Literary Notices on the History of So-called Gold-making

The following passage from Albertus (born 1205, died 1280) Albertus Magnus, a Dominican friar and bishop who was one of the most influential thinkers of the Middle Ages may find a place here instead of a hundred others, and bear witness to his poor opinion of alchemy.

Albertus Magnus, On Metals, Book III, chapter 9, page 146, edited by Walther Hermann Ryff, Strasbourg, 1541. Octavo. original Latin: Albert M. de rebus metallicis... Argentorati

Alchemy, however, proceeds in this manner: it destroys one thing by removing its specific form and, with the help of what is already in the material, introduces the form of another. For this reason, the best of all alchemical operations is the one that proceeds from the same sources as nature does—such as the purification of sulfur through boiling and sublimation, the cleaning of quicksilver quicksilver: an archaic name for mercury, and the thorough mixing of these with the metallic matter. For in these, through their inherent powers, the form of every metal is induced. However, those who use white substances to whiten and yellow substances to gild, while the original nature of the metal remains in the material, are beyond doubt deceivers. They do not create true gold or true silver. Almost all alchemists proceed in this way, either entirely or in part. For this reason, I had it tested: the alchemical gold that came to me, and likewise the silver, after it had endured six or seven fires, was immediately consumed and wasted away upon further heating, returning almost to dross.

Ramon Lull (born on the island of Mallorca in 1235, died 1315) wrote a work called Experiments original: Experimenta. Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (1668–1738), a famous Dutch physician and chemist admired his insight into the explanation of nature in all three kingdoms The "three kingdoms" refers to the traditional classification of nature into Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral. "Allow me to cite Raymond Lull," (he says in Volume I of his Elements of Chemistry original: Elem. chem.), "in that treatise which he calls Experiments..."