I didn't make my goal of finishing the book by my birthday, and then of course the holidays came around and there was no way in hell I was going to finish during THAT nonsense.
Then I got really into my EMT training, and had a spectacular idea for a series of paintings, and reached a bit of a roadblock on chapters 6-8...
Really I think the lesson here is that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. I threw myself way too into this, and I got burnt out. BUT....I have found new sources, and found some free time in the hubub of my daily schedule to resume writing. Finished chapter six the other day, and a book proposal that has since been submitted to five publishers. I still intend to self-publish at this point, because it will in all liklihood take less time and allow me to preserve the integrity of what I wrote. But a few of the publishers are interested :) No big names yet, but still it makes me feel good :)
So in the spirit of everything ever, here is a chapter six preview, a little blurb out of the middle. It's the chapter about chemistry, so I tried to a pick a blurb that won't put anyone to sleep :)
Although the above chemical theories are some of the most
monumental contributions to modern day chemistry, they are not the only
contributions the ancient alchemists made. Furnaces and other apparatuses, such as the
alembic, were invented during the Hellenistic Egypt period[1].
Some of these apparatuses have been
credited to one Maria the Jewess, who is largely believed to be a mythical
figure. However, the person responsible for giving her credit was Zosimos of
Panopolis, whose works are largely fragmentary now but do offer a great deal of
insight to the world of chemical thought of the era. Why would a man in that
time period in Egypt give credit for such inventions to a woman, let alone a
Jewish woman[i]?
Maria
the Jewess is mentioned in more than a few alchemical works, and she is not the
only female alchemist to be mentioned. Zosimos of Panopolis quoted Maria
several times in his own works, and is one of the alchemists to attribute to
her the invention of the early alembic. His works can be dated to the 4th
century. In the 8th century, a Byzantine named George Syncellus,
mentions “Mary” as a teacher of the aforementioned Democritus, who is known to
have lived in the 4th century BCE. In addition, Maria is named in
the Kitab al-Fihrist as one of the
fifty two most famous alchemists and as one who knew the preparation of what is
known as the Caput Mortuum, the “dead
head,” a useless substance left over from some operation or experiment. This
term was also used to refer to a brownish-red metallic compound such as ferrous
sulphate[2]
or copper oxidule. Maria was also known to Morienus, the Roman philosopher, who
called her Mary the Prophetess, and to the Arabs, who called her the Daughter
of Plato[3].
[1]
The period after Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and Egyptian culture and
science was directly influenced by Greek scholars and resources.
[2]
Iron sulfate – FeS04, also known as green vitriol
[3] In
Western alchemical texts, “Daughter of Plato” was also a name used to refer to
white sulfur.
[i]
Author’s note: Although none of Maria the Jewess’ writings survived for examination
today, she is quoted and mentioned in enough alchemical texts, which span many
cultures and centuries, to reasonably believe she existed. The same could be
true of her that is true of Ancient Greek history; there is quite a lot that
was written that we have no hard evidence actually occurred, and yet we take it
to be historical fact for all intents and purposes. Given the time period and
the rarity of credit being given to a woman in a scholarly field, it’s not
unreasonable to believe that Maria the Jewess, no matter how else she is
referred to, may have in fact lived – most likely in the 4th or 5th
century BCE.
