Abstract
In the historical development of alchemy, practical and theoretical knowledge are strictly associated, and the alchemists' self-definition as 'philosophers' implied from the beginning a conscious distance from both craftmanship and mere theory. As can be seen from a survey of proceedings of conferences on the history of alchemy from 1986 onwards, many scholars have, over the past two decades, offered strong evidence of the complexity of alchemy in its historical development, while at the same time defending its overall philosophical meaning.' Thus the traditional association of alchemy and 'Hermeticism', which had often been considered a testimony to the permanence of an esoteric and unhistorical 'tradition,'2 has given way to a more refined view of the multiple interrelations between alchemy and the development of philosophical and scientific ideas.3
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