Alchemy and Alchemists - Couverture souple

Martin, Seán

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1903047528 ISBN 13 : 9781903047521

Editeur : Pocket Essentials, 2003

Synopsis

Often alchemy is seen as an example of medieval gullibility and the alchemists as a collection of eccentrics and superstitious fools.

In this Pocket Essential Sean Martin shows that nothing could be further from the truth. It is important to see the search for the philosopher's stone and the attempts to turn base metal into gold as metaphors for the relation of man to nature and man to God as much as seriously held beliefs.

Alchemy had a self-consistent outlook on the natural world and man's place in it. Alchemists like Paracelsus and Albertus Magnus were amongst the greatest minds of their time and the history of alchemy is both the history of a spiritual search and the history of a slowly developing scientific method. Sir Isaac Newton devoted as much time to his alchemical studies as he did to his mathematical ones.

This book traces the history of alchemy from ancient times to the 20th century, highlighting the interest of modern thinkers like Jung in the subject, and in the process covers a major, if neglected area of Western thought.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Seán Martin is a writer, poet and filmmaker. He is the author of The Knights Templar, The Cathars, The Gnostics, The Black Death, Alchemy and Alchemists, A Short History ofDisease and, for Kamera Books, Andrei Tarkovsky and New Waves in Cinema. His films include Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas & the Secret History of Cinema (released by the BFI), Folie à Deux and a series of documentaries on the filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky: Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev: A Journey (released by Criterion), The Dream in the Mirror (released by Criterion), The Last Dream: Andrei Tarkovsky and The Sacrifice and A Dream of Italy: Tarkovsky and Nostalghia. Martin won the Wigtown Poetry Prize in 2011, and his collection of poems, The Girl Who Got onto the Ferry in Citizen Kane, is published by Templar Poetry.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Pocket Essentials
• Date d'édition: 2003
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1903047528
• ISBN 13: 9781903047521
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 96
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible