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Between al-Rāzī and the Pseudo-Rāzī: Classifying Matter and Composing an Alchemical Handbook

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  • Gabriele Ferrario
Gabriele Ferrario
Dipartimento di Filosofia, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/Substantia-2761

Published 2024-06-21

Keywords

  • Alchemy,
  • Medieval Science,
  • Early Chemistry,
  • Transmission of Knowledge,
  • Muḥammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzī

How to Cite

Ferrario, G. (2024). Between al-Rāzī and the Pseudo-Rāzī: Classifying Matter and Composing an Alchemical Handbook. Substantia. https://doi.org/10.36253/Substantia-2761

Copyright (c) 2024 Gabriele Ferrario

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

This contribution focuses on two Arabic alchemical treatises that circulated under the name of the 10th century philosopher, physician, and alchemist Muḥammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzī: the genuine Book of Secrets (Kitāb al-Asrār) and the spurious Book on Alums and Salts. The two treatises are discussed in the context of al-Rāzī’s genuine and spurious production and of their reception among Western scholars. By examining the contents and structural features of these two treatises, this work seeks to shed light on the relationship between perceived authority, structure, and laboratory practice in medieval alchemy.

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References

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  7. G.S.A. Ranking in Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine, (Ed. J.D. Comrie), Oxford University Press: London/Oxford, 1913, 237-68; J. Ruska, Isis 1923, 5, 382-84; F. Sezgin, Geschichte des Arabischen Schriftums, Brill, Leiden, Vol. 3, 1996, 278-94, 413; Vol. 5, 1974, 411-12; Vol. 7, 1979, 382-84; P. Adamson in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, (Ed. E.N. Zalta), 2021, online edition: https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/abu-bakr-al-razi/ accessed February 2024.
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  10. Dodge, ref. 10, 863; Ullmann, ref. 6, 210-213 (list of the extant alchemical works by al-Rāzī and their manuscript witnesses). Assessments of the alchemical works by al-Rāzī are: J. Ruska, Deutsche Literaturzeitung 1923, 118-24; J. Ruska, Der Islam 1935, 22,4, 281-319; G. Heym, Ambix 1938, 1,3, 184-91.
  11. A Wellcome Trust research project focusing on al-Rāzī’s Twelve Books is currently being conducted by Benjamin Hallum. The Madhkhal al-Taʿlīmī is partially translated in Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7.
  12. Ullmann, ref. 6, 213, n. 1.
  13. The Arabic text of these passages is in Al-Rāzī 1964, ref. 7, 1-2.
  14. For a survey of the extant Arabic manuscripts, see Ullmann, ref. 6, 210-13.
  15. Al-Rāzī 1964, ref. 7.
  16. M. Berthelot, La Chimie au Moyen Age, Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, 1893, vol. 1, 306 ff; J. Ruska, 1935, ref. 7, 168-239.
  17. Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7, 320.
  18. Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7, 320.
  19. Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7, 317.
  20. Heym, ref. 12, 188.
  21. Ruska, 1937, ref. 7, 13: “Dann aber bleibt auf alle Fälle für Rāzī das Verdienst, die Alchemie zum ersten Mal in eine streng wissenschaftliche Form gebracht zu haben.”
  22. The replication of historical recipes has proven extremely helpful to understand the material aspects of alchemy and to interpret alchemical texts. See Principe, ref. 5, 137-171 and the ERC Project AlchemEast: Alchemy in the Making: From ancient Babylonia via Graeco-Roman Egypt into the Byzantine, Syriac and Arabic traditions (1500 BCE – 1000 AD), www. alchemeast.eu (G.A. 724914), accessed January 2023.
  23. On manuscript Sprenger 1908 and its contents, see Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7.
  24. C. Burnett, Science in Context 2001, 14, 249-288: 280, n. 65. The Liber Divinitatis quoted in the list by Gerard’s socii is actually the whole Liber de Septuaginta (Ar. Kitāb la-Sabʿīn), which is mentioned under the title of the treatise that opens this collection of works by Jābir. See Moureau 2020, ref. 2, 111.
  25. These are: MS 4 Qq A 10, Palermo, Biblioteca Comunale (aka ‘Codex Speciale), beginning of the XIV century, parchment, fols. 233r-244v; MS Lat. 6514, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, XIV-XV century, parchment, fols. 125r-128v; MS Digby 119, Oxford, Bodleian Libraries, XIV century, parchment, fols. 167v-175v; MS Corpus Christi Coll. 125, Oxford, Corpus Christi College, XIV century, parchment, fols. 110r-117r; MS El. q. 20, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Jena, XIV century, parchment, fols 29r-41v; MS 474 (830), Bologna, Biblioteca Universitaria, XV century, parchment, fols. 35r-48v; MS Arundel 164, London, British Library, XV century, paper, fols. 167v-175v.
  26. J. Garlandius, Compendium Alchimiae, Basilius Johannes Herold, Basel, 1560.
  27. I. Carini, Sulle scienze occulte nel Medio Evo e sopra un codice della famiglia Speciale, Perino, Palermo, 1872.
  28. Ruska, 1935, ref. 7, 15-18.
  29. The Hebrew translation is preserved in manuscript Orient. Oct. (klein) 514, ff. 19verso-36recto, Berlin, Staatsbibliothek. See Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 26-47.
  30. J. Rampling, Osiris, 2014, 29, 19-34.
  31. Steele, ref. 7, 10.
  32. Ruska, 1935, ref. 7, 38.
  33. On this metal, see F. Käs, Die Mineralien in der arabischen Pharmakognosie: Eine Konkordanz zur mineralischen Materia medica der klassischen arabischen Heilmittelkunde nebst überlieferungsgeschichtlichen Studien, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2010, vol. 1, 223-26.
  34. The Arabic text of this passage is edited in Al-Rāzī, 1964, ref. 7, 2-3.
  35. The Arabic text of this passage is edited in Al-Rāzī, 1964, ref. 7, 112.
  36. Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7, 405-8: “Note on the Chemistry, and the Association with religion and magic, of a) khārṣīnī and b) three of the alloys mentioned in al-Rāzī’s Kitāb al-Asrār”.
  37. V. Karpenko, J.A. Norris, Chemické Listy 2002, 96, 998-99.
  38. Käs, ref. 34, I, 345-50.
  39. Ruska, 1937, ref. 7, 48.
  40. Manuscript Sprenger 1908 lacks the extensive sections on mercury and gold which are instead preserved in the Hebrew version and in the Latin translations. See Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 173-76.
  41. Stapleton, Azo, Hidāyat Ḥusain, ref. 7, 322.
  42. Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 120-21.
  43. On the distinction between tin and lead and the different kinds of tin, see Käs, ref. 34, I, 222-23.
  44. The section on alchemical operations begins in Al-Rāzī, 1964, ref. 7, 14.
  45. On the fluidity of the title of the Book on Alums and Salts, see Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 11-13.
  46. C. Crisciani, J. Agrimi in Presenza del lessico greco e latino nelle lingue contemporanee, (Eds. P. Janni, I. Mazzini), Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e filosofia dell'Università di Macerata, Macerata, 1990, 9-49.
  47. On the nature of the additions by the Hebrew translator/alchemist, see Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 29-30.
  48. Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 125.
  49. Ferrario, 2023, ref. 7, 159.
  50. Rampling, ref. 31.