Wikipedia:POTD column/July 15, 2006

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alchemist's laboratory, by Hans Vredeman de Vries, 1595

Alchemy refers to both an early protoscientific and an early philosophical discipline, both combining elements of chemistry, metallurgy, physics, medicine, astrology, semiotics, mysticism, spiritualism, and art. Alchemy has been practiced in Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Persia, India, and China, in Classical Greece and Rome, in the Islamic empire, and then in Europe up to the nineteenth century — in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2500 years.

Illustration credit: Hans Vredeman de Vries
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