Some Considerations Concerning the Alchemy of the De anima in arte alchemiae of Pseudo-Avicenna

Abstract

This article explains some essential features of the alchemical doctrine of the De anima in arte alchemiae, a treatise written in Spain during the twelfth century (in Arabic, but only the Latin translation remains), and wrongly attributed to Avicenna. It shows that pseudo-Avicenna uses alchemical principles and elixir theory directly inspired by Jabirian texts, and classification of materials influenced by al-Rāzī. The alchemy of pseudo-Avicenna is entirely based on operations on the four elements: the alchemist has to reduce hair, blood or eggs to their elements, and isolate one of their essential properties (warmth, coldness, moisture and dryness), so that he can change the proportion of essential properties of the body he wants to transmute into gold or silver. The preparation made from hair, blood or eggs (the isolated property) is what he calls the elixir.