Tag: medieval

Elements in Medieval alchemy

The elemental system used in Medieval alchemy was developed by the Arabic alchemist Jābir ibn Hayyān and others. His original system consisted of the four classical elements found in the ancient Greek traditions (air, earth, fire and water), in addition to two philosophical elements: sulphur, ‘the stone which burns’, which characterized the principle of combustibility, and mercury, which contained the idealized principle of metallic properties.

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