, red lead, lead salts, iron salts, silver salts and more.
- Discover the phosphorescence of barium sulphide ...
- Technical Innovations: crucibles, retorts, bath, scales, filtration, distillation, alloys, purification, crystallization, sublimation, metal ...
Many quacks transformed alchemy witchcraft, also in 1404, Parliament banned the manufacture of gold by alchemy, but it is still accepted by monarchs greedy for wealth. The burnings and hangings of alchemists were more frequent.
Good reading
Luc
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