Unexplainable Who are we to fight the alchemy?
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Mar 16, 2026 Lawrence Principe, a Johns Hopkins historian and chemist who recreates alchemical recipes, discusses alchemy beyond gold, from medicines to pigments. He explains why alchemical texts use metaphor and secrecy. He recounts laboratory reconstructions like antimony glass and 'vegetative' mercury and explores how hands-on experiments help interpret strange alchemical language.
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Why Alchemical Writings Sound So Bizarre
- Alchemical texts often use intentionally obscure metaphors (red king, white queen, dragon) to hide procedures and because of legal and social pressures.
- That coded language both protected secrets and produced extravagant symbolic narratives that later historians misread as pure mysticism.
Recreating Valentinus’s Glass Of Antimony
- Lawrence Principe attempted a 1604 recipe from Basilius Valentinus to make glass of antimony and initially failed using modern reagents and equipment.
- After sourcing antimony with silica-like impurities and adding ~2% silica, he produced a beautiful transparent glass, proving the recipe's practicality.
Match Historical Materials Not Just Modern Reagents
- When reproducing historical experiments, adjust materials and conditions to match historical impurities and equipment instead of using only modern, pure reagents.
- Principe found success by sourcing period-like antimony and adding silica, rather than assuming modern lab supplies would behave identically.
