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EN
This article attempts to determine the place of the late Humanist physician and natural scientist Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550-1632) in the context of Rudolfine knowledge. Above all, it analyses his encyclopaedic work 'Gemmarum et lapidum historia' (Hanau 1609), which he wrote during his stay at the Rudolfine court. De Boodt's systematic mineralogical classification is characteristic by its critical work with earlier authors, by the emphasis on empiricism and by logical assessment which stems from the Scholastic interpretation of Aristotle's concept of nature. In the context of early 17th-century pansophy and natural science, de Boodt tended towards an analytical and exact course. His empiricism, which rests on experimental and verifiable experience, his resistance to magic and his original cosmology based on deep religious convictions regarding the forming divine spirit are very different from two important expressions of Rudolfine natural science: Croll's medicine, based on the Paracelsian system of correspondences, and Kepler's Platonising cosmology. In spite of their proclaimed rationality, however, de Boodt's experiments were still influenced by period magical thought. The study further considers the more specialised theme of de Boodt's relationship to alchemy - his interpretation of the relationship between light and precious stones, his rejection of the Paracelsian doctrine of signatures, and his position to the various directions taken by contemporary alchemy. His position with regard to transmutational alchemy was pragmatic and theoretically not clear cut, oscillating between admitting the possibility of transforming silver into gold, to the rejection of the idea that metals could be reduced to their primal matter. According to the report of the French alchemist Nicolas Barnaud (1538 - pre-1607), de Boodt supposedly successfully experimented with the transformation of mercury into gold. At the same time, it is characteristic of de Boodt that he interprets nature and human experience and their principles on the basis of the principle of 'identity' rather than on that of 'analogy', which was the basis of alchemical thought. The lack of clarity in de Boodt's relationship to alchemy is also expressed in the symbolism of his personal device.
EN
The translation of Chymia philosophica by Jakub Barner is the second publication in Polish historiography of a printed source work on early modern chemistry (alchemy) written by a Polish citizen, well known and influencial across Europe (the first such translation comprised the treatises of Michael Sendivogius). This admirable initiative of unquestionable value to Polish historians of science resulted in an elegantly published volume, with an extensive introduction and useful appendices. The language of the translation is pleasant to read, retaining the spirit of the original by means of a moderate use of archaisms and generally accurate selection of proper terminology. A closer comparison of some fragments of the translation reveals, however, that it omits essential words, phrases and even entire sentences. The translation itself is occassionally incorrect as well, completely changing the meaning of the author’s text and distorting his intentions, thereby undermining the reliability of the Polish translation as a whole. In the factual layer, identifying both chemical substances and (especially) the names of the authors cited by Barner often appear to be doubtful or problematic. Apart from numerous obvious mistakes, as well as leaving many surnames unidentified even when it was very difficult, the translators and/or editors of the Polish text created some non-existent authors as a result of errors produced while copying their surnames from the original text or due to unfounded assumptions that some chemical or botanical terms are names of chemical authors. There is also no consistency in the spelling of surnames (usually left in the Latin form, sometimes spelled with wrong inflection, but also modernised). In the biographical introduction there are also numerous factual errors and some bizarre mistranslations. Not only did its author fail to correct invalid information of earlier biographers of Barner, relying only on the most obvious and accessible publications, but also perpetuated these "historiographical myths" and even created new ones. Neither did he consult any sources apart from some other of Barner‘s published books. Writing from the positivist perspective and on the basis of outdated literature, he also sustained the categorical distinction between alchemy and chemistry, already rejected in contemporary historiography, thus presenting the role and position of Barner in the history of science not quite adequately. If one adds to that the very numerous "typos” throughout the book, it may be regarded as a negative example of poor source editing in almost every respect, even though it makes a pleasant reading.
