Alchemy enters Europe
On 11th of February 1144, a monk laid down his quill on a work that would resonate throughout Europe for centuries. Robert of Chester had just completed his translation of an Arabic text that first introduced the word alchemy to Latin Europe. We know the exact date because he tells us in his preface to Liber de compositione alchimiae – The Book of the Composition of Alchemy. He undertook this work “because our Latin world does not yet know what alchemy is.” Very soon everyone would have heard of it.
OUT OF IBERIA
Often Europe of the Middle Ages is considered as a monolithically Catholic Christian area. This is far from the truth. The Iberian Peninsula, including much of what we now call Spain, was under the control of Muslim rulers. This area, known as
