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The manuscript contained more than four hundred recipes covering alchemy as well as cosmetics and medicine. [122] One of these recipes was for the water of talc. [122] Talc, which makes up talcum powder, is a mineral which, when combined with water and distilled, was said to produce a solution which yielded many benefits. [122]
Alkahest. Image of Alchimia, the embodiment of alchemy. Woodcut published by Leonhard Thurneysser in 1574. Thurneysser was a student of Paracelsus. In Renaissance alchemy, alkahest was the theorized "universal solvent ". [nb 1] It was supposed to be capable of dissolving any composite substance, including gold (then not considered an element ...
Outer and inner alchemy. Chinese alchemy can be divided into two methods of practice, waidan or "external alchemy" and neidan or "internal alchemy". Doctrine can be accessed to describe these methods in greater detail; the majority of Chinese alchemical sources can be found in the Daozang, the "Taoist Canon".
[1] [2] For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in alchemy. The philosopher's stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, divine illumination, and heavenly bliss. Efforts to discover the philosopher's stone were known as the Magnum Opus ("Great Work"). [3]
Elixir of life. The elixir of life (Medieval Latin: elixir vitae), also known as elixir of immortality, is a potion that supposedly grants the drinker eternal life and/or eternal youth. This elixir was also said to cure all diseases. Alchemists in various ages and cultures sought the means of formulating the elixir.
Magnum opus (alchemy) In alchemy, the Magnum Opus or Great Work is a term for the process of working with the prima materia to create the philosopher's stone. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual transmutation in the Hermetic tradition, attached to laboratory processes and chemical color changes, used as a model for the ...
Isabella Cortese. Isabella Cortese (fl. 1561), was an Italian alchemist and writer of the Renaissance. All that is known of her life and work is from her book on alchemy, The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese. Cortese was also well-versed in several fields other than alchemy.
The homunculus is commonly used today in scientific disciplines such as psychology as a teaching or memory tool to describe the distorted scale model of a human drawn or sculpted to reflect the relative space human body parts occupy on the somatosensory cortex (the sensory homunculus) and the motor cortex (the motor homunculus).