3
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Narodziny motywu faustycznego

88%
EN
Among literary motives forming the mythology of western culture the story of Faust is one of the most cited and most interpreted stories. Since 1587, when the history of the medieval alchemist named Faust was taken into print for the first time, many new versions of this legend have been released, often substantially diverging from the original. This article is an attempt to reconstruct the birth of Faustian motive, but also cultural and historical conditioning existing within its transformations. Using the works of authorities in the field of faustology, the author looks at key issues referring to the figure of the famous magus, such as: authenticity of Faust; his birth, place of residence, education and alchemic practice, relationships with other people and finally date, place and circumstances of his death. After this insightful introduction into the history of Faust, the author presents a concise summary and analysis of The History of Doctor Faustus (1587), which is a literary prototype of the legend about Faust. She finishes her article formulating her own hypothesis about the causes of never-ending attractiveness and significance of Faustian motive.
EN
The article presents the efforts of Sigismund III Vasa at the imperial court to free the eminent Polish alchemist Michał Sędziwój (Michael Sendivogius) from Prague prison. The analyzed correspondence and instructions for emissaries depict diversified mechanisms of king’s action in this matter. The collected sources allow also for a verification of research findings to date concerning some important fact from the alchemist’s life, such as the period of his imprisonment in Prague, of his service as a diplomat, as well as his ennoblement and bestowment of the office of king’s secretary. The articles concludes with an edition of discussed sources.
PL
Powieść Dzieci umarłych zarówno przez samą Jelinek, jak i przez krytykę literacką jest określana mianem opus magnum autorki. W moim eseju podejmuję próbę interpretacji tego określenia nie w znaczeniu pierwszoplanowej pozycji w dorobku Jelinek, lecz odnosząc się do jego pierwotnego alchemicznego sensu. Wykorzystuję je przy tym jako narzędzie interpretacyjne powieści czytanej przez pryzmat rozrachunku Jelinek z traumą Zagłady. Odnosząc się do paradygmatów poetologicznych wypracowanych przez Paula Celana podejmuję także ogólną refleksję nad literaturą jako medium pamięci o ofiarach Szoah w kontekście omawianego utworu.
EN
The visions of the natural world built by man also shape our relationship with respect to the environment. In the present paper I would like to demonstrate how these holistic ideas, like the Gaia Hypothesis, affect ethical relations with nature. Do they enhance the need to treat nature in accordance with ethics, are they ethically neutral, or do they convince us that man has no ethical obligations to the environment whatsoever? “The Gaia Hypothesis” can be ambivalent in this respect, but in the end it leaves no doubt that, even though other species do what man does, Gaia (biosphere) has a limited tolerance for negative effects of human activity. And although we are not able to annihilate the life on the Earth, we are certainly capable of destroying the conditions necessary for our subsistence.
EN
The aim of my discussion is to present the relationship between the research of natural philosophers and the development of the alchemical tradition. I refer to specific concepts formulated in the history of alchemy to argue that research in this field took the form of complex systems delineating coherent pictures of the natural world and, therefore, that alchemy presupposes certain types of natural philosophy.
PL
Celem moich rozważań jest przedstawienie związków pomiędzy dociekaniami filozofów przyrody a rozwojem tradycji alchemicznej. Odwołam się do wybranych koncepcji ukształtowanych w dziejach alchemii. Będę argumentował na rzecz tezy, że dociekania alchemików przybierały postać rozbudowanych systemów tworzących koherentne obrazy świata przyrody, które implikowały określone typy filozofii przyrody.
EN
Mystical death in selected prose by Jáchym Topol The distinctive feature of most of the prose works by Jáchym Topol is the theme of mystical initiation with overlaps to alchemy, which is characterized by significant motives of death and resurrection. This aspect is most evident in the books Sestra, Anděl and Noční práce, where social transformations take place concurrently with the spiritual rebirth of the hero. The first part of this article presents a three-phase initiation scheme applied in alchemy. The second part of the text is devoted to a motivational analysis, taking into account the nigredo phase, which is characterized by the very frequent occurrence of death motives.
