Abstract
Alchemy is considered a “pseudo-science” by modern scientists; however, British alchemy, which can be traced back to an even earlier period, was flourishing from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century and alchemists formed an influential group within the larger social network of British scientists of that time. Since alchemy was often treated as “secret science” or “secret knowledge,” the very process of transmission of alchemical knowledge often remained beyond the reach of historians of science; however, its study may provide a new perspective on the work of the alchemists. A reconstruction of the social network of British alchemists offers a new way to understand how they transmitted their knowledge, and in my thesis I used various methodologies (discussed in Chapter I) to reconstruct the social network of British alchemists in order to describe the transmission of alchemical knowledge. In my thesis I studied three major fields of alchemical pursuit: the transmutation of metals presented in works Monas Hieroglyphica of John Dee (1527-1608) and Threatrum Chemicum Britannicum of Elias Ashmole (1617-1692) is discussed in Chapter II, iatrochemistry of Paracelsus (1493-1541) and of his British followers is discussed in Chapters II and III, while a part of Chapter III and entire Chapter IV are devoted to religious and philosophical interpretations of alchemy represented with A Dialogue Philosophicall (1612) of Thomas Tymme (?-1620) and the works Mosaicall Philosophy (1659) and Ultriusque Cosmi Maioris (1617) of Robert Fludd (1574-1637) . My study of the network of British alchemists shows that their goals and ideas were often very different from each other even when they worked in the same fields and belonged to the same “schools”. It also shows that the alchemical knowledge may have changed considerably when transmitted, and that this change may have caused the large diversity that British alchemy manifested throughout the three hundred years of its flourishing. The cases of Thomas Tymme and Robert Fludd were used to study this diversity; in my thesis, I analyzed and compared their alchemical ideas and activities to depict the general image of British alchemy from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.