Eighteenth Century Chemistry and Alchemy

The 1st Ed. of the Encyclopedia Brittanica (1771) is online on google books (Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3.) This contains the very interesting article on Chemistry which was re-published by Carl W. Stahl as "Eighteenth Century Chemistry as It Relates to Alchemy."

The editor of the 1st Ed. E.B. was William Smellie, who said "I wrote most of it, my lad, and snipped out from books enough material for the printer. With pastepot and scissors I composed it!", and it appears that significant portions of the E.B. article were indeed lifted from Elements of the theory and practice of chymistry Vol 1, Vol 2. [via]

Chemistry was rapidly evolving at this time, already by the 2nd edition of the E.B. (1797) most alchemical references have begun to be elided or rationalized in the entry for Chemistry. For instance, it opens the section on the theory of chemistry with a discussion on the controversies over the various models of elements in competition at the time and various contemporary proofs and experiments against the classical elements.

Ciphers of the Monks

Astrolabe marked with the ciphers
Read more...In addition to the Roman and Arabic numerals, there was another long-lived style of numeration in Europe, which is barely known today. It is described in a beautiful book The Ciphers of the Monks: A Forgotten Number-notation of the Middle Ages by David A. King.

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The Basingstoke Cipher

Matthew Paris:

"Master J(ohn of Basingstoke) had informed Archbishop Robert of Lincoln that when he studied in Athens, he had seen and studied under the most learned of the Greek scholars, who are unknown to the Latins. ... ... This Master J[ohn] then brought to England the numerals of the Greeks, figures which also serve to express the letters and the knowledge of their meaning, and made them known to his friends. Regarding these numerals, which we want to reproduce on this page, what is the most admirable and what we do not find in the case of the Roman or the Hindu-Arabic numerals (quod non est in Latino, vel Algorismo), is that any numer may be represented as one single figure. Trace a (vertical) line and draw lines going out from it and making with it a right, acute or obtuse angle, in the following manner." [Chap 2.2 p.51]
[...]
He also noted that "the worthiest of all these figures" was 55, being in the shape of the cross ┼, and that the arrow-shaped cipher ↑ represented 33, the age of Jesus at his death.[pp.55]

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The Cisternian Cipher




The Cisternian variety is described in Agrippa's Occult Philosophy Chap. xix. as "certain other notes of Magicians" which he "found in two most ancient books of Astrologers, and Magicians, certain most elegant marks of numbers, which [he] thought good to set down in this place."

It seems to me like close relative of the notation is found in Chap. xvii.

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Variant Ciphers




A simpler 5-based family of variants are found in runic calendars, and the same logical progression of these numerals are found in the Ogham scales.

Large archives

The number of alchemy texts already online is scarcely believable, since the entire body of work as literature has been largely forgotten, nevermind the comsological/philosophical aspects. Still, according to Adam McLean, only 1% of extant texts are online.

Take some time to browse around these sites:

Adam McLean's Alchemy Site
The primary online source, massive and well-categorized.

Rex Research Alchemy pages
There is a lot of overlap here with Adam McLean's site, but Robert Nelson has several texts not found elsewhere, including Mary Anne Atwood's Hermetic Philosophy & Alchemy and the influential Ordinall of Alchimy by Thomas Norton.

The AZOGUE journal maintains a large archive.

Alan Pritchard maintains an extensive biliography, including a section for online texts.

Relevant texts can also be found at the Internet Sacred Text Archive in the alchemy, freemasonry, Rosicrucian, and sub rosa sections.

European Cultural Heritage Online, many interesting source text scans.

The Twilit Grotto, etexts of many of the most important Renaissance thinkers, John Dee, Agrippa, Johannes Trithemius, Giordano Bruno, etc.

Lullian Arts has hypertexts and applications relating to Raymond Lull's mnemonic techniques.

The Newton Project is digitizing some of Newton's more speculative and theological writings that have seldom been seen before. Also Robert Boyle's work diaries are online.

Theatrum Chemicum Electronicum (1st ed. 1602), an electronic reproduction of Lazarus Zetzner's 6-volume >5000pp compendium, mostly in Latin. Electronic edition by Rafal Prinke. Not to be confused with Elias Ashmole's Theatricum Chemicum Brittanicum (1652). The UPenn images of Ashmole's collection have been collected into a pdf.

The Complutense University of Madrid has around 120 manuscripts (mostly latin) online, including Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa, compiled by Jean-Jacques Manget.

The Manly P. Hall manuscript collection is now online at archive.org

Berthelot's Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs:
Vol. 1
Vols. 2-3
Vols. 3-4

C.G. Jung's alchemical collection is also currently being digitized.

The Swiss site e-rara has the Alchemy, Magic and Kabbalah (Foundation of the Works of C.G.Jung) and Historical scientific literature (ETH-Bibliothek)

I would also like to point out Mike Dickman's original translations and the R.A.M.S. collection, which is not online, but can be ordered on CD-ROM.