PL
Mistyczna śmierć w wybranych utworach Jáchyma Topola Charakterystyczną cechą twórczości Jáchyma Topola jest temat mistycznej inicjacji i jego aspekt alchemiczny oraz szamanistyczny, które są bardzo ściśle związane z motywami śmierci i zmartwychwstania. Motyw śmierci odgrywa kluczową rolę przede wszystkim w powieściach Sestra, Anděl oraz Noční práce, w których transformacja społeczna odbywa się równocześnie z odrodzeniem duchowym bohatera. W pierwszej części artykułu przedstawione zostały trzy podstawowe fazy inicjacyjne stosowane w alchemii. Treścią drugiej części tekstu jest analiza wymienionych prac, z bardzo wyraźnie wyeksponowaną pierwszą fazą nigredo, połączoną z przeżywaniem śmierci oraz z obrazami umierania na poziomie symbolicznym.
Mäetagused
|
2020
|
vol. 78
111-130
EN
Medical alchemy emerged within the Western alchemical tradition in the 13th–14th centuries. However, well-established medical alchemy can be considered the iatrochemistry of the 16th century. In this article, I focus on the continuation of the alchemical tradition in the second half of the 19th century, using the electrohomeopathy created by Cesare Mattei as an example. Electrohomeopathy, also known as Mattei’s treatment of cancer or Matteism, is a form of homeopathy developed by Count Cesare Mattei (1809–1896) in the second half of the 19th century. Because the drugs invented by Mattei had such strength and rate of action that allowed them to be compared to electric current, he called the method electrohomeopathy. They had no other connection to electricity. It is important to emphasize this again, as later interpretations and explanations of electrohomeopathy link the effects of drugs to plant electricity or bioenergy (Odyle energy, organ energy, prana). Electrohomeopathy created by Mattei is based on homeopathy, but he thought it was in need of further development. In his electrohomoeopathy he saw a great reformation of homoeopathy. Mattei acknowledged Hahnemann’s similarity principle while criticizing his doctrine because it used, as he said, only remedies that were not combined and only addressed the symptoms. Like complex homoeopaths he thought that the use of single remedies was a mistake that held back the development of homoeopathy. Mattei relied on both homeopathy and an earlier alchemical tradition in creating the treatment system. At the same time, he took over the ideas of contemporary science and integrated them into his treatment system. Electrohomeopathy is a further development of iatrochemistry, clearly based on the science of its time, and has nothing mystical or occult in it. Electrohomeopathy is very well characterized by the fact that alchemical practices and theories changed over time and adapted to changed contexts. According to its developer, this is an empirical treatment system, which says that the first step is to test the effects of drugs and to establish a theory on that basis. Modern electrohomeopathy is characterized by an abundance of drugs used and the introduction of mystical explanations.
EN
The Other World and Le Page disgracié (The Disgraced Page) occupy a singular place in the luxuriant seventeenth-century novel landscape on account of their first-person writing. In a process quite akin to the formative novel, the experiences of the “I” are stages in the construction of a meaning that is elaborated in the course of adventures rather than set as a goal to be reached. Meaning remains elusive, never predetermined, ravelled and unravelled as it is along with the episodes experienced by the narrator, regardless of whether those episodes are conveyed by the imagination of Cyrano or by the memory of Tristan’s experiences. No matter whether we are dealing with the most unbridled fantasies or autobiographical narrative, the route followed by the “I” is not oriented towards a goal that would make sense. Both texts call for alchemy, but the narrators do not make the quest for the philosopher’s stone the guiding thread of their narrative. Alchemy, described as a deception in Tristan and as an approach among others to the mysteries of the world in Cyrano, is presented as the touchstone of a possible decoding of the world, as the reign of illusion and, therefore, of the impossibility even to fix meaning. A pie-in-the-sky quest for meaning leading to a goal that does not exist (the two texts are abruptly interrupted), the formative novel finds a possible hermeneutic opening in the form of libertinism that forces one to play with meaning. Both works put sensual pleasure at the heart of the adventures lived by the characters and this rehabilitation of sensuality could offer itself as the key to a libertine strategy.
