Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient texts
- 1 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS: The Emerald Table (Tabula Smaragdina)
- 2 PLATO (c. 427-347 BC): From the Timaeus
- 3 ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC): From the Meteorology
- 4 PSEUDO-DEMOCRITUS (first or second century AD): From The Treatise of Democritus On Things Natural and Mystical
- 5 ANONYMOUS (first or second century AD): Dialogue of Cleopatra and the Philosophers
- 6 ANONYMOUS (late third century AD): From Leyden Papyrus X and the Stockholm Papyrus
- 7 ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLIS (fl. c. 300 AD): Of Virtue, Lessons 1–3
- 8 STEPHANOS OF ALEXANDRIA (first half of seventh century AD): From The Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold
- 9 ANONYMOUS (eighth or ninth century AD): The Poem of the Philosopher Theophrastos Upon the Sacred Art
- Part II Islamic and medieval texts
- Part III Renaissance and seventeenth-century texts
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - STEPHANOS OF ALEXANDRIA (first half of seventh century AD): From The Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- List of abbreviations
- Illustrations
- Introduction
- Part I Ancient texts
- 1 HERMES TRISMEGISTUS: The Emerald Table (Tabula Smaragdina)
- 2 PLATO (c. 427-347 BC): From the Timaeus
- 3 ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC): From the Meteorology
- 4 PSEUDO-DEMOCRITUS (first or second century AD): From The Treatise of Democritus On Things Natural and Mystical
- 5 ANONYMOUS (first or second century AD): Dialogue of Cleopatra and the Philosophers
- 6 ANONYMOUS (late third century AD): From Leyden Papyrus X and the Stockholm Papyrus
- 7 ZOSIMOS OF PANOPOLIS (fl. c. 300 AD): Of Virtue, Lessons 1–3
- 8 STEPHANOS OF ALEXANDRIA (first half of seventh century AD): From The Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold
- 9 ANONYMOUS (eighth or ninth century AD): The Poem of the Philosopher Theophrastos Upon the Sacred Art
- Part II Islamic and medieval texts
- Part III Renaissance and seventeenth-century texts
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Stephanos of Alexandria was a philosopher and public lecturer who flourished in Constantinople under the Byzantine emperor Herakleios (610–41 AD). His subjects included Plato, Aristotle (upon whom there is extant a commentary bearing Stephanos’ name), as well as mathematics, astronomy, and music. Although attribution of the Great and Sacred Art of the Making of Gold to Stephanos is at times disputed for stylistic reasons, it is accepted as authentic by the translator, F. Sherwood Taylor, on the grounds that its Neoplatonism and numerous scientific allusions would have been familiar to him. This work, known also as De chrysopoeia, the Greek word for gold-making, was much copied and widely cited by Byzantine alchemists. If its highly rhetorical, enthusiastic style jars with that of Stephanos’ scientific works, this may result, according to Taylor, from the fact that “a declamatory and rhetorical style may have been thought appropriate to lectures upon a subject of arcane character” (116). Such stylistic excesses may also be explained by the fact that the Great and Sacred Art consists of nine lectures, undoubtedly presented orally to their original audiences. It should be noted that early Greek scientific and alchemical treatises – such as those of Pseudo-Democritus and Cleopatra included in this collection – frequently employ ornate rhetoric. Whatever the reasons, Lecture I, in particular, is an unadulterated example of the author's rhapsodizing on the glory, beauty, and power of Nature and God.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Alchemy ReaderFrom Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton, pp. 54 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2003