How do I learn the history of the alchemical symbols for silver
August 3, 2024 6:52 PM   Subscribe

So I've come across a couple sites that say there were multiple alchemical symbols for silver. (Like this one, for example.) Is this historically accurate? I'd like to learn more about the cultural context of the differing symbols and the alchemists who used them, ideally in a blog post to podcast sized way. Meaning I don't want to engage in the probably huge research project of researching the entire history of alchemy and read multiple books, I want to read someone else's research summary.
posted by overglow to Religion & Philosophy (4 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
To clarify: are you interested in the cultural context of the need for/use of alchemical symbols, or the glyphs themselves?

The latter is a heavier lift- the symbols are intentional obfuscation (even relative to now-esoteric beliefs about cosmology and matter).

An inter library loan option that is intermediate between original research vs a blog post: a visual and casual-history-of-chemistry textbook .
posted by janell at 7:26 PM on August 3, 2024 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Adam McLean Alchemy Website This website has a large library of texts and graphics to choose from. I hope it provides what you are looking for.
posted by effluvia at 1:22 AM on August 4, 2024


Response by poster: janell, I'm contemplating designing a tattoo, so I want to both verify that certain symbols are historically accurate and also know where they come from.
posted by overglow at 7:10 AM on August 4, 2024


A good starting-point would be Maurice Crosland's Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry (1962), which includes a section on alchemical symbols. The book is free to borrow from the Internet Archive.

Crosland writes: 'It is typical of alchemical symbolism in the seventeenth century that the same substance was often denoted by a variety of different symbols.' For an example, see the Medicinisch-chymisch und alchemistisches Oraculum (1772), where you'll find the symbols for silver (argentum) at the bottom of p. 5. Crosland's view is that these symbols are mainly for convenience, i.e. simple abbreviation rather than deliberate concealment.
posted by verstegan at 9:08 AM on August 4, 2024


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