EN
Nature was the central idea on which Michael Sendivogius based his alchemico-philosophical system. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show what the Polish alchemist understood as Nature and what was its function in the world according to him. Sendivogius believed that the material world originated from the will of the good God. However, the act of divine creation was reduced to the moment of its coming into being through the creation of the matter (ex nihilo) and general organization of its universum. Nature, on the other hand, is responsible for the present form of the material world. For Sendivogius, Nature is an element with which the world has been enriched by the will of God, and which is responsible for its permanent creation. According to our alchemist, the world is constantly being created and transformed, and Nature is its creative principle. This article explains how Nature creates this world and particular beings existing in it. Furthermore, it discusses the problem of the nature of Nature itself. Sendivogius considered Nature to be not only a creative principle but also a kind of law determining interactions of beings which ensured their unity and harmony. Nature is not everlasting but created in the same way as the world. Therefore, the article presents also what the Alchemist thought about the Nature’s relation to its Creator, that is to God.
EN
The question of the beginning of the world, it’s first rule, genesis and structure followed humanity since the dawn of time, becoming a source for philosophy and science. Search for a rational answer to that question lead, throughout the ages, to a creation of many cosmogonic concepts which referenced various philosophical traditions. While they currently hold only historical value, in many cases they contained ideas, sometimes still very inarticulate, which revolutionized the science in later years. One of such concepts was proposed by Michael Sendivogius, a Renaissance polish alchemist. In his approach, creation of world is dynamic and multiphase. In his vision, the world is something, which is subject to evolution (though he does not use this term), inevitably changes, and thus undergoes a permanent creation. In this creation of the world, as Sendivogius describes it, one can distinguish three fundamental stages, responsible for which are three factors: God, Nature and man. The goal of this article is to present how, according to Sendivogius, the world is created, what tasks in this continuous process are carried out by God, Nature or the man, and in what relations they remain, in regards to themselves and the world they create.
EN
Traditionally, alchemy is regarded as an example of pseudoscience. In this paper I dispute this view and demonstrate that the practice of alchemy, in many aspects, can be interpreted as an experiment in protoscience. In the first part of the article, I introduce William R. Newman’s and Lawrence Principe’s analyses about the etymological origin of alchemy, its historiography and the origin of the separation between alchemy and chemistry. In the second part of the article I discuss different aspects on the practice of alchemy in light of the issues encountered with the inter-subjective repeatability of the experiments and the methods used to publicize the findings. In addition to the examination of the subjects researched, I also review the systematic elements found in the theoretical considerations presented by the alchemists.
EN
This paper discusses selected aspects of the relationship between concepts developed in natural philosophy and in esoteric traditions. For this purpose, I refer to the views of Antoine Faivre, who enumerates the following topoi of esotericism: correspondence, vitalism, imagination and mediation, as well as the practice of transmutation, concordance and transmission. The analysis of the history of culture shows that the image of nature created in natural philosophy was linked to that adopted by alchemists, magicians and astrologers. I analyze the relation between alchemy and philosophy of nature, as well as the presence of esoteric topoi of correspondence and vitalism in the philosophy of nature.
PL
W artykule przedyskutuję wybrane aspekty relacji zachodzących pomiędzy koncepcjami powstałymi w filozofii przyrody a tradycjami ezoterycznymi. W tym celu odwołam się do ustaleń Antoine’a Faivre’a, który wylicza następujące toposy ezoteryzmu: korespondencję, witalizm, wyobrażeniowość i pośredniczenie, praktykę transmutacji, konkordancję, przekaz. Analizując dzieje kultury, można zauważyć, że obraz przyrody tworzony w filozofii przyrody łączył się z obrazem przyjmowanym przez alchemików, magów i astrologów. W artykule przeanalizuję relację pomiędzy alchemią a filozofią przyrody oraz obecność ezoterycznych toposów korespondencji i witalizmu w filozofii przyrody.
