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Roger Bacon and the incorruptible human, 1220-1292 : alchemy, pharmacology and the desire to prolong life / Meagan S. Allen.

9783031128981 electronic book
3031128982 electronic book
3031128974
9783031128974

Cham, Switzerland : Palgrave Macmillan, [2023]

English

1 online resource (1 volume) : illustrations (black and white)

10.1007/978-3-031-12898-1 doi

R128.6 .A55 2023

610.92

This book examines Roger Bacons alchemical theories, and explains how he believed that the key to extending life lay not in the curricula as taught in the medical faculties of the universities, but in the study of alchemy. Though twelfth- and thirteenth-century alchemy was generally concerned with the transmutation of metals, Bacons alchemy was a much larger area of study, and encompassed the generation and corruption of all material things in the sublunary world. It was this aspect of alchemy, which Bacon referred to as speculative alchemy, that explained how the four elements of fire, air, water, and earth interacted with each other to make the basis of reality as man could know it. Thus, the study of alchemy in conjunction with humoral medicine could explain not only how the human body worked, but how it interacted with the materials around it, illuminating the method of prolonging life to extreme lengths. .

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on February 01, 2023).

Palgrave studies in medieval and early modern medicine.

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