Well I hope everyone had a good fourth of July...in case you didn't know, those fireworks you enjoyed were originally invented by Chinese alchemists in their experimentation with chemicals and minerals to create the elixir of life. That's right...they are basically a by-product of someone trying to live forever.
I'm starting to get really excited about all the traffic the facebook page is getting (for those of you who haven't bothered looking yet, its https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyHistoryOfTheGreatSecret)! I thought I would feel the pressure of getting the book done and remembering to update my pages, but sometimes I have more fun updating then I would expect. It's kind of nice to know that even on the days I can't get motivated and I have writer's block, there are people speaking at least 10 different languages that like my page and are potentially anticipating more news about my book. I hope that's the case because I don't know about you, but I hardly ever pay attention to the little ads on the side of facebook...it takes something I'm really seriously interested in to get my attention. Not to mention, the stats say that people do return to look at the status updates and whatnot.
Well, no matter what facebook says, the truly dedicated people are the ones who bother to read my blog, which I'm sure gets tedious and annoying, and I promise the book is much better composed. The point is, if you bother reading this, thanks. You've earned a reward. A better preview of chapter four than I bothered putting on facebook or tumblr or twitter:
Unfortunately, the 14th century saw trouble for
alchemists in Europe. Author’s like Dante Alighieri and Geoffrey Chaucer both
depicted alchemists as liars and charlatans. In Dante’s Inferno, part of his
larger work, The Divine Comedy, alchemy is mentioned by Griffolino and
Capocchio as a way to define themselves.
“’I was a man of Arezzo,’” one
replied,‘and Albert of Siena had me burned;But I am not here for the deed for
which I died.It is true that jokingly I said to
him once:‘I know how to raise myself and fly
through air’;And he – with all the eagerness of a
dunce –Wanted to learn. Because I could not
makeA Daedalus of him – for no other
reason –He had his father burn me at the
stake.But Minos, the infallible, had me
hurledHere to the final bolgia of the tenFor the alchemy I practiced in the
world.’And I to the poet: ‘Was there ever a
raceMore vain than the Sienese? Even the
French,Compared to them, seem full of
modest grace.’And the other leper answered
mockingly:‘Excepting Stricca, who by careful
planningManaged to live and spend so
moderately;An Niccolo, who in his time aboveWas first of all the shoots in that
rank gardenTo discover the costly uses of the
clove;And excepting the brilliant company
of talentsIn which Caccia squandered his
vinyards and his woods,And Abbagliato displayed his
intelligence.But if you wish to know who joins
your cryAgainst the Sienese, study in my
faceWith care and let it make its own
reply.So you will see I am the suffering
shadowof Caoocchio, who, by practicing
alchemy,Falsified the metals, and you must
know,Unless my mortal recollection straysHow good an ape I was of Nature’s
ways.’”[i]
Both shades above mention alchemy directly, and
the second mentions the falsification of metals – for which there were recipes
in the Leyden Papyrus X, as referenced in chapter 1.
[i]
This excerpt is from John Ciardi’s translation of Dante’s Inferno. It is
Canto XXIX, lines 109-140.
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