EN
Gaston Bachelard discuss the problem of the rationality of scientific thinking in terms of epistemological obstacles. In book The Formation of the Scientific Mind philosopher characterizes scientific attitude as an attempt to eliminate the impact of affective images on thinking, which is possible in the process of psychoanalysis of objective knowledge. Bachelard indicates positive model for science: an abstract thought, constructing their own research subjects. Only a constantly renewed cognitive effort can become a source of new ideas.
EN
The novel The Russian Nights (1844) proved to be a kind of philosophical and pictorial manifesto of Vladimir Odoevsky. The idea of ‘totality’ (целостность), conceived as a structure of internal and external world at the same time, was presented by the author in the concepts drawn from a variety of philosophical and esoteric systems. One of these forms — alchemical imagination — is used in the article to interpret the phenomenon of correlation that exists between the senses and the creative perception of space.
IT
August Strindberg abbandona la sua famiglia. Si tuffa nell'inferno di Parigi e lotta con l'angelo per riconquistare la sua fede. Sotto le spoglie di un pazzo, rovescia tutte le istituzioni stabilite e offusca i confini tra oggettività e soggettività. Disturba, disturba, provoca. La sua estraneità lo respinge dal mondo e gli assicura, per imitatio Christi, la propria via crucis: interiorizza il cammino e percorre strade irregolari, convinto che solo la perdizione può trovare la via dell'autenticità.
EN
August Strindberg abandons his family, plunges into the Parisian hell and struggles with the angel in order to regain his faith. He disappoints his public by becoming an alchemist and painter in order to better fight against institutionalized positivism and academic aestheticism. Under the mask of madness, he overthrows all established institutions and blurs the boundaries between objectivity and subjectivity. He disrupts, disturbs, shocks; his strangeness seperates him from the world and assures him, by imitatio Christi, his own Way of the Cross: he internalizes the journey and walks erratic paths, convinced that loss is the path that leads to rebirth.
FR
Scandale et voyages vont de pair dans l’imagination d’August Strindberg, artiste plus que sulfureux qui débarque à Paris en délaissant sa famille pour plonger dans les cercles infernaux afin de lutter avec l’ange et de retrouver ainsi la foi perdue de son enfance. Il déçoit son public en se faisant alchimiste et peintre pour lutter contre les menaces du positivisme et de l’esthétisme académique. Sa quête est motivée par la figure du Christ que la sécularisation d’une fin-de-siècle vendue à l’industrialisation et au capital tourne en ridicule. Sous le masque de l’artiste-fou, il s’engage à renverser toutes les institutions établies, prônant un art de la fugue, affranchi des frontières de l’objectivité et de la subjectivité. Il perturbe, dérange, choque de sorte que son étrangeté le rejette du monde, lui assurant ainsi de suivre, par imitatio Christi, son propre chemin de croix. Il s’approprie le voyage pour ainsi l’intérioriser et arpenter les voies erratiques, convaincu que seul celui qui se perd se retrouve un jour.
EN
The topic of this paper is the golden dust metaphor in Bolesław Leśmian’s poems, fairy-tale prose, essays and plays. It is interpreted as one of many variations of the black sun trope, the gnostic and alchemical symbol for the unity of oppositions and for transformation. Analysis of Leśmian’s metaphor leads to the conclusion that his writing corresponds to gnosticism and alchemy. It takes up the concept of material concreteness, nudging the reader to combine oppositions and transmutation. Acting through words, through tropes, reflects the performative status of Leśmian’s creative work.
20
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Le syncrétisme de Du Bartas

62%
EN
The works of the humanist Du Bartas has been considered religious, with the aim to present a Calvinist conception of the world conforming to the dogmas. However, the presence of paganism and the effects of dissonances shows that Du Bartas belongs to a spiritual tradition beyond the dogmas. The poet in fact writes in the tradition of Marsil Ficin and his vision of the profane and the sacred is totally in accordance with that of the hermeticist philosophers. Beneath the superficial mean-ing and the topical speech about religious subjects, there lies a much higher truth to be expressed clearly to profanes, those unable to understand the unity of traditions.
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