Collectanea Chemica

A working seventeenth century laboratory manual covering stills and furnaces, compound waters and spirits, and the spagyric preparation of minerals and plants. It is a historical document and should be read as one, not as a set of procedures.

John French

The most widely read practical alchemical treatise of the seventeenth century, written by an anonymous adept who claimed to have finished the work at twenty three. Isaac Newton studied and annotated it closely.

Eirenaeus Philalethes

Glauber on sulphur, mercury and salt, the three principles that Paracelsian chemistry used to explain every metal. A working chemist writing about his own furnace, and the source of the salt that still carries his name.

John Rudolph Glauber

Cockren retells the history of alchemy through Nicholas Flamel, Basil Valentine and Paracelsus, then describes his own attempts to prepare metallic tinctures in a modern laboratory. Presented as a historical record rather than as instructions.

Archibald Cockren