Metals as Living Bodies. Founts of Mercury, Amalgams, and Chrysocolla

Abstract

Ancient and medieval alchemical works include several comparisons between the generation and development of metals and those of plants, animals, and living beings. These comparisons could refer to adopt physiological models in the explanation of the natural formation of metals and their artificial transformation, to justify the place occupied by alchemy within the broader study of the natural world, and to stand as metaphorical descriptions of specific alchemical procedures. This article analyses these features by focusing on the relationship between mercury and gold, the latter being the “perfect” metal that constituted both an ambitious goal of alchemical practice and one of its key ingredients. The interrelationship between gold and mercury emerges in complex myths about metallic rivers, in the use of gold-mercury amalgams in ancient technology, and in the discussion that alchemists developed around the enigmatic chrysocolla (literally “gold solder”). These three foci are discussed in relation to a variety of ancient sources – from Aristotle and the Stoics to late antique, Byzantine, and Syriac alchemical texts – to explore the different forms of conceptualising metals as living bodies and the interactions of these models with ancient theories on the formation of metals and the alchemical practices aimed at their